Abstract

Recent policing research has identified a positive relationship between line-level officers’ perceptions of organizational justice and their adherence to agency goals and job satisfaction. However, we have little understanding of the factors that are related to police managers’ support for organizational justice when interacting with employees. We collected survey data from a sample of U.S. command-level officers (N = 211) who attended a training program in a southern state to address this gap in the literature. The anonymous survey was administered in-person to participating command-level police officers prior to their training program. Our multivariate regression analysis revealed that police managers who reported higher levels of self-control were more supportive of organizational justice (b = .26, p < .01). Additionally, police managers who reported higher quality relationships with their colleagues expressed greater support for organizational justice (b = .02, p = .02). Respondents’ self-legitimacy was not significantly associated with their support for organizational justice. This study contributes to the organizational justice literature by presenting the first analysis that links police commanders’ self-control to support for organizational justice within their management practices. The findings help pinpoint the types of individuals who may be best equipped to be fair police managers.