Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

LIVE: Thursday 27th June 2024, 18:00-19:30 (CEST)
Join our expert panel to discover why you need to understand the drivers of non-adherence in your patients, and how you can optimize medication adherence in your clinics to drastically improve patient outcomes.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Annals of Behavioral Medicine
Published in: Annals of Behavioral Medicine 3/2015

01-06-2015 | Original Article

Organizational Justice Is Related to Heart Rate Variability in White-Collar Workers, but Not in Blue-Collar Workers—Findings from a Cross-Sectional Study

Authors: Raphael M. Herr, MA, Jos A. Bosch, PhD, Annelies E. M. van Vianen, PhD, Marc N. Jarczok, MA, Julian F. Thayer, PhD, Jian Li, PhD, Burkhard Schmidt, PhD, Joachim E. Fischer, MD MSc, Adrian Loerbroks, PhD

Published in: Annals of Behavioral Medicine | Issue 3/2015

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

Perceived injustice at work predicts coronary heart disease. Vagal dysregulation represents a potential psychobiological pathway.

Purpose

We examined associations between organizational justice and heart rate variability (HRV) indicators. Grounded in social exchange and psychological contract theory, we tested predictions that these associations are more pronounced among white-collar than among blue-collar workers.

Methods

Cross-sectional data from 222 blue-collar and 179 white-collar men were used. Interactional and procedural justice were measured by questionnaire. Ambulatory HRV was assessed across 24 h. Standardized regression coefficients (β) were calculated.

Results

Among white-collar workers, interactional justice showed positive relationships with 24-h HRV, which were strongest during sleeping time (adjusted βs ≥0.26; p values ≤0.01). No associations were found for blue-collar workers. A comparable but attenuated pattern was observed for procedural justice.

