The Impact of Organizational Justice on Innovative Work Behavior among Faculty of Tribhuvan University: The Mediating Role of Knowledge Sharing in AI-Enabled Higher Education

Abstract

Background: The study examines the role of organizational justice in shaping innovative work behavior among faculty at Tribhuvan University, and the mediating role of knowledge sharing in an AI-enabled higher education context.

Methods: A descriptive and explanatory research design were adopted. The population comprised permanent faculty at Tribhuvan University’s constituent campuses; 409 valid questionnaires were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) to validate distributive justice, procedural justice and interactional justice, AI-enabled knowledge sharing, and innovative work behavior.

Results: Faculty perceived limited distributive justice, knowledge sharing and innovative behavior, while procedural and interactional justice were related more positively. All three justice dimensions were positively and significantly effects on innovative behavior.

Conclusion: The direct effect of organizational justice on innovative behavior was modest, but the AI-enabled knowledge sharing played a substantial meditating role, full mediating the effects of distributive and interactional justice, and partially mediating procedural justice.

Novelty: This is one of the pioneering studies that conceptualizes AI-enabled knowledge sharing as a stand-alone, measurable construct in the organizational justice-innovation pathway in public higher education. This study provides a contextually updated structural model and evidence-based policy guidance to institutions navigating AI adoption in Nepal.