RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEADERSHIP STYLE, WORKING STRESS AND ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE AMONG UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEES IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Research about organizational justice addresses the impact of justice on the effective functioning of an organization (Colquitt et al., 2001). In the last 30 years or so, it has been extensively researched in the field of leadership and organizational behavior and has thus become an extremely popular field of research. Scientists have recognized its importance as a source of motivation at work, an essential factor in selection employees moral judgment, different leadership styles, work and organizational outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational loyalty, work performance and responsible organizational behavior (Colquitt et al., 2001; Gilliland and Chan, 2001). Injustice carries a mechanism of stress and this idea is supported by studies showing that the perception of injustice creates stress and stress-related health problems through directly influence strain and mediating or moderating the relationship of stress and tension (Judge and Colquitt, 2004). The dimensions of organizational justice have significant connections between psychological distress and stress symptoms of depression, anxiety and emotional exhaustion (Tepper, 2000). Employees who are more stressed might be more alerted for unjust situations. Stressful situations and individual characteristics/attitudes might be more affective on the formation of justice perceptions in a highly complex work environment. Stress refers to the response of a person to the stimulus imposed on him. It is the situation where the well-being of an individual is challenged by different demands expected to be fulfilled at his end (Erkutlu & Chafra, 2006). Stress is recognized in the modern world as an important factor influencing health. Also, work stress can be increased or decreased by the impact of different leadership styles, which can also affect the employee perception of organizational justice. Leadership is a concept that has been seen as a key success factor since the first civilizations both smaller organizational units and even entire states. History tells us how leadership has been approached in different ways at different times, in accordance with which they are developed and many approaches to leadership as one of the fundamental phenomena of the organization and management field. Leadership, as the only real managerial function, is treated through a comparison of transactional and transformational styles, as two in the literature most often treated and in many ways almost opposed styles of leadership. A leadership style can also improve employee engagement, employee satisfaction, and employee enthusiasm for work (Alok & Israel, 2012). The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of leadership style and work stress on employees’ perceptions of organizational justice in higher education. The paper also examines whether there are differences in perceptions of stressors and organizational justice between genders and scientific teaching title. Descriptive statistics and statistical tests were used to analyze the primary research data.