The effect of organizational Justice on organizational citizenship behavior through the mediating role of Organizational commitment in the Public universities in Amhara region

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of organizational justice (OJ) on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) through the mediating role of organizational commitment (OC) in the public universities in Amhara region. Explanatory mixed research design was employed. The size of the population was 2170. Of these, 620 instructors were selected as samples using a proportional stratified random sampling technique. Five interviewees took part in the qualitative part of the study. The collected data were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The result of one sample t-test indicated that the mean scores of OC (52.981) and OCB (71.363) were higher than the respective test values of these variables with (t = 15.398) and (t = 5.639) at p < .05, df = 619. On the contrary, the mean score of OJ (43.934) was lower than the test value with (t = -11.987, df = 619) at p < .05. The result of the structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that there were positive and statistically significant relationships among OJ, OC, and OCB. Concerning the causal relationships, the value of R ² indicated that OJ significantly predicted 44.3% of the variance in OC with a standardized regression coefficient of (β = .667) at p < .05, while 29.2% of the variance in OCB was significantly predicted by the joint effects of OJ and OC with standardized regression coefficients of (β = .341) and (β = .164) respectively at p < .05. Statistically significant differences were found among instructors in their perception of OJ (F = 132.833, p = .000), OC (F = 3.163, p = .024) and OCB (F = 19.071, p = .000) across the four generations of universities. Therefore, it is concluded that OJ had a significant effect on OCB through the mediation of OC. Thus, it is suggested to improve the current status of OJ, OC, and OCB in the research sites.