Linking Organizational Justice to Organizational Commitment Among Nigerian Police Officers

• Author: Gilbert C. Aro,Smart E. Otu,Macpherson U. Nnam,Yuning Wu,Ikechukwu Charles Akor,Ivan Y. Sun
• DOI: 10.1177/00938548211036177
• Published date: 01 February 2022
• Date: 01 February 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2022, Vol. 49, No. 2, February 2022, 220 –238.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548211036177

Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

© 2021 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

220

LINKING ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE TO

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT AMONG

NIGERIAN POLICE OFFICERS

IVAN Y. SUN

University of Delaware

YUNING WU

Wayne State University

SMART E. OTU

GILBERT C. ARO

IKECHUKWU CHARLES AKOR

MACPHERSON U. NNAM

Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike

Organizational commitment is an imperative aspect of occupational attitudes as it signals employees’ willingness to stay with

their organization and effectively achieve collective goals. Although recent studies have assessed factors influencing police

officers’ organizational commitment, very little is known about the antecedents of police commitment in African countries.

Based on a survey of Nigerian police officers, the study assesses the linkage between organizational justice and organizational

commitment directly and indirectly through organizational trust and job satisfaction. Structural equation modeling (SEM)

indicates that the relationship between organizational justice and organizational commitment is principally indirect through

the mediating mechanisms of supervisory trustworthiness and job satisfaction. Officers who express greater organizational

justice report higher trust in their management and supervisors and, subsequently, stronger job satisfaction, leading to higher

organizational commitment. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.

Keywords: organizational commitment; organizational justice; job satisfaction; organizational trust; Nigerian police

INTRODUCTION

Frontline staff constitute an indispensable part of criminal justice organizations as they

are responsible for carrying out core functions necessary for the successful maintenance of

law and order. Their occupational outlooks and operational styles are influenced by various

factors of both internal and external environments. For instance, as an imperative aspect of

work-related attitudes, organizational commitment is influenced by organizational and

supervisory treatments toward its members (Johnson, 2015; Tankebe, 2010). Organizational

commitment signals personal bonds that employees form with their organization over time

while performing their assigned individual and collective roles in an organization (Allen &

AUTHORS’ NOTE: This research was funded by tertiary education trust fund. Correspondence concerning

this article should be addressed to Ivan Y. Sun, Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice, University of

Delaware, Newark, DE 19716; e-mail: isun@udel.edu.

1036177CJBXXX10.1177/00938548211036177Criminal Justice and BehaviorSun et al. / Organizational Commitment Among Nigerian Police

research-article2021

Sun et al. / ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT AMONG NIGERIAN POLICE 221

Meyer, 1990; Lambert et al., 2015). High employee commitment levels generate beneficial

outcomes, such as better job performance and work engagement and lower turnover (van

Gelderen & Bik, 2016).

In policing, recent studies have identified a plethora of antecedents or correlates of police

organizational commitment. Most studies found that police officers’ commitment to their

organization is affected by such organizational and work characteristics as leadership styles

and management practices, fair and supportive administrators and supervisors, job type,

autonomy, and training (Baek, 2020; Frank et al., 2020; Johnson, 2015; Shim et al., 2015).

Other studies focused on individual officers’ emotional states, showing that their levels of

strain, psychological well-being, stress from work–family conflict, and job satisfaction are

also predictive of organizational commitment (Nalla et al., 2020; Qureshi et al., 2019).

Some studies of correctional officers’ organizational commitment also revealed that

organizational commitment was adversely associated with work behaviors, such as turn-

over intent/turnover, absenteeism, and staff burnout. Others reported positive connections

between organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors (i.e., working

harder, being loyal), greater life satisfaction, and heightened work performance (Hogan

et al., 2013; Lambert & Hogan, 2009). When employees are committed, their involvement

in the organization takes on moral overtones, and their stake tends to extend beyond the

satisfaction of merely personal interest in employment, income, and intrinsically rewarding

work.

Our study continues this important line of investigation by assessing three correlates

of organizational commitment among police officers in Nigeria. We draw mainly upon

organizational justice and organizational trust theories (Greenberg, 1987), which posit

that perceived organizational fairness and trustworthiness among organizational mem-

bers are likely to yield positive attitudes and behaviors among employees, such as job

satisfaction and organizational commitment. As shown in Figure 1, organizational jus-

tice is linked to organizational commitment directly and indirectly through the mediat-

ing mechanisms of organizational trust and job satisfaction. Police organizational

commitment has been widely studied in major Western democracies (Jaramillo et al.,

2005; Johnson, 2015) and Asian countries of India, Israel, Pakistan, and South Korea

(Baek, 2020; Lambert et al., 2015; Nalla et al., 2020; Shim et al., 2015). However, only

one study has assessed police organizational commitment in Africa (Tankebe, 2010).

Our study can extend the empirical understanding of critical police occupational out-

looks and their correlates in Africa.

In addition to organizational commitment, another key concept in recent studies of insti-

tution–officer interactions is organizational justice, a multidimensional concept that indi-

cates officers’ perceptions of fair treatment by their agency (Bradford et al., 2014).

Organizational justice stresses employees’ perceptions that the employing organization

treats workers in a just and fair manner (Greenberg, 1990). Organizational justice is instru-

mental in facilitating greater job satisfaction, commitment to democratic policing and the

rule of law, compliance with rules and policies, and fair treatment of and trust in the public,

and in reducing job turnover and the impact of adverse events on officers (Bradford et al.,

2014; Haas et al., 2015; Kutajak Ivkovic et al., 2020; Myhill & Bradford, 2013; Nix &

Wolfe, 2016; Sun et al., 2018; Trinkner et al., 2016; Van Craen & Skogan, 2017; Wu et al.,

2017). Despite consistent evidence supporting organizational justice’s role in leading to

favorable outcomes, we know little about the linkage between organizational justice and