Extended Conceptual and Empirical Model of Employee Social Undermining based on Organizational Justice in the Energy Sector
Objective: Social undermining represents a insidious, destructive, and covert behavioral phenomenon within organizations that erodes interpersonal trust, communication dynamics, and collaborative performance. This study develops and empirically validates a comprehensive model examining how perceived organizational justice (distributive, procedural, and interactional) influences employee social undermining, and evaluates its downstream impacts on job well-being and innovative work behavior within South Zagros Oil and Gas Production Company.Methodology: Utilizing an applied, descriptive-analytical design, this research employs Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The target population comprised 2,400 operational and administrative employees across headquarters and five major operational extraction regions. A stratified proportional random sample of 342 valid responses was analyzed. Data were gathered using validated measurement scales for organizational justice (Folger & Cropanzano), social undermining (Duffy et al.), job well-being (Warr), and innovative work behavior (Janssen). Structural evaluation included rigorous outer model testing (indicator reliability, convergent validity, HTMT discriminant validity) and inner model structural path analysis with 5,000 bootstrap resamples.Findings: Structural path analysis reveals that perceived organizational justice exerts a profound negative direct effect on employee social undermining (β=−0.63, p<0.001). Procedural justice emerged as the strongest inhibitor (β=−0.48), followed by distributive (β=−0.41) and interactional justice (β=−0.37). Social undermining significantly degrades job well-being (β=−0.46, p<0.001) and suppresses innovative work behavior (β=−0.42, p<0.001). Furthermore, mediation analysis confirms that social undermining serves as a significant indirect mechanism translating organizational injustice into depleted employee well-being and diminished workplace innovation.Conclusion: Institutionalizing transparent, justice-driven evaluation frameworks and fostering respectful supervisory dynamics are crucial strategies for curbing covert undermining behaviors and enhancing human capital resilience in high-stress energy industries.