The Role of Relative Deprivation and Attribution Style in the Relationship between Organizational Fairness and Employees’ Service Innovation Behavior

Abstract

The basis of organizational innovation is employee innovation, which is of great significance for organizations to gain a competitive advantage. At present, the research on the influencing factors of employee service innovation behavior is increasing. This study, based on the social cognitive theory, with relative deprivation as the mediator and attribution style as the moderator, explores the mechanism of the effect of organizational fairness on employee service innovation behavior. Taking 342 employees of service-oriented enterprises as the subjects of investigation, this paper empirically tests the theoretical model by using Amos and SPSS. The results indicated the following, organizational fairness was positively related to employees’ service innovation behavior. Relative deprivation partially mediated the relationship between organizational fairness and service innovation behavior. An external attribution style positively moderated the relationship between relative deprivation and employee service innovation behavior. An external attribution style also positively moderated the mediation effect of the relationship between organizational fairness and service innovation behavior. The internal attribution style negatively moderated the relationship between relative deprivation and employee service innovation behavior. The internal attribution style also negatively moderated the mediation effect of the relationship between organizational fairness and service innovation behavior. The conclusion of this study has managerial implications on how to promote employee service innovation behavior in service-oriented enterprises.