Recency Effects In Justice and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Impact of Coping Style

Abstract

The present study examines the incremental effects of interpersonal andinformational justice over three time periods on organizational citizenship behavior(OCB). Fairness heuristic theory and uncertainty management theory are used toexamine whether initial justice perceptions are consistently influential over time onOCB creating a primacy effect, or if later justice perceptions are more influentialon OCB than initial ones creating a recency effect. Results indicate a possiblerecency effect in longitudinal justice perceptions. Additionally, two individualcoping styles, approach and avoidance, were examined as moderators of the justice/OCB relationship. It was hypothesized that higher levels of avoidance coping wouldmake justice perceptions more influential in predicting OCB, but higher levels ofapproach coping would make justice perceptions less influential in predicting OCB.The hypotheses were mostly supported for OCB directed toward individuals, but notfor OCB directed toward the organization.