The Effect of Perceived Organizational Justice on Organizational Commitment: Evidence from the Construction Sector in Egypt

The Effect of Perceived Organizational Justice on Organizational Commitment: Evidence from the Construction Sector in Egypt Author Details: Doaa Mohamed Abdel Gaber1 1 ESLSCA University, Giza, Egypt, [email protected] Supervised by: Prof. Dr. Saneya Abdelfattah El Galaly Abstract Purpose: The construction sector is one of the key contributors to Egypt's economic development and depends heavily on the commitment of its professional workforce to achieve organizational effectiveness and project success. Because work in the sector is competitive and organized around time-bound projects, firms struggle both to retain committed staff and to keep their internal practices visibly fair. This study examines how employees' perceptions of fairness in reward distribution, organizational procedures, and interpersonal treatment relate to their commitment, testing each of the three dimensions of perceived organizational justice — distributive, procedural, and interactional — against each of the three dimensions of organizational commitment — affective, continuance, and normative — among white-collar non-managerial employees in the Egyptian construction sector. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative, cross-sectional design was used, with a structured, bilingual (English/Arabic), self-administered questionnaire distributed to white-collar non-managerial employees in Egyptian construction firms via convenience sampling. The instrument incorporated Moorman's (1991) organizational justice scale and Meyer et al.'s (1993) organizational commitment scale. Of 384 valid responses collected, all met the study's screening criteria. Data were analyzed in IBM SPSS Statistics (v.29) and AMOS. Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability established internal consistency, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) established convergent and discriminant validity, and nine simple linear regressions tested the hypothesized relationships between the dimensions of organizational justice and organizational commitment. Findings: Perceived organizational justice is a significant predictor of organizational commitment among white-collar non-managerial employees in the Egyptian construction sector. Each of the three justice dimensions positively and significantly predicted affective and normative commitment, though to differing degrees; none had a statistically significant effect on continuance commitment. Interactional justice was the strongest predictor of both affective commitment (β = 0.862, R² = 0.743) and normative commitment (β = 0.839, R² = 0.703), underlining the weight employees place on respectful treatment and clear communication. Distributive justice followed (R² = 0.652 and 0.680, respectively), with procedural justice the weakest of the three on both outcomes (R² = 0.568 and 0.553). Fair procedure therefore mattered, but less than fair outcomes and, above all, less than fair interpersonal treatment. Practical Implications: The results offer construction firms a basis for building commitment through fairer human resource practices. Managers should ensure equitable distribution of organizational rewards, implement transparent and consistent organizational procedures, and promote respectful and supportive interactions between supervisors and employees. Establishing a culture of fairness can enhance employees' emotional attachment, strengthen their loyalty to the organization, and encourage long-term organizational commitment, thereby improving employee retention and organizational performance in the Egyptian construction sector. Originality: This study fills a significant contextual gap by examining, at the dimension level, the interplay between three facets of organizational justice and three facets of organizational commitment specifically among white-collar non-managerial employees in the Egyptian construction sector — a project-based, developing-economy setting that has received little empirical attention to date. Paper type: Research paper. Keywords: Organizational justice; distributive justice; procedural justice; interactional justice; organizational commitment; affective commitment; continuance commitment; normative commitment; construction sector; Egypt.