Conclusions

Both dimensions of organizational injustice were associated with lowered HRV among white-collar workers. The impact of justice and possibly its association with health seems to differ by occupational groups.
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Literature
1.
Elovainio M, Leino-Arjas P, Vahtera J, Kivimaki M. Justice at work and cardiovascular mortality: A prospective cohort study. J Psychosom Res. 2006; 61: 271-274.CrossRefPubMed
2.
Kivimaki M, Ferrie JE, Brunner E, et al. Justice at work and reduced risk of coronary heart disease among employees: The Whitehall II Study. Arch Intern Med. 2005; 165: 2245-2251.CrossRefPubMed
3.
De Vogli R, Ferrie JE, Chandola T, Kivimaki M, Marmot MG. Unfairness and health: Evidence from the Whitehall II Study. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2007; 61: 513-518.CrossRefPubMedCentralPubMed
4.
Kivimaki M, Ferrie JE, Shipley M, et al. Effects on blood pressure do not explain the association between organizational justice and coronary heart disease in the Whitehall II study. Psychosom Med. 2008; 70: 1-6.CrossRefPubMed
5.
Ndjaboue R, Brisson C, Vezina M. Organisational justice and mental health: a systematic review of prospective studies. Occup Environ Med. 2012; 69: 694-700.
6.
Colquitt JA, Greenberg J, Zapata-Phelan CP. What is organizational justice? A historical overview of the field. In: Greenberg J, Colquitt JA, eds. The Handbook of Organizational Justice. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum; 2005: 3-56.
7.
8.
Elovainio M, Kivimaki M, Vahtera J, Keltikangas-Jarvinen L, Virtanen M. Sleeping problems and health behaviors as mediators between organizational justice and health. Health Psychol. 2003; 22: 287-293.CrossRefPubMed
9.
Kivimaki M, Elovainio M, Vahtera J, Ferrie JE. Organisational justice and health of employees: Prospective cohort study. Occup Environ Med. 2003; 60: 27-33. discussion 33–24.CrossRefPubMedCentralPubMed
10.
Kivimaki M, Elovainio M, Vahtera J, Virtanen M, Stansfeld SA. Association between organizational inequity and incidence of psychiatric disorders in female employees. Psychol Med. 2003; 33: 319-326.CrossRefPubMed
11.
Elovainio M, Kivimaki M, Steen N, Vahtera J. Job decision latitude, organizational justice and health: Multilevel covariance structure analysis. Soc Sci Med. 2004; 58: 1659-1669.CrossRefPubMed
12.
Kivimaki M, Ferrie JE, Head J, et al. Organisational justice and change in justice as predictors of employee health: The Whitehall II study. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2004; 58: 931-937.CrossRefPubMedCentralPubMed
13.
Elovainio M, Kivimaki M, Puttonen S, et al. Organisational injustice and impaired cardiovascular regulation among female employees. Occup Environ Med. 2006; 63: 141-144.CrossRefPubMedCentralPubMed
14.
Ferrie JE, Head J, Shipley MJ, et al. Injustice at work and incidence of psychiatric morbidity: The Whitehall II study. Occup Environ Med. 2006; 63: 443-450.CrossRefPubMedCentralPubMed
15.
Kouvonen A, Vahtera J, Elovainio M, et al. Organisational justice and smoking: The Finnish Public Sector Study. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2007; 61: 427-433.CrossRefPubMedCentralPubMed
16.
Kivimaki M, Vahtera J, Elovainio M, Virtanen M, Siegrist J. Effort-reward imbalance, procedural injustice and relational injustice as psychosocial predictors of health: Complementary or redundant models? Occup Environ Med. 2007; 64: 659-665.CrossRefPubMedCentralPubMed
17.
Kouvonen A, Kivimaki M, Elovainio M, et al. Low organisational justice and heavy drinking: A prospective cohort study. Occup Environ Med. 2008; 65: 44-50.CrossRefPubMed
18.
Elovainio M, Ferrie JE, Gimeno D, et al. Organizational justice and sleeping problems: The Whitehall II study. Psychosom Med. 2009; 71: 334-340.CrossRefPubMed
19.
20.
Bies RJ, Moag JS. Interactional justice: Communication criteria of fairness. In: Lewicki RJ, Sheppard BH, Bazerman MH, eds. Research on Negotiations in Organizations, vol. 1. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press Inc; 1986: 43-55.
21.
Leventhal GS. What should be done with equity theory? New approaches to the study of fairness in social relationship. In: Gergen K, Greenberg M, Willis R, eds. Social Exchange: Advances in Theory and Research. New York: Plenum Press; 1980: 27-55.CrossRef
22.
Thibaut JW, Walker L. Procedural justice: A psychological analysis. Hillsdale, N.J. New York: L. Erlbaum Associates; distributed by the Halsted Press Division of Wiley, 1975.
23.
Elovainio M, Heponiemi T, Sinervo T, Magnavita N. Organizational justice and health; review of evidence. G Ital Med Lav Ergon. 2010; 32: B5-B9.PubMed
24.
Koolhaas JM, Bartolomucci A, Buwalda B, et al. Stress revisited: A critical evaluation of the stress concept. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2011; 35: 1291-1301.CrossRefPubMed
