The impact of 360 feedback appraisal system on organizational justice and sustainability: The mediating roles of gender and managerial levels

Purpose: This paper aims to extend previous results demonstrating a statistically significant causal relationship between the implementation of 360-degree feedback in an organization and employees’ perceptions of organizational justice. It explores the sustainability of this justice, ultimately making it an integral part of the organizational culture. The paper examines whether the previous model (based on relationships among 360-degree feedback, organizational justice and sustainability of organizational justice) is invariant across different levels of management (i.e. operational and top/middle managers) and across a group of female versus male employees. Design/methodology/approach: Structural equation modeling multigroup analysis and invariance tests were conducted with a cross-sectional sample of 400 employees in various positions in home appliances and electronics organizations. Findings: The results further sustain/contest previous findings on the relationships among appraisal, organizational justice and sustainability among respondents of different genders and at different managerial levels. The results also provide significant practical implications. Top managers and supervisors can incorporate gender and managerial level differences identified in this study to modify their management styles and appraisal techniques to install high levels of organizational justice and achieve a competitive edge through the sustained levels of this organizational justice. Originality/value: This study is the first to explore the impact of implementing a 360-degree appraisal system on employees’ perceptions of justice, while taking into consideration gender differences, i.e. whether males or females tend to perceive different types of justice within the organization and whether they differ in the way that they react to the appraisal system being implemented within the workplace. Given all the positive traits associated with a 360-feedback appraisal system, the way that this feedback is viewed and interpreted by employees can differ according to the employee’s rank within the organization, i.e. whether he/she belongs to top/middle management team or the operational/front-line management team.