Organizational justice in the Korean school system: a cross-cultural comparison

Although organizational justice plays an important role in theoretical debates, empirical data in different cultures, measured with the same instruments are still rare. The current study is part of a cross-cultural comparison and focuses on the perception and impact of perceived organizational justice within the Korean school system. What justice judgments are made, and are they able to significantly contribute to the prediction of job satisfaction besides the impact of established variables (like scope of action and adequate payment)? The sample embraced 395 Korean female teachers. A newly constructed instrument for organizational justice (Müller, Kärcher & Kals) was translated into Korean. The other variables were also measured in the same way as in the German sample (Jiranek, 2009), the influence of socially desirable answering behaviour was equally controlled. Factor analyses were conducted. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) as well as several split-half reliabilities were assessed as indices of the scales' reliability. Item statistics and scale statistics account for a reliable measurement of all psychological constructs. It could be shown that differentiated judgments on organizational justice are made by the teachers. Moreover, job satisfaction is based in the same way on justice perceptions (distributive justice, prodecural justice), trust in supervisor , as well as scope of action. Adequate payment and interactional justice, however, proved to be non-significant. This shows that there is significant overlap between the Korean and German data. Both data reflect that satisfaction with the job is based on value-oriented decisions of the supervisor and the management. Therefore, it makes sense to promote future inter-cultural research on organizational justice