The relationship between employees' perceived interpersonal justice and job burnout in the Norwegian consulting industry, and the mediating role of LMX quality

Abstract

This master thesis aims to examine the relationship between employees’ perceived interpersonal justice and job burnout in the Norwegian consulting industry. Further, it explores the potential mediating role of leader-member exchange (LMX) quality in the relationship between interpersonal justice and burnout.

Data was collected through a quantitative self-completion questionnaire on N=127 respondents who identified themselves as consultants located in Norway, and work full time for their respective companies. The collected data was analyzed through regression analysis in IBM SPSS. The analysis found no significant relationship between interpersonal justice and the two burnout constructs; Burnout Motivation and Burnout Overload. Consequently, no support was found for the existence of a relationship between the variables. This finding led to the cessation of the mediation analysis, as it is based on the underlying assumption that a statistically significant relationship must exist between interpersonal justice and at least one of the burnout constructs. The research transitioned into an exploratory phase aimed at identifying potential significant relationships among the remaining variables. However, the exploratory research yielded no significant findings.

While the findings of this study did not support the hypothesis and provided limited support for existing research, it contributed valuable insights to academia and filled a crucial knowledge gap in the consulting industry in Norway. The findings suggest that cultural and industry differences may affect the relationships between LMX, interpersonal justice, and burnout. There are a limited number of studies that support the non-correlational results observed in this study, highlighting the need for further investigation in this area.