Predicting the quality of work life of librarians in public libraries based on organizational justice dimensions

Abstract

Background. Human resources are considered the most significant assets of any organization. Improving the quality of work life will motivate employees to provide quality services. Objectives. This study investigated the extent to which organizational justice and its dimensions affect perception of the quality of work life among librarians working in the public libraries of Iran. Organizational justice refers to employees’ apprehension of the extent that management’s actions and decisions are fair and equitable. Method. Two questionnaires derived from Walton’s (1973) Quality of Work Life questionnaire, and Niehoff and Moorman’s (1993) Organizational Justice questionnaire were used to determine public librarians’ perceptions of the quality of work life and various aspects of organizational justice in the workplace. Results. Pearson correlation results indicate that quality of work life had a positive and significant association with all the dimensions of organizational justice, including distributive justice (r=0.62), procedural justice (r=0.21), and interactional justice (r=0.16). Contributions. The results indicate a fairly strong impact of distributive organizational justice on librarians’ perception of the quality of work life. It is recommended that public library administrators pay more attention to organizational justice in the workplace, especially distributive justice which refers to the fair allocation of financial and non-financial resources.