Perceived Supervisor Support as a Mediator between Organizational Justice and Trust in Supervisor: Evidence from Kuwaiti Banks

Michel Zaitouni and Mohamed Nassar

The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it explores the effect of employees’ perception of justice on trust in their supervisor in the context of performance appraisal. Second, it assesses the role of perceived supervisor support as a mediator between organizational justice and trust in the supervisor in a non-Western society such as Kuwait. A total of 415 employees working at different hierarchical levels in three major banks in Kuwait were surveyed. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the research hypotheses. The results supported the hypothesized relationships between distributive, informational and interpersonal justice and trust in the supervisor but no evidence was found that procedural justice positively and significantly relates to trust in the supervisor. The relationships were partially mediated by perceived supervisor support. Data were obtained from the same industry, which limits the generalizability of this study to other industries. A longitudinal study would be helpful to examine the mediating relationship. The findings provide valuable information for the development of common understanding between Western and non-Western societies about the perception of justice in performance appraisal. The paper explores relationships related to justice perceptions in the Kuwaiti banking sector. Previous research focused mainly on procedural and distributive justice as predictors of trust in the supervisor.

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.21102/irbrp.2015.09.112.13