Organisational justice, workplace cyber incivility and organisational commitment at a selected higher education institution in Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

The rapid technological advancements in the 21st century presented new challenges for higher education institutions because academic staff members had to adapt to remote work. Organisational Justice plays an important role in the digitalisation of higher education services. If employees perceive organisational injustices, workplace cyber incivility incidents will increase, which will in turn lower employee commitment. The study investigated the effect of organisational justice on workplace cyber incivility and organisational commitment at a higher education institution. A quantitative research approach was adopted and a self-administered questionnaire, containing standardised scales for organisational justice, workplace cyber incivility and organisational commitment was used to gather information from a convenience sample of academic employees (n=201). R Statistical Software version 1.4.3 was utilised to analyse the data, using descriptive statistics, correlations, and regression analyses as well as t-test and Mann-Whitney U test. The findings show a negative relationship between organisational justice and workplace cyber incivility and between workplace cyber incivility and organisational commitment. The study found that treating employees fairly at work led to them being more committed to the organisation. No statistically significant gender differences were found in relation to the three variables. Suggestions on how to promote employees’ positive perceptions of organisational justice to increase their commitment and reduce cyber incivility incidents in this digital era are made