Interactional Justice and Emotional Abuse: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

The present paper attempts to reconcile two separate lines of research in organizational behavior. Specifically, it provides an examination of the dimensionality of organizational justice and emotional abuse in the workplace. It is proposed that the organizational justice facet known as interactional justice and the construct of emotional abuse actually constitute opposing ends of the same conceptual continuum. Further, it is argued that emotional abuse should be conceptually subsumed by broader measures of interactional justice. It is argued that research on the proposed overlap of these important constructs would do much to coalesce and bring clarity to both lines of research.