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The Perceived Fairness of Layoff Practices1
Abstract
Policy capturing was used to identify layoff practices having the greatest impact on the perceived fairness of layoffs. Full-time employees (N = 23) rated the fairness of 100 hypothetical layoffs incorporating each of 12 layoff practices reflecting different approaches to organizational justice. Managerial consistency in implementing layoffs, an unbiased layoff policy, and the size of severance packages had the strongest influence on fairness judgments. These results suggest that practices reflecting structural aspects of justice play the greatest role in layoff fairness perceptions, whereas practices consistent with social aspects of justice may be relatively less important.
... individual"s decision making by identifying an individual"s unique decision making policy in terms of how they "weigh, combine, or integrate information" (Zedeck and Kafry, 1977;51) in reaching a decision. Policy capturing is "an idiographic, statistical approach" to research (Hemingway and Conte, 2003;1592) which provides the researcher with an objective description of how individual cues contribute to the judgments made by an individual Gibson, 1983, Cooksey, 1996b). In addition, an individual"s subjective policy can be attained relatively easily and can be compared with an objective policy, as a measure of an individual"s self-insight into their own decision making. ...
... "Paper-people" represent a supposed experience of a person on which another is asked to make a judgment (Gorman et al., 1978). However, this can result in tasks which "may not be perfectly representative" (Hemingway and Conte, 2003;1611), and has been shown to be a poor substitute for real experiences of individuals (Gorman et al., 1978). This means that "participants" responses to the impoverished stimuli presented in policy capturing studies should not always be expected to generalize to responses in a real-world situation" (Dalal and Bonaccio, 2009;11-12). ...
... Judgment is often collected through a single-item measure , as "multiple responses are usually highly correlated and do not add significantly to the understanding of cue importance" (Hemingway and Conte, 2003;1599). Response collection techniques have included the use of Likert-scales, or asking participants to mark their judgment on an appropriate point on a scale which has anchors at two opposing ends (Stewart, 1988). ...
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... Similarly, Greenberg (1996) and Hemingway and Conte (2003) are of the opinion that interpersonal fairness refers to people's sensitivity to the quality of the interpersonal treatment that they think they receive and the extent to which the decision-maker shows respect for the rights of the parties affected by the decision. ...
... Interactional justice includes two subtypes, namely, interpersonal and informational fairness (Gilliland & Paddock, 2005;Hemingway & Conte, 2003). According to Colquitt (2001), informational fairness includes providing adequate information an explaining the procedures followed in implementing organisational policies. ...
In an attempt to make South Africa a more just society after the first democratic elections
on 27 April 1994, the South African society had to undergo a number of radical changes
which impacted the social, economical, political and educational arena. These changes
have influenced recruitment, retention and turnover. Changes at leadership levels in the
private and public sphere coupled with a huge exodus of highly skilled professionals are
evident as topics of equality and social justice appear at the top of company agendas.
Many proponents have conducted research on organisational justice and the fact that
more than twenty five thousand articles have been published on job satisfaction attest to
the importance of these two variables on organisational performance. In an article
examining past, present and future states of organisational justice it is argued that
organisational justice has the potential to explain many organisational behavioural
outcome variables. An investigation of the relationship between organisational justice
perceptions and work behavior found job satisfaction to be made up of a large fairness
component. The rationale behind the support for the study is the argument that employees who perceive that they have been fairly treated is likely to hold positive attitudes about their work, their work outcomes and their managers. If South African organisations wish to remain competitive then organisations need to understand how perceptions of justice influence attitudes and behaviour and consequently affect the success of the organisation.
Agricultural Colleges, a division of the Department of Agriculture are no exception. The
Agricultural Colleges' primary aim is to provide training to its prospective communities,
and is continuously being evaluated in terms of how well its academic employees achieve
its vision, mission and goals. It is evident from responses to job advertisements, low
morale and high turnover that most of the academic employees in Agricultural Colleges
are dissatisfied with their jobs, pay, management and the institutions based on their
current salary. Attracting, recruiting and retraining highly skilled, internationally
marketable and mobile employees are critical factors in determining the present and
future success in agricultural training in South Africa.
