The Relationship between Justice Perception of Performance Appraisal System and Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Organizational Commitment among Nurses

Employee justice perception of performance appraisal system is an important prerequisite to its success and effectiveness. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between justice perception (configural, systemic, informational, and interpersonal) of performance appraisal system with organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. This research was a descriptive-correlational study. The population consisted of all male and female nurses (600) in hospitals of Rafsanjan City in 2013. Research sample included 253 nurses who were selected through simple random sampling and based on Jolly and Mitchell’s sample size table. Data collection tools were Thurston’s justice perception of performance appraisal system, Allen & Meyer’s organizational commitment questionnaire, and Lee and Allen’s organizational citizenship behavior questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and regression analysis. There was a positive significant relationship between components of justice perception of performance appraisal system and dimensions of organizational commitment (p≤0.01). There was also a positive significant relationship between configural, systemic and informational justice perception of performance appraisal system and organization-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (p≤0.01). Among the components of justice perception of performance appraisal system, informational justice perception was only able to predict affective commitment; configural justice perception was able to predict continuous commitment; and informational and configural justice perception was able to predict normative commitment. Since justice perception of performance appraisal system is of great importance among nurses and can affect their attitudes (including organizational commitment) and behaviors (including citizenship behavior), it is recommended to prioritize justice in performance appraisal system for nursing staff.