Organizational Justice and Organizational Citizenship Behavior at ASUPD

In the United States, the profession of Law Enforcement is facing a workforce crisis. There are fewer applicants applying for policing jobs than there was just a decade ago. To worsen the problem, many officers are leaving the profession in less than five years. The Arizona State University Police Department is no exception to this problem. Police employees leave the department for a variety of reasons but among them is a conflict with their supervisor in the area of organizational justice. There is a gap in the training of first-line supervisors in policing as a whole as it pertains to organizational justice and how to implement it within their workgroups. Organizational Justice Theory includes the constructs of distributive justice, procedural justice, informational justice, and interpersonal justice. This mixed-methods study tested the assumption that organizational justice training with first-line supervisors at Arizona State University Police Department would have an effect on their self-efficacy and implementation of organizational justice practices and therefore improve relationships with their subordinates. Results of the study showed a single eight-hour class on Organizational Justice had no effect on the self-efficacy or implementation of organizational practices by first-line supervisors within the timeframe of the study. Like the supervisors, there was also no statistically significant effect on the employees and their belief that their supervisors were practicing organizational justice within their workgroups.