The influence of organisational justice and ethical leadership on employees’ innovation behaviour

Purpose This paper aims to explore the influence of organisational justice (including distributional justice, procedural justice and interactional justice) and ethical leadership on employees’ innovation behaviour and to analyse the role of ethical leadership in regulating the relationship between organisational justice and employees’ innovation behaviour. Design/methodology/approach This paper explores the key factors affecting employees’ innovation behaviour from three forms of organisational justice (distributional justice, procedural justice and interactional justice) and ethical leadership. The questionnaire survey method is used to survey Chinese industrial workers. A total of 323 valid questionnaires are collected, and the model is verified by SmartPLS. Findings The study found that distributional justice and interactional justice in organisational justice had a significant positive influence on employees’ innovation behaviour. Ethical leadership had a significant positive influence on employees’ innovation behaviour and interactional justice. At the same time, ethical leadership has a significant regulatory effect on the relationship between interactional justice and employees’ innovation behaviour. The study also found that procedural justice had a significant positive influence on distributional justice and interactional justice. Research limitations/implications This paper is limited to industrial workers in Hubei, China, and the research objects need further expansion. In terms of research methods, future research will use other laboratory research methods, combining experimental environments with real-world situations, enhancing the scientific nature of research methods and increasing the credibility of research results. Practical implications In management practice, organisations can take various measures to improve the interaction level of employees, improve employees’ perception of organisational distribution justice by establishing a scientific distribution system, give full play to the role of ethical leadership, implement more ethical management and stimulate employees' innovation behaviour. Originality/value This research theorises the relationship between distributional justice, interactional justice and employees' innovation behaviour and enriches the research system of employees' innovation behaviour. At the same time, it examines the regulatory effect of ethical leadership on the relationship between interactional justice and employees' innovation behaviour, which helps enrich the mechanism of ethical leadership affecting employees' innovation behaviour path. It clarifies the mechanism of the interaction among distributional justice, procedural justice and interactional justice and expands the research theory of organisational justice.