Limited research to examine the effects of organisational justice on organisational
outcomes in an environment where the workforce consists of academics is the gap this
research attempts to fill. This study is designed to assess the impact of organisational
justice on job satisfaction of academic employees in agricultural colleges in South Africa.
Also, to determine whether biographical values influence the relationship between
organisational justice and job satisfaction.
Seventy (70) respondents completed a biographical questionnaire as well as a Job
Satisfaction Survey to identify their levels of job satisfaction. To ascertain the levels of
organisational justice perceptions, respondents were asked to complete the Niehoff and
Moorman (1993) Organisational Justice Questionnaire. Correlation analysis revealed
there is a statistically significant positive relationship between job satisfaction and
organisational justice perceptions. This would seem to imply that if organisational justice
perceptions were to change, then job satisfaction would change accordingly.
Findingsalso indicate that there is a significant difference in organisational justice perceptions and job satisfaction depending on their level of employment, with lower level employees being more negative with respect to both variables. The results of this study also indicate that the demographic variables of age and gender appear to be better predictors of job satisfaction and organisational justice perceptions for the younger group of employees compared with their older counterparts. While the results of the current study reveal interesting findings, the results need to be interpreted with caution due to the nature and size of the sample which impact on the generalisability of the findings.
KEY WORDS
Job Satisfaction, Organisational Justice, Distributive Justice, Procedural Justice,
Interactional Justice, Fairness Perceptions, Equity Theory, Social Justice, Job
Performance, Organisational Performance, Academic employees, Agricultural Colleges
... The second major principle underpinning policy-capturing arising from Brunswick's lens model is that, because the focus is on the uniqueness of the individual decision maker, researchers shouldinitially at least -adopt an idiographic approach to statistical analysis, seeking to understand individual participants' decision models, before proceeding to nomothetic analysis (cf., Brunswick, 1952Brunswick, , 1956Cooksey, 1996a;Hemingway & Conte, 2003;Tyler & Steensma, 1995). In general, idiographic approaches seek to identify what is unique about individual decision makers' decision policies and the mental representations that guide the way in which they integrate the various pieces of information into a given judgment. ...
... Thus, the focus is on the unique functioning of the individual decision maker. Researchers can also use these separate decision models to identify groups of individuals with similar policy types, via the use of cluster analysis techniques (Cooksey, 1996a;Hemingway & Conte, 2003). ...
... It has revealed a third dimension of organisational justice, which was named interactional justice. This type of justice includes two subtypes, namely interpersonal and informational fairness (Hemingway & Conte, 2003;Gilliland & Paddock, 2005). Interpersonal fairness refers to people's sensitivity to the quality of the interpersonal treatment that they think they receive and the extent to which the decision-maker shows respect for the rights of the parties affected by the decision (Greenberg, 1996;Hemingway & Conte, 2003). ...
... This type of justice includes two subtypes, namely interpersonal and informational fairness (Hemingway & Conte, 2003;Gilliland & Paddock, 2005). Interpersonal fairness refers to people's sensitivity to the quality of the interpersonal treatment that they think they receive and the extent to which the decision-maker shows respect for the rights of the parties affected by the decision (Greenberg, 1996;Hemingway & Conte, 2003). Informational fairness includes providing adequate information and explaining the procedures followed in implementing organisational policies (Colquitt, 2001;Gilliland & Paddock, 2005). ...
