Indonesian and Australian employee responses to interactional injustice: the roles of negative affect and power distance

The aims of this study were to explore employees’ emotional and behavioral responses to perceived injustice at work, and to determine the extent to which their responses depended on the power distance (PD) between employees and supervisors at the individual, organizational, and national levels. Data were collected using an anonymous online survey of 81 Australians (a low PD society) and 107 Indonesians (a high PD society). The results showed that perceptions of interactional injustice: (a) were negatively related to constructive behavior, (b) were positively related to the destructive behaviors of exit and neglect through negative affect mediation, (c) interacted with PD in influencing exit behavior, such that participants who perceived high national and organizational PD were less likely to quit the organization even if they experienced a high level of negative affect in response to perceived interactional injustice. Together, the results highlighted the importance of negative affect and power distance perceptions in predicting employees’ responses to perceived interactional injustice, especially quitting behavior. The results also suggest that cultural values should be taken into account when addressing problems related to organizational justice and supervisor-subordinate relationships.