The role of Academic Affective Well_Being in the relationship between Perception of (In)Justice, Work Engagement and Counterproductive Work Behavior

Percepcija (ne)pravednosti privukla je značajni istraživački interes u raznim sferama društvenih znanosti, a osobito u području organizacijske psihologije. Ipak, u manjoj je mjeri proučavana u akademskom okruženju. Upravo je stoga cilj ovog istraživanja bio produbiti spoznaje o važnosti percepcije (ne)pravednosti na studiju ispitujući njenu povezanost s akademskom angažiranošću i nepoželjnim organizacijskim ponašanjem te razmatrajući emocije kao potencijalni medijator tih odnosa. Ukupno 426 studenata Sveučilišta u Zagrebu ispunilo je online upitnik koji je sadržavao Upitnik pravednosti profesora i kolega, Upitnik emocionalne dobrobiti na studiju, Upitnik radne angažiranosti studenata te Upitnik nepoželjnog organizacijskog ponašanja za studentsku populaciju. Analizom prikupljenih podataka, utvrđena je pozitivna povezanost dimenzija percepcije pravednosti s radnom angažiranošću te je zaključeno kako one imaju drugačiji obrazac povezanosti s mjerama nepoželjnog organizacijskog ponašanja. Naime, samo je interpersonalna pravednost kolega bila u značajnoj negativnoj povezanosti s interpersonalnom devijantnošću, dok su percepcije proceduralna i interpersonalna pravednost profesora značajno negativno korelirale s organizacijskom devijantnošću. Ugodne emocije pokazale su jedinstveni doprinos u objašnjenju varijance radne angažiranosti povrh dimenzija percipirane pravednosti te su se pokazale kao medijator njihova odnosa s radnom angažiranošću. Suprotno od očekivanog, ni ugodne ni neugodne emocije nisu značajno predvidjele mjere nepoželjnog organizacijskog ponašanja povrh dimenzija pravednosti. Prezentirani podaci potvrđuju važnost pravednog tretmana na studiju te pružaju smjernice za oblikovanje akademskog okruženja koje će kod studenata poticati ugodne emocije te radnu angažiranost.Perception of (in)justice has reached significant scientific interest in divers areas of social sciences; especially in the field of organizational psychology. However, it has not been widely studied in the academic environment. Therefore, the aim of this research was to provide a better understanding of justice perception in institutional context by examining its connection to work engagement and counterproductive organizational behavior, and by viewing emotions as potential mediators of those relationships. In total 426 students of the University of Zagreb filled in an online questionnaire which included Teachers’ and Peers’ Fairness Scale, Affective Well-Being Scale for Students, Work Engagement Scale, and Counterproductive Work Behavior Questionnaire for Student Population. Data analysis revealed a significant and positive relationship between four dimensions of justice perception and work engagement and indicated that measures of counterproductive work behavior have a different pattern of connections with justice perceptions. Namely, only interactional justice of colleagues was significantly and negatively connected to interpersonal deviance, while procedural and interpersonal fairness of teachers were significantly and negatively related to organizational deviance. Also, positive emotions explained the significant variance of work engagement above the dimension of justice and mediated their relationships with work engagement. Contrary to the expected, positive and negative emotions did not show unique contribution in predicting dimension of counterproductive work behavior above fairness. Presented results confirmed the relevance of justice perceptions in the academic environment and provided guidelines for developing the context which could foster pleasant emotions and greater students' engagement