The purpose of this study was to identify the dimensions of affirmative action (AA) fairness in order to develop a valid and reliable questionnaire to assess employees' perceptions of the fairness of AA decisions and practices, and to explore the relationship between employees' biographical characteristics and their perceptions of the dimensions of AA fairness. The research sample consisted of 349 participants connected to a large financial institution in South Africa. Principal axis factor analysis with a varimax rotation was performed on the data in order to uncover the different factors that employees perceived to be important for the fair and just management of affirmative action practices. Four factors define AA fairness: namely interactional, procedural (input), procedural (criteria) and distributive justice. One-way MANOVAs and associated ANOVAs revealed that the importance of the justice factors in AA fairness differed significantly across ethnicity and staff category. This study enables a better understanding of the dimensionality of AA fairness. It should ultimately contribute to more effective management of AA in the workplace. *To whom all correspondence should be addressed.
... 35 Nevertheless, when perceived fairness is kept under consideration (i.e., handling layoffs with justice principles), the ramifications of layoff practices at the macro-level (e.g., legal, financial, organizational) and micro-level (e.g., attitudinal, behavioral, cognitive, psychological) may be softened. Indeed, practices that reflect structural layoff, have a positive impact on justice perceptions (Hemingway & Conte, 2003) and employees who are just laid off can even still good organizational citizens (Bies et al., 1993). Since reactions of laid-off victims tend to depend on whether they feel they were treated fairly or not. ...
The interest of the perceived organizational justice realm remains an increased manifold. It is a behavioral concept that emphasizes how people subjectively assess the ethical and moral norms of organizational management. Perceived organizational justice (OJ) is sometimes studiedas a dependent variable, but often as an independent variable. For that reason, various OJ antecedents are examined in this paper, such as factors related to individual characteristics (Demographic characteristics, personality traits), culture (Individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, powerdistance, long, term/court term orientation, masculinity/femininity), organizational processes(organizational structure, HR practices, CSR initiatives), and interpersonal relationship (Leader-member-exchange and social contagion). Besides, the current paper presents an analytic review of the existing perceived organizational justice literature, and attempts to respond to the following question: What contributes to framing a fairness perception?Because of the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinarity of this field,we consolidated more than 125 theoretical and empirical papers, to portray firstly a holistic overview of fairness theories (cognitive/process and content theories), and highlight secondly the different relationships between perceived organizational justice and an array of predictors. Thereby, this review aims to contribute to the enrichment of the stateof knowledge of justice or fairness, by providing a clear roadmap and deeper insight for researchers and practitioners concerned with perceived organizational justice, and enabling them to understand how and why people make such fairness perceptions in the workplace. To do so, we discuss its relationships with various antecedent aspects and propose an aggregated theoretical framework to identify multiple areas for future investigation and guide the field forward
... Amongst a handful of organizational justice studies that have adopted policy capturing, few have explicitly questioned the relationship between subjective and objective policies. Whilst Hemingway & Conte (2003) found some-evidence of self-awareness, Rousseau & Aquino (1993) and Webster & Trevino (1995) found actual judgment policies to differ from what individual's reported (or believed). ...
We use the method of policy capturing to address three open questions
regarding how people judge the fairness of events. First, do people differ
in how they judge whether a situation is fair or unfair; second, are fairness
judgments stable within-person; and, third, how much insight do people
have into how they make fairness judgments? To investigate these
questions, we used the method of policy capturing and a representative
design that samples situations as well as participants. Forty-nine
employees rated the global fairness of 56 performance appraisals sampled
from their own organization (N=2744 situations), and regression methods
were used to infer their judgment policy from their choices. We find that
people differ greatly in how they judge fairness, but that individuals use
quite consistent policies across similar situations. Participants also
provided self-reports of their judgment policies, and comparisons of these
self-reports with actual policies revealed limited levels of self-insight.
... Organizational justice is considered to be a key issue throughout one's working life, starting with its pertinence to organizational entry via personnel selection (e.g., Lazar, Zinger, & Lachterman, 2007), through to career development (e.g., Ambrose & Cropanzano, 2003) and organizational exit, by lay-offs (e.g., Hemingway & Conte, 2003). Moreover, "… because people spend so much time at work and because there's often so much at stake, (…) [they] are highly sensitive to these [justice] matters" (Greenberg, 2004, p. 359; italics added by the authors). ...
