Understanding interactional justice: supervisor and subordinate perspectives

Purpose This study investigates the mechanisms through which subordinates’ attributes shape supervisors’ justice enactment, which in turn shapes subordinates’ own justice perceptions. Additionally, we assess how supervisor-subordinate fit moderates the link between employee characteristics and supervisor trust. Through this dual-stage lens, the study reframes interactional justice not as a unidirectional act, but as a relational phenomenon co-created through supervisor-subordinate interaction. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from supervisor–subordinate dyads in Türkiye. Supervisors reported their perceived supervisor–subordinate fit and trust in subordinates, evaluated subordinates’ warmth and competence, and self-rated their own justice enactment; subordinates, in turn, assessed their supervisors’ fairness. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (SmartPLS) was employed to test the proposed model. Findings The results demonstrate that subordinates’ competence and warmth foster supervisor trust, which in turn leads to higher levels of enacted interactional justice. Furthermore, supervisors’ fair behaviours significantly enhance employees’ perceptions of justice, indicating a substantial congruence between the supervisor’s enactment of fairness and the subordinate’s subsequent perception of it. Originality/value This study moves beyond one-sided perspectives that restrict organizational justice to either employees’ perceptions or managerial actions. It conceptualizes justice as a co-created reciprocal process in which both parties actively participate in interactions, thereby extending the organizational justice literature toward a more relational and practice-oriented understanding.