The Relationship Between Organizational Commitment and Organizational Justice Among Health Care Workers in Ethiopian Jimma Zone Public Health Facilities

BACKGROUND: The healthcare service sector is confronting a global labor shortage. Despite this fact, health care professionals are still highly vulnerable to organizational injustice, which negatively influence organizational commitment, putting an additional burden on the health sector. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the correlation between organizational commitment and organizational justice among health care workers. METHODS: Facility-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 395 health care professionals in the Jimma zone. Four Hospitals and 10 health centers were involved in the study randomly. The sample was distributed proportionally based on the number of health care workers. To select individuals, a systematic random sampling method was employed. Data were collected through self-report questionnaire using modified Alan and Mayer scale to measure organizational commitment and Niehoff and Moorman scale to measure organizational justice. The validity of the tools was checked using the reliability coefficient alpha and it was >0.7. The collected data were cleaned and entered into EpiData software version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics were done. RESULTS: This study revealed that 212 (53.7%) of the respondents scored a low level of organizational commitment. About half of the participants, 202 (52.2%), judged organizational justice were fair. All organizational justice dimensions showed a positive and significant correlation with all organizational commitment dimensions. Thus, the finding revealed that overall organizational commitment and organizational justice had a strong and positive correlation (r = 0.695**, P < 0.01). From the regression analysis distributive justice (B = 0.382, 95% CI: 0.31–0.45), and procedural justice (B = 0.17, 95% CI: 0.06–0.283) were among the factors affecting organizational commitment. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: This study showed a strong link between organizational commitment and organizational justice. This suggests that organizational justice has been recognized as a motivator and factor influencing health care workers’ organizational commitment. As a result, enhancing organizational justice can help to maintain the commitment of healthcare workers and the facility’s capabilities.