Using social exchange theory as a conceptual framework, we investigated the relationship between interactional justice and the outcomes organizational loyalty (affective commitment, turnover intentions), perceived job performance (self-rated performance, personal accomplishment), and mental impairment (cognitive irritation, emotional exhaustion) in an online survey of 218 employees working in the field of computer technology. Specifically, we predicted that interactional justice would heighten the quality of social exchange relationships and therefore expected perceived social support (POS) and bullying to mediate the proposed relationships. We tested our hypotheses applying a latent structural equation model. Our findings revealed that POS mediated the relationship between interactional justice and organizational loyalty, while bullying mediated the relationship between interactional justice and mental impairment. Practical implications are discussed concerning how to foster interactional justice and POS and how to weaken bullying behavior.
... If managers cannot explain how they are making their decisions, and the decisions vary based on factors such as cognitive dissonance, non-work criteria, and personal characteristics, then it is no wonder that employees and other stakeholders view downsizing decisions with some skepticism and mistrust. As Hemingway and Conte (2003) argue: ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to learn how managers make downsizing decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants read a created organizational scenario and 25 hypothetical employee profiles and then chose five employees to lay off.
Findings
Older and minority applicants were chosen most often. No significance was found for performance. Rater group membership in race, gender, and age were significant predictors of layoff decisions.
Research limitations/implications
Because the participants were in a controlled environment they may have disregarded other information often available to decision makers. The majority of the sample was students who may be unrepresentative of managers who make layoff decisions. The inclusion of managers who have made downsizing decisions was designed to help address this limitation.
Practical implications
An employer's use of personal characteristics in making downsizing decisions may ultimately affect the aftermath of downsizing.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies to study the decision‐making process of layoffs.
... used to make that judgment" (Stewart, 1988, p. 41). Previous research has utilized policy capturing to explore decision patterns related to a range of organizational phenomena, including job performance ratings (Rotundo & Sackett, 2002), reputation perceptions (Cable & Graham, 2000), revenge (Tripp, Bies, & Aquino, 2002), job choice (Judge & Bretz, 1992), fairness perceptions (Hemingway & Conte, 2003), employee selection (Graves & Karren, 1992), and conflict resolution (Tomlinson et al., 2004). In a typical policy capturing study, the experimenter presents participants with a series of profiles that manipulate a focal set of variables and measure the impact of these manipulations on an outcome of interest. ...
Apologies are useful social tools that can act as catalysts in the resolution of conflict and inspire forgiveness. Yet as numerous real-world blunders attest, apologies are not always effective. Whereas many lead to forgiveness and reconciliation, others simply fall on deaf ears. Despite the fact that apologies differ in their effectiveness, most research has focused on apologies as dichotomous phenomena wherein a victim either (a) receives an apology or (b) does not. Psychological research has yet to elucidate which components of apologies are most effective, and for whom. The present research begins to address this gap by testing the theory that perpetrators’ apologies are most likely to inspire victim forgiveness when their components align with victims’ self-construals. Regression and hierarchical linear modeling analyses from two studies support the primary hypotheses. As predicted, victims reacted most positively to apologies that were congruent with their self-construals.
... In a layoff situation, perceptions of fairness and justice are particularly important since the layoff event generates tremendous stress for victims, survivors, and the managers responsible for its implementation. Though the bulk of fairness perceptions studies focus on survivors, some research examines the impact of organizational practices intended to enhance fairness perceptions among victims (Hemingway & Conte, 2003;Wanberg, Bunce, & Gavin, 1999). However, individual interpretations of process fairness may perhaps be more important than objective characteristics associated with a layoff (e.g., Brockner, Wiesenfeld, & Martin, 1995;Wanberg et al., 1999). ...
