The Role of Overall Organizational Justice Perceptions Within the Four-Dimensional Framework

Given the recent interest in a global model of organizational justice, the purpose of the present paper is to examine the role of overall justice within Colquitt’s (J Appl Psychol 86:386–400, 2001) four-dimensional framework. In two studies (using a student and professional sample), confirmatory factor analysis results supported a five-factor model of justice. Analyses demonstrated that overall justice is likely an independent construct, can be predicted from the facet measures of justice, and is not a second-order hierarchical construct. In both studies, structural equation modeling indicated that overall justice partially mediated the relationship between the four dimensions of justice and both global and specific outcomes examined by Colquitt (2001) and Ambrose and Schminke (J Appl Psychol 94:491–500, 2009), respectively. Taken together, this research demonstrates that there is a need for both overall justice and the four justice dimensions in comprehensive models of organizational justice. Implications for research and practice are discussed.