Communication, procedural justice, and employee attitudes: Relationships under conditions of divestiture

This study examines the relationships among managerial communication, perce ptions of the procedural justice of layoffs, and employee attitudes within the contest of divestiture. As we expected, employee perceptions of procedu ral justice regarding the divestiture predicted, at one point in time, trus t in new ownership and, two months later, post-divestiture commitment to th e organization. Also as hypothesized, perceptions of the justice of the div estiture explained variance ill trust non commitment above and beyond that explained by the perceived justice of the layoffs. Finally, as predicted, m anagerial communications that helped employees understand the events surrou nding the divestiture increased perceptions of the procedural justice of th e divestiture and layoffs, and had both indirect and direct effects on futu re commitment. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.