The competitive environment of business today makes corporate layoffs an organizational reality, and losing one's job can be a highly stressful experience. We propose and test a model that places objective underemployment and subjective underemployment in a causal sequence between organizational actions and employees' restoration of equilibrium by obtaining jobs worth keeping. We longitudinally examine relationships between layoff fairness, workers' stress symptoms and appraisal, and subsequent employment outcomes among 149 laid-off technical employees over the course of one year. Structural equation model results support seven of nine hypothesized paths, and demonstrate discriminant validity between and mediational properties of objective and subjective underemployment. Findings also reveal the important role that employees' perceptions and subjective assessments play in successfully returning to pre-job loss equilibrium following displacement. Copyright copyright 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Organizational Behavior is the property of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
... A separate regression equation is calculated for each participant and the withinsubject regression coefficients indicate the influence of each feature on the response and the direction of the relationship (Tommasi, Williams, & Nordstrom, 1998). Policy capturing methodology has been successfully used to examine how people make decisions in many different areas of organizational decision making such as human resource management (e.g., Hemingway & Conte, 2003; Martocchio & Judge, 1994; Mazen, 1990; Tommasi et al., 1998), choosing medical insurance (Cline & Gupta, 2006), and has previously been applied to aeronautical decision making (Driskill et al., 1995; Flathers, Giffin, & Rockwell, 1982; Knecht et al., 2004). The first study was designed to empirically derive levels of different facets of opportunity and threat. ...
According to Lopes [Lopes, L.L. (1987). Between hope and fear: The psychology of risk. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 20, 255-295] tolerance of risk may be governed by sensitivity to either the opportunities for gain or threats of loss involved.
In the initial study, qualified pilots were presented with 36 written flight scenarios that varied in the levels of opportunity and threat present. The pilots rated the likelihood that they would undertake each flight. Pilots were largely risk averse, as their ratings were all significantly influenced by threat.
The pilots whose ratings were significantly influenced by opportunity had been involved in more hazardous aviation incidents than the other pilots. In the final study, 32 qualified pilots completed both the risk tolerance measure and a simulated flight into adverse weather. The pilots who continued flying into adverse weather were less risk averse compared to the pilots who diverted. This further highlighted the link between risk tolerance and risk-taking, and suggested that some pilots may fly into adverse weather because of a greater tolerance of risk.
The studies provide evidence that a measure of risk tolerance can predict potential accident involvement amongst general aviation pilots.
Algorithms are increasingly used by human resource departments to evaluate employee performance. While the algorithms are perceived to be objective and neutral by removing human biases, they are often perceived to be less fair than human managers. This research proposes dignity as an important construct in explaining the discrepancy in perceived fairness and investigates remedial steps for improving dignity and fairness for algorithm-based employee evaluations. Three experiments’ results show that those evaluated by algorithms perceive lower levels of dignity, leading them to believe the process is less fair. In addition, we find that providing justifications for algorithm usage in employee evaluations improves perceived dignity. However, human-algorithm collaboration does not enhance perceived dignity.
The 50 years of procedural justice research is characterized by a rapid succession of theoretical innovations, an increasing number of fields in which the knowledge is applied, and an increasing amount of researchers. In the present overview of procedural justice, research attention is given to the several theoretical innovations and the research outcomes that support or refute theoretical approaches. Special emphasis is laid on the antecedents, processes, and consequences of procedural justice.
Two main antecedents of the emergence of procedural justice feelings are people’s uncertainty about relationships etc. and the basic anxiety of being aware of own mortality. Moreover, procedural justice feelings will be elicited when they stem from undeserved treatment: the treatment received deviates from the treatment people think they deserve or are entitled to. The physiological and psychological components of the discrepancy are discussed.
