Investigating the Effect of Organizational Justice on Employees' Performance in Distribution Companies Considering the Mediation of Buyer-supplier Relationship Cost

Consuming goods distribution companies have an indisputable role in satisfying the organizational needs and the lack of efficiency in their performance may damage every member of a community. The leadership weakness of Iran's product distribution system has always been considered as one of the most important barriers to its economic growth. The optimal flow of goods from producer to consumer ensures reliable profits for producers and reasonable prices for consumers. This fluent flow is the thing that Iran's economy does not usually have. Considering the fact that general orientation has changed from dependency on foreign countries to internal self-sufficiency, the role of those organizations with the mission of distributing consumer goods have become important. Taking into consideration the country's policies in terms of resistive economy, we should transform the threats of foreign sanctions into opportunities in line with improving the distribution system of consuming goods. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to investigate the direct effect of justice in distribution companies on the performance of their employees, and its indirect effect through the buyer-supplier relationship cost.

Technology, innovation, and quality of individual, structural, and relational factors affect organizational performance. Historical evolution shows that justice as a kind of value is the reflection of societies’ desirable situation, which is the basis for shaping institutions, relationships, and structures.

The present research is an applied study in terms of purpose and is descriptive-correlational in terms of nature and method of data collection. The statistical population is comprised of 189 companies operating in the Sanandaj distribution system. The number of sales agents was 953 from which a sample size of 274 was selected using Cochran's formula. Research data was gathered by distributing a questionnaire reaffirming its content and construct validity. In addition, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to confirm the reliability of the questionnaire. Finally, research hypotheses were tested by conducting structural equation modeling in AMOS software.

Increased competition has forced industry managers to expand their planning horizon and make decisions even under very uncertain conditions. The results of data analysis confirmed the research hypotheses, based on which organizational justice had positive impacts on both decreasing the cost of buyer-supplier relationships and increasing the organizations' performance. To improve their performance, organizations should consider organizational educations as an important and primary objective for increasing organizational justice as well as decreasing the cost of relationships between the buyers and suppliers. To comply with international standards in line with improving competitiveness, to identify key customers and focus on their satisfaction, and to prioritize customer loyalty by retaining the current customers are some implications resulted from research findings.