Beyond the Happy–Productive Worker: A Serial–Parallel Indirect-Effects Model of Organizational Justice, Climate, and Job Performance in Ecuadorian Higher Education

This study examines how organizational justice (OJ) and organizational climate (OCL) are statistically associated with self-reported job performance (JP) through job satisfaction (JS), work engagement (WE), and organizational commitment (ORC) among faculty in Ecuadorian public higher education. The original cross-sectional survey contained 448 responses; because the stated target population was public higher education, the primary reanalysis was restricted to 414 public-university faculty, with the full sample retained for sensitivity analysis. A disjointed two-stage partial least squares structural equation modeling procedure was used to represent multidimensional constructs, with OCL, OJ, JS, ORC, and WE specified as reflective–reflective higher-order constructs and JP as a reflective–formative construct. Directional hypotheses were evaluated using a 5000-resample one-tailed bootstrap inference. OJ and OCL were positively associated with JS; JS was positively associated with WE and ORC; and WE and ORC were positively associated with JP. All four prespecified serial–parallel indirect effects were statistically supported. Robustness analyses using alternative construct scoring, an OJ-JS collapsed specification, and alternative JP specifications preserved the principal downstream pattern. However, higher-order OJ-JS discriminant validity remained unresolved because its bootstrap HTMT interval included 1.00, and common-method diagnostics indicated residual same-source and construct-overlap concerns. Predictive relevance was positive, but no causal or temporal mechanism is established here.