Procedural justice processes are modeled according to the specific distribution with which the procedure is connected, the accompanying cognitions and emotions, and the factors moderating procedural justice processes (e.g., personality factors). Positive and negative consequences of procedural (in) justice are differentiated. Among the positive consequences of procedural justice are discussed: cooperation, stress reduction, fair personnel selection. Negative consequences of procedural injustice are “bad” outcomes (e.g., absenteeism) and “ugly” outcomes like theft and aggression.
In the discussion, the three functions of procedural justice with regard to eliciting procedural justice feelings are summarized: the individual, the social, and the moral function. In the remaining part of the discussion, some directions of future research are mentioned.
Using Ecological Systems Theory, we propose a four-part approach to HRM: short vs. long-term relationships, life-course changes, multiple contexts and success criteria, and permeable and reciprocal influence. Infusing HRM with a psychological concern for human dignity results in respect for humanity at work, as well as advocacy for employees and their communities.
We investigated the hypotheses that personal belief in a just world (BJW) would enhance evaluations of working life (e.g., job satisfaction, organizational commitment), increase occupational trust (e.g., entrepreneurial self-efficacy, occupational self-efficacy), and boost mental health (e.g., life satisfaction, self-esteem). To test these hypotheses, we conducted 3 studies with employees and unemployed individuals in different career situations (total N = 593). Regression analyses revealed positive relationships between BJW and mental health, as well as occupational trust in all participant groups. These relationships persisted when controlling for objective success criteria and global personality traits. In addition, BJW was found to be associated with subjective quality of working life in employed individuals. We concluded that justice motive matters in the working context.
Drawing on social resource theory, we investigated the evaluation of distributive justice principles in relation to material
benefits (monetary rewards in working life) and symbolic benefits (praise at university) in a cross-cultural study. We predicted
that the equity principle would be perceived as more just for distributing culturally valued resources, whereas the equality
principle would be perceived as more just for resources that are less valued within culture. Moreover, applying uncertainty
management theory, we predicted that cross-cultural fairness evaluations would be more pronounced for individuals with higher
(vs. lower) uncertainty avoidance or lower (vs. higher) uncertainty tolerance. Data of 608 Canadian and German students were
collected in a two-wave survey. As expected, when allocating material benefits Canadians found the equity principle to be
more just than did Germans, whereas Germans perceived the equality principle as more just than did Canadians. When allocating
symbolic benefits, by contrast, Canadians perceived equality as more just than did Germans, though unexpectedly culture did
not influence evaluations of the equity principle. Finally, consistent with uncertainty management theory, some of the cultural
differences in the evaluation of distributive principles were more pronounced among people with higher uncertainty avoidance
and lower uncertainty tolerance. Implications for cross-cultural research on distributive justice are discussed.
KeywordsCross-cultural differences–Distributive justice–Uncertainty management–Equity–Equality–Symbolic benefits
Work values have been receiving increased research attention. Ravlin, Meglino, and their associates have recently conceptualized and provided measurement of work values. Although the effects of work values on job satisfaction, commitment, and individual decision making have been studied, work values have not been explicitly linked to job choice decisions. Using a sample of professional degree students and a policy-capturing design, we examined the influence of organizational work values on job choice in the context of job attributes that have been shown to affect this decision process. Organizational work values significantly affected job choice decisions. Individuals were more likely to choose jobs whose value content was similar to their own value orientation.
Using data from companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 between 1980 and 1994, we examined 5,479 occurrences of changes in employment in terms of tare dependent variables: profitability (return on assets) and return on common stock. Firms that engaged in pure employment downsizing did not show significantly higher returns than the average companies in their own industries. However, companies that combined employment downsizing with asset restructuring generated higher returns on assets and stock returns than firms in their own industries.
