Actors have feelings too: An examination of justice climate effects on the psychological well-being of organizational authority figures

Although a substantial amount of research explores how work units collectively benefit from authority figures who adhere to the rules of justice (i.e., justice climate), virtually no research explores how authority figures themselves benefit from creating a climate of fairness. We draw from relational theories of human behaviour and psychological well-being to develop a theoretical model of the relationship between justice climate and authority figures' well-being. Using data from a sample of 1297 employees and 162 authority figures within 162 work units, we find that procedural justice (PJ) and interactional justice (IJ) climate relate to authority figures' occupational satisfaction and emotional exhaustion; IJ climate also relates to positive affect. In addition, in line with an agent-related justice perspective, IJ climate has a stronger overall impact than PJ climate on authority figures' well-being.