• Raphael M Herr, Adrian Loerbroks, Annelies E M van Vianen, Kristina Hoffmann, Joachim E Fischer, and Jos A Bosch.
• From the Mannheim Institute of Public Health, Social and Preventive Medicine (Herr, Loerbroks, Hoffmann, Fischer, Bosch), Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany; Departments of Clinical Psychology (Herr, Bosch) and Work and Organizational Psychology (Vianen), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and the Institute of Occupational and Social Medicine (Loerbroks), Centre for Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
• Psychosom Med. 2015 Jun 1; 77 (5): 527-38.

ObjectiveOrganizational justice refers to perceived fairness at the workplace. Low organizational justice has been identified as a major source of distress and a predictor of poor health. Impaired regulation of immunological and inflammatory pathways may, in part, underlie these health effects. The present study investigated the association of organizational justice with leukocyte glucocorticoid sensitivity in vivo.MethodsOrganizational justice was assessed among 541 male factory workers (mean [standard deviation] age = 46 [9] years) by questionnaire. Cortisol release was measured at three time points before blood collection and summed as the area under the curve. Blood was used to assess leukocyte (white blood cell [WBC] count) subsets (neutrophils [%WBC], lymphocytes [%WBC], and the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio). Glucocorticoid sensitivity was operationalized as the correlation between cortisol release and these hematologic parameters. Associations were adjusted for demographics, work characteristics, and life-style variables.ResultsA dose-response relationship between organizational justice and glucocorticoid sensitivity was found. Cortisol and hematologic parameters showed the expected significant association among individuals reporting high (all β values ≥ |.26|; all p values ≤.001) or medium organizational justice (all β values ≥ |.15|; all p values ≤.050), but not among those reporting low organizational justice (all β values ≤ |.04|; all p values > .10). These regression slopes differed significantly between organizational justice groups (p values for interaction < .050).ConclusionsLow justice at work is associated with an impaired ability of endogenous cortisol to regulate leukocyte distribution in vivo. These findings identify a novel biological pathway by which organizational justice may affect health.

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