Structured interviews with 996 recently fired or laid-off workers provided data for analyses of the situational and psychological antecedents of both thinking about filing a wrongful-termination claim and actually filing such a claim. Potential antecedents were drawn from relational theories of organizational justice, economic theories about claiming, and sociolegal studies of claiming in other contexts. Wrongful-termination claims were most strongly correlated with the way workers felt they had been treated at the time of termination and with their expected winnings from such a claim. Structural equation model analyses of panel data from follow-up interviews with 163 respondents four months later showed that the psychological variables were, in fact, causal antecedents rather than consequences of claiming thoughts and actions. These findings support relational models of organizational justice and lead to practical suggestions for managing the termination process so as to avoid wrongful-termination suits.
Social Judgement Theory (SJT) evolved from Egon Brunswik's Probabilistic Functionalist psychology coupled with multiple correlation and regression-based statistical analysis. Through its representational device, the Lens Model, SJT has become a widely used, systems-oriented perspective for analysing human judgement in specific ecological circumstances. Judgements are assumed to result from the integration of different cues or sources of perceptual information from the environment. Special advantages accrue to the SJT approach when criterion values (or correct values) for judgement are also available, as this permits the comparison of judgement processes to environmental processes and leads naturally to the generation of cognitive feedback as an aid to facilitate learning. In contrast to more prescriptive approaches to decision analysis, the SJT approach analyses judgements by decomposing the judgement process after judgements have been rendered. This a posteriori decomposition is accomplished by first using multiple regression analysis to recover prediction equations for both the judgement and ecological systems and then using the Lens Model Equation to compare those systems. SJT methods maintain close contact with ecological circumstances by employing the principle of representative design (which focuses on how the researcher obtains the stimuli for judgement) and avoiding unwarranted over-generalisations from nomothetic aggregation (e.g. averaging across judges) through the use of idiographic statistical analysis. SJT methods have proven valuable in the analysis of individual judgements as well as groupbased judgements where conflict becomes likely.
This study examines the relationships among managerial communication, perceptions of the procedural justice of layoffs, and employee attitudes within the context of divestiture. As we expected, employee perceptions of procedural justice regarding the divestiture predicted, at one point in time, trust in new ownership and, two months later, post-divestiture commitment to the organization. Also as hypothesized, perceptions of the justice of the divestiture explained variance in trust and commitment above and beyond that explained by the perceived justice of the layoffs. Finally, as predicted, managerial communications that helped employees understand the events surrounding the divestiture increased perceptions of the procedural justice of the divestiture and layoffs, and had both indirect and direct effects on future commitment.
179 undergraduates took part in a study of the effects of instrumental and noninstrumental participation on distributive and procedural fairness judgments. In a goal-setting procedure, Ss were allowed voice before the goal was set, after the goal was set, or not at all. Ss received information relevant to the task, irrelevant information, or no information. Both pre- and postdecision voice led to higher fairness judgments than no voice, with predecision voice leading to higher fairness judgments than postdecision voice. Relevant information also increased perceived fairness. Mediation analyses showed that perceptions of control account for some, but not all, of the voice-based enhancement of procedural justice. Results show that both instrumental and noninstrumental concerns are involved in choice effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A laboratory experiment was conducted to test referent cognitions theory, which integrates distributive and procedural justice. Undergraduates worked on two tasks knowing that performance scores from only one of these would count toward their chances for earning a reward. In the subject-decision conditions, the students selected (prior to knowledge about their performance) which task would count. The experimenter selected the crucial task in the experimenter-decision conditions. Feedback from the task that did not count indicated to subjects in high-referent conditions that they would have won the reward if these scores had counted, whereas subjects in