25.
Lind EA, van den Bos K. When fairness works: Toward a general theory of uncertainty management. Res Organ Behav. 2002; 24: 181-223.CrossRef
26.
Judge TA, Colquitt JA. Organizational justice and stress: The mediating role of work-family conflict. J Appl Psychol. 2004; 89: 395-404.CrossRefPubMed
27.
Elovainio M, Ferrie JE, Singh-Manoux A, et al. Organisational justice and markers of inflammation: The Whitehall II study. Occup Environ Med. 2010; 67: 78-83.CrossRefPubMed
28.
Inoue A, Kawakami N, Ishizaki M, et al. Three job stress models/concepts and oxidative DNA damage in a sample of workers in Japan. J Psychosom Res. 2009; 66: 329-334.CrossRefPubMed
29.
Dekker JM, Crow RS, Folsom AR, et al. Low heart rate variability in a 2-minute rhythm strip predicts risk of coronary heart disease and mortality from several causes: The ARIC Study. Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities. Circulation. 2000; 102: 1239-1244.CrossRefPubMed
30.
Tsuji H, Larson MG, Venditti FJ Jr, et al. Impact of reduced heart rate variability on risk for cardiac events. The Framingham Heart Study. Circulation. 1996; 94: 2850-2855.CrossRefPubMed
31.
Hillebrand S, Gast KB, de Mutsert R, et al. Heart rate variability and first cardiovascular event in populations without known cardiovascular disease: Meta-analysis and dose–response meta-regression. Europace. 2013; 15: 742-749.CrossRefPubMed
32.
Jarczok MN, Jarczok M, Mauss D, et al. Autonomic nervous system activity and workplace stressors—a systematic review. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2013; 37: 1810-1823.CrossRefPubMed
33.
Falk A. Centre for Economic Policy Research (Great Britain): Cardiovascular Consequences of Unfair Pay. London: Centre for Economic Policy Research; 2011.
34.
Inoue A, Kawakami N, Tsuno K, Tomioka K, Nakanishi M. Organizational justice and psychological distress among permanent and non-permanent employees in Japan: A prospective cohort study. Int J Behav Med. 2013; 20: 265-276.
35.
Dornstein M. Wage reference groups and their determinants: A study of blue–collar and white–collar employees in Israel. J Occup Psychol. 1988; 61: 221-235.CrossRef
36.
Toppinen-Tanner S, Kalimo R, Mutanen P. The process of burnout in white-collar and blue-collar jobs: Eight-year prospective study of exhaustion. J Organ Behav. 2002; 23: 555-570.CrossRef
37.
Väänänen A, Kalimo R, Toppinen-Tanner S, et al. Role clarity, fairness, and organizational climate as predictors of sickness absence: A prospective study in the private sector. Scand J Public Health. 2004; 32: 426-434.CrossRefPubMed
38.
De Vogli R, Brunner E, Marmot MG. Unfairness and the social gradient of metabolic syndrome in the Whitehall II Study. J Psychosom Res. 2007; 63: 413-419.CrossRefPubMed
39.
Tsutsumi A, Kayaba K, Ishikawa S. Impact of occupational stress on stroke across occupational classes and genders. Soc Sci Med. 2011; 72: 1652-1658.CrossRefPubMed
40.
von Bonsdorff MB, Seitsamo J, von Bonsdorff ME, et al. Job strain among blue-collar and white-collar employees as a determinant of total mortality: A 28-year population-based follow-up. BMJ Open. 2012; 2: e000860.
41.
Tekleab AG, Takeuchi R, Taylor MS. Extending the chain of relationships among organizational justice, social exchange, and employee reactions: The role of contract violations. Acad Manag J. 2005; 48: 146-157.CrossRef
42.
Blau PM. Exchange and Power in Social Life. New York: J. Wiley; 1964.
43.
Colquitt JA, Scott BA, Rodell JB, et al. Justice at the millennium, a decade later: A meta-analytic test of social exchange and affect-based perspectives. J Appl Psychol. 2013; 98: 199.CrossRefPubMed
44.
Cropanzano R, Mitchell MS. Social exchange theory: An interdisciplinary review. J Manag. 2005; 31: 874-900.
45.
Littek W, Heisig U. Work organisation under technological change: sources of differentiation and the reproduction of social inequality in processes of change. In: Clegg S, ed. Organisation Theory and Class Analysis. Berlin/New York: de Gruyter; 1989: 299-314.
46.
DeConinck JB. The effect of organizational justice, perceived organizational support, and perceived supervisor support on marketing employees’ level of trust. J Bus Res. 2010; 63: 1349-1355.CrossRef
47.
De Cuyper N, Rigotti T, De Witte H, Mohr G. Balancing psychological contracts: Validation of a typology. Int J Hum Resour Manag. 2008; 19: 543-561.CrossRef
48.
Holtz BC. Trust primacy: A model of the reciprocal relations between trust and perceived justice. J Manag. 2013; 39: 1891-1923.
49.
Hopp WJ, Iravani SMR, Liu F. Managing white-collar work: An operations-oriented survey. Prod Oper Manag. 2009; 18: 1-32.CrossRef
50.
Schminke M, Cropanzano R, Rupp DE. Organization structure and fairness perceptions: The moderating effects of organizational level. Organ Behav Hum Decis Process. 2002; 89: 881-905.CrossRef
