Talent Management and Organizational Justice: Employee Reactions to High Potential Identification

We examined how perceived distributive and procedural justice affected the relationship between an employee's identification as a high potential (drawn from archival data), job satisfaction, and work effort. A questionnaire was distributed within one large company among employees who were and employees who were not identified as a high potential (N=203). The results indicated that perceptions of distributive justice were significantly higher for employees identified as a high potential. Moreover, perceived distributive justice fully mediated the relationship between an employee's identification and his or her level of job satisfaction. The results also revealed that perceptions of procedural justice moderated the relationship between perceived distributive justice and work effort. Theoretical and practical consequences of these findings are discussed.