The aim of this study is to verify the relationship between leadership style, organizational justice and organizational identification. Particularly, the mediating role of perceived organizational justice is explored. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze data collected on a large sample of employees from different organizations. The results confirm the mediation effect of organizational justice: active leadership styles (both transactional and transformational) positively contribute to organizational justice perceptions, which results in stronger organizational identification. The transformational leadership style has a positive, direct and indirect effect on organizational identification while the transactional leadership style works indirectly, through the perceptions of organizational justice, positively contributing to organizational identification. Active leadership styles and organizational justice perceptions explain nearly a quarter of the total variance of organizational identification. The significance of the results for human resource management and the importance of the active role of managers in the processes and systems intended for retaining and motivating employees in an organization are discussed.

organizational identification, transactional leadership style, transformational leadership style, organizational justice