51.
Cropanzano R, Rupp DE, Mohler CJ, Schminke M. Three roads to organizational justice. Res Pers Hum Resour Manag. 2001; 20: 1-113.CrossRef
52.
Rousseau DM. Psychological and implied contracts in organizations. Empl Responsib Rights J. 1989; 2: 121-139.CrossRef
53.
Rousseau DM. Psychological contracts in the workplace: Understanding the ties that motivate. Acad Manag Exec. 2004; 18: 120-127.CrossRef
54.
Konovsky MA, Pugh SD. Citizenship behavior and social exchange. Acad Manag J. 1994; 37: 656-669.CrossRef
55.
Pennings JM. Work-value systems of white-collar workers. Admin Sci Q. 1970; 15: 397-405.
56.
Axelrod WL, Gavin JF. Stress and strain in blue-collar and white-collar management staff. J Vocat Behav. 1980; 17: 41-49.CrossRef
57.
Rousseau DM. New hire perceptions of their own and their employer’s obligations: A study of psychological contracts. J Organ Behav. 1990; 11: 389-400.CrossRef
58.
Sels L, Janssens M, Van den Brande I, Overlaet R. Belgium: A culture of compromise. In: Rousseau DM, Schalk R, eds. Psychological Contracts in Employment: Cross-National Perspectives. London: Sage; 2000: 47-66.CrossRef
59.
Ellis JB. Psychological contracts: Does work status affect perceptions of making and keeping promises? Manag Commun Q. 2007; 20: 335-362.CrossRef
60.
Greenberg J. Stress fairness to fare no stress: Managing workplace stress by promoting organizational justice. Organ Dyn. 2004; 33: 352-365.CrossRef
61.
Huikuri HV, Niemela MJ, Ojala S, et al. Circadian rhythms of frequency domain measures of heart rate variability in healthy subjects and patients with coronary artery disease. Effects of arousal and upright posture. Circulation. 1994; 90: 121-126.CrossRefPubMed
62.
Bein B, Hanss R, Scholz J, Tonner PH. Letter regarding article by Hemingway et al., “Does autonomic function link social position to coronary risk? The Whitehall II study”. Circulation. 2005; 112: e368. author reply e368–369.CrossRefPubMed
63.
Brosschot JF, Van Dijk E, Thayer JF. Daily worry is related to low heart rate variability during waking and the subsequent nocturnal sleep period. Int J Psychophysiol. 2007; 63: 39-47.CrossRefPubMed
64.
Bosch JA, Fischer JE, Fischer JC. Psychologically adverse work conditions are associated with CD8+ T cell differentiation indicative of immunesenescence. Brain Behav Immun. 2009; 23: 527-534.CrossRefPubMed
65.
Herr RM, Li J, Bosch JA, et al. Psychometric properties of a German organizational justice questionnaire (G-OJQ) and its association with self-rated health: Findings from the Mannheim Industrial Cohort Studies (MICS). Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 2014; 87: 85-93.
66.
Moorman RH. The relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior: Do fairness perceptions influence employee citizenship? J Appl Psychol. 1991; 76: 845-855.CrossRef
67.
Siegrist J. Adverse health effects of high-effort/low-reward conditions. J Occup Health Psychol. 1996; 1: 27-41.CrossRefPubMed
68.
Siegrist J, Starke D, Chandola T, et al. The measurement of effort-reward imbalance at work: European comparisons. Soc Sci Med. 2004; 58: 1483-1499.CrossRefPubMed
69.
Karasek RA Jr. Job demands, job decision latitude, and mental strain: Implications for job redesign. Adm Sci Q. 1979; 24: 285-308.CrossRef
70.
Karasek R, Brisson C, Kawakami N, et al. The Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ): An instrument for internationally comparative assessments of psychosocial job characteristics. J Occup Health Psychol. 1998; 3: 322-355.CrossRefPubMed
71.
Courvoisier DS, Perneger TV. Validation of alternative formulations of job strain. J Occup Health. 2010; 52: 5-13.CrossRefPubMed
72.
Gadinger MC, Loerbroks A, Schneider S, Thayer JF, Fischer JE. Associations between job strain and the cortisol/DHEA-S ratio among management and nonmanagement personnel. Psychosom Med. 2011; 73: 44-52.CrossRefPubMed
73.
Jenkins CD, Stanton BA, Niemcryk SJ, Rose RM. A scale for the estimation of sleep problems in clinical research. J Clin Epidemiol. 1988; 41: 313-321.CrossRefPubMed
74.
Bullinger M, Kirchberger I. SF-36 State-of-health Questionnaire. Manual [SF-36 Fragebogen zum Gesundheitszustand. Handanweisung]. Göttingen: Hogrefe-Verlag; 1998.
75.
Gandek B, Ware JE, Aaronson NK, et al. Cross-validation of item selection and scoring for the SF-12 Health Survey in nine countries: Results from the IQOLA Project. J Clin Epidemiol. 1998; 51: 1171-1178.CrossRefPubMed
76.
Rosengren A, Hawken S, Ôunpuu S, et al. Association of psychosocial risk factors with risk of acute myocardial infarction in 11 119 cases and 13 648 controls from 52 countries (the INTERHEART study): Case-control study. Lancet. 2004; 364: 953-962.CrossRefPubMed
77.
Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology and the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology. Heart rate variability: Standards of measurement, physiological interpretation and clinical use. Circulation. 1996; 93: 1043-1065.CrossRef
78.
79.
Hayes AF. PROCESS: A versatile computational tool for observed variable mediation, moderation, and conditional process modeling [White paper]. Retrieved from http://​www.​afhayes.​com/​. 2012.
80.
Hayes AF. Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach. New York: Guilford Press; 2013.
81.
Yang LQ, Bauer J, Johnson RE, Groer MW, Salomon K. Physiological mechanisms that underlie the effects of interactional unfairness on deviant behavior: The role of cortisol activity. J Appl Psychol. 2014; 99: 310-321.
82.
Dickerson SS, Kemeny ME. Acute stressors and cortisol responses: A theoretical integration and synthesis of laboratory research. Psychol Bull. 2004; 130: 355.CrossRefPubMed
83.
Bosch JA, de Geus EJ, Carroll D, et al. A general enhancement of autonomic and cortisol responses during social evaluative threat. Psychosom Med. 2009; 71: 877-885.CrossRefPubMedCentralPubMed
84.
Colquitt JA, Lepine JA, Piccolo RF, Zapata CP, Rich BL. Explaining the justice-performance relationship: Trust as exchange deepener or trust as uncertainty reducer? J Appl Psychol. 2012; 97: 1-15.CrossRefPubMed
85.
Shore LM, Tetrick LE, Lynch P, Barksdale K. Social and economic exchange: Construct development and validation. J Appl Soc Psychol. 2006; 36: 837-867.CrossRef
86.
Raja U, Johns G, Ntalianis F. The impact of personality on psychological contracts. Acad Manag J. 2004; 47: 350-367.CrossRef
87.
Hall M, Vasko R, Buysse D, et al. Acute stress affects heart rate variability during sleep. Psychosom Med. 2004; 66: 56-62.CrossRefPubMed
88.
Yoshino K, Matsuoka K. Effect of mood during daily life on autonomic nervous activity balance during subsequent sleep. Auton Neurosci. 2009; 150: 147-149.CrossRefPubMed
89.
Brosschot JF, Verkuil B, Thayer JF. Conscious and unconscious perseverative cognition: Is a large part of prolonged physiological activity due to unconscious stress? J Psychosom Res. 2010; 69: 407-416.CrossRefPubMed
90.
Siltaloppi M, Kinnunen U, Feldt T. Recovery experiences as moderators between psychosocial work characteristics and occupational well-being. Work Stress. 2009; 23: 330-348.CrossRef
91.
Beugré CD. Exploring the neural basis of fairness: A model of neuro-organizational justice. Organ Behav Hum Decis Process. 2009; 110: 129-139.CrossRef
92.
Väänänen A, Pahkin K, Kalimo R, Buunk BP. Maintenance of subjective health during a merger: The role of experienced change and pre-merger social support at work in white- and blue-collar workers. Soc Sci Med. 2004; 58: 1903-1915.CrossRefPubMed
93.
Schnabel C, Wagner J. Union density and determinants of union membership in 18 EU countries: Evidence from micro data, 2002/031. Ind Relat J. 2007; 38: 5-32.CrossRef
94.
Saundry R, Jones C, Antcliff V. Discipline, representation and dispute resolution—exploring the role of trade unions and employee companions in workplace discipline. Ind Relat J. 2011; 42: 195-211.CrossRef
95.
Kudielka BM, Buske-Kirschbaum A, Hellhammer DH, Kirschbaum C. Differential heart rate reactivity and recovery after psychosocial stress (TSST) in healthy children, younger adults, and elderly adults: the impact of age and gender. Int J Behav Med. 2004; 11: 116-121.CrossRefPubMed
Metadata
Title
Organizational Justice Is Related to Heart Rate Variability in White-Collar Workers, but Not in Blue-Collar Workers—Findings from a Cross-Sectional Study
Authors
Raphael M. Herr, MA
Jos A. Bosch, PhD
Annelies E. M. van Vianen, PhD
Marc N. Jarczok, MA
Julian F. Thayer, PhD
Jian Li, PhD
Burkhard Schmidt, PhD
Joachim E. Fischer, MD MSc
Adrian Loerbroks, PhD
Publication date
01-06-2015
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Annals of Behavioral Medicine / Issue 3/2015
Print ISSN: 0883-6612
Electronic ISSN: 1532-4796
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-014-9669-9

Other articles of this Issue 3/2015

Annals of Behavioral Medicine 3/2015 Go to the issue

Original Article

Placebo Interventions for Nausea: a Systematic Review

Original Article

Differential Predictors of Acute Post-Surgical Pain Intensity After Abdominal Hysterectomy and Major Joint Arthroplasty

Original Article

Randomized Test of an Implementation Intention-Based Tool to Reduce Stress-Induced Eating

Original Article

Individual and Household Predictors of Adolescents’ Adherence to a Web-Based Intervention

Original Article

The ABCs of Trait Anger, Psychological Distress, and Disease Severity in HIV

Letter to the Editor

Considering Cumulative Risk for Cardiovascular Disease in Relation to Cognitive Function: a Comment on DeRight et al.