Organisational justice and innovative behaviour: Is knowledge sharing a mediator?

Purpose Encouraging employees to exhibit innovative behaviour at the workplace is the need of the hour. Prior studies reported the impact of organisational justice on innovative behaviour; however, the majority of these studies are from the Western context. Moreover, the underlying mechanism linking these variables, namely, the role of knowledge sharing, is sparse. The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of knowledge sharing in the relationship between organisational justice and innovative behaviour through the lens of social exchange theory in the Indian context. Design/methodology/approach Mediation analysis using PROCESS macro was performed on a sample of 288 employees using three structured questionnaires. Participants were recruited from various manufacturing organisations in India. The validity of the hypothesised model was established using AMOS software. Findings Organisational justice impacted both knowledge sharing and innovative behaviour. It was also illustrated that knowledge sharing influenced employees’ innovative behaviour. The most important finding is the partial mediation of knowledge sharing in the organizational justice–innovative behaviour relationship. Originality/value This study tries to demystify the organisational justice–innovative behaviour relationship by highlighting knowledge sharing as an underlying mechanism. The existing theoretical framework that describes the effects of organisational justice is enriched.