The Effect of Distributive, Procedural, and Interactional Justice on Job Crafting among Frontline Hotel Employees: The Mediating Role of Psychological Ownership

Frontline hotel employees are increasingly expected to proactively reshape their jobs to cope with unpredictable and demanding service encounters, yet not all employees engage in such job crafting to the same extent. Although previous research has established the importance of organizational justice in shaping employee outcomes, limited attention has been given to the mechanisms through which distributive, procedural, and interactional justice differentially influence job crafting, particularly among frontline hotel employees. This study addresses this gap by examining the direct relationships between the three justice dimensions and job crafting, as well as the mediating role of psychological ownership. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory, a theoretical model was developed and tested using data from 147 valid questionnaires completed by frontline employees working in four- and five-star hotels in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings indicate that distributive justice significantly influences both psychological ownership and job crafting, while interactional justice significantly influences job crafting but not psychological ownership. Moreover, procedural justice does not significantly influence either outcome. Importantly, psychological ownership significantly mediates the relationship between distributive justice and job crafting, but not the relationships involving other dimensions of justice. This finding indicates that the dimension-specific indirect effect of distributive justice through psychological ownership plays a key role in promoting job crafting among frontline hotel employees. This study contributes a dimension-specific account of the organizational justice and job crafting relationship, demonstrating that psychological ownership operates as a selective psychological mechanism activated specifically by distributive justice within the Malaysian hotels context.