low-referent conditions learned they would have lost no matter which set of scores counted. All subjects "lost" on the task that counted. Only subjects in the high-referent, experimenter-decision condition subsequently expressed feelings of unfair treatment. The results are discussed in terms of limitations to equity theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Although the study of organizational justice has increased markedly in the past few years, little work has focused on the relationship between justice perceptions and extrarole behaviors. This study examined the relationship between perceptions of fairness and organizational citizenship behaviors in a sample drawn from 2 firms in the midwestern US. A theoretical basis for a relationship between fairness and citizenship was drawn from equity theory and other theories of social exchange. Structural equation analysis with LISREL 7 found support for 4 hypotheses, including support for a relationship between perceptions of procedural justice and 4 of 5 citizenship dimensions. Conversely, perceptions of distributive justice failed to influence any dimension of citizenship. Implications for the relationship between procedural justice and citizenship are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The fundamental problems for research in social judgment theory (SJT) are to understand and improve achievement and agreement. Descriptions of judgment must contribute to the solution of these problems. This chapter explores the learning from studies of policy capturing about those factors that affect achievement and agreement. The typical policy capturing study does not vary any characteristics of the task, but presents the same task in the same form to all subjects in the study. Policy capturing is used as a general term for studies that analyze judgments made on the basis of multidimensional stimuli by means of a linear model. Policy capturing implies that the subjects have some policy that can be captured, and that the conditions under which the subjects are asked to make their judgments are related to the conditions under which they normally do so. A task may be nonrepresentative in at least two different ways—namely, (1) with respect to the format of the information provided to the subjects, and (2) with respect to the formal statistical properties of the task.
This chapter highlights judgment analysis (JA). It describes the steps necessary to apply JA and provide guidelines for making the numerous decisions required for a successful application. JA is also known as “policy capturing,” and is a research method that has been used in hundreds of studies of judgment and decision making including studies of multiple cue probability learning, interpersonal learning, conflict, and expert judgment. It has been found useful as an aid to judgment, particularly in cases involving conflict about technical and political issues. The goal of JA is to describe, quantitatively, the relations between someone's judgment and the information, or “cues,” used to make that judgment. JA has also often been used to study judgment on unfamiliar tasks. For judgment analysis, as for all formal analytic methods, proper formulation of the problem is critical to success of the analysis. Designing the judgment task includes (1) defining the judgment of interest, (2) identifying the cues, (3) describing the context for judgment, (4) defining the distributions of the cue values, and (5) defining relations among the cues.
Although the study of organizational justice has increased markedly in the past few years, little work has focused on the relationship between justice perceptions and extrarole behaviors. This study examined the relationship between perceptions of fairness and organizational citizenship behaviors in a sample drawn from two firms in the midwestern United States. A theoretical basis for a relationship between fairness and citizenship was drawn from equity theory and other theories of social exchange. Structural equation analysis with LISREL 7 found support for four hypotheses, including support for a relationship between perceptions of procedural justice and four of five citizenship dimensions. Conversely, perceptions of distributive justice failed to influence any dimension of citizenship. Implications for the relationship between procedural justice and citizenship are discussed.
This study examined the effects of providing an explanation on procedural fairness, distributive fairness, and task motivation under both favorable and unfavorable outcome conditions. Participants (N = 164) arrayed in three-person groups made a selection decision concerning which of two candidates would be better at a brainstorming task, with the understanding that the chosen candidate would be added to their group. The experimenter could choose to uphold or overrule the group’s decision, creating the manipulation of outcome favorability. Our results showed that the outcome favorability manipulation, and participants’ self-reported outcome expectations, moderated the effects of providing an explanation, such that an explanation had the most positive effects in light of unexpected, unfavorable outcomes.
The field study reported here explored the relationship between the job insecurity associated with a layoff and the work effort of employees who survived it. The relationship took the form of an inverted U, particularly among survivors whose economic need to work was relatively high. Theoretical implications are discussed, as are the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research. Recent theory and research on layoffs have sought to identity the factors that influence the work behaviors and attitudes of those not laid off, the layoff survivors (Brockner, Grover, Reed, DeWitt, & O'Malley, 1987). Previous research investigating this question has focused on the effects of perceived fairness as key determinants of survivors' reactions. In an attempt to provide a more complete explanation of the determinants of survivors' reactions, the present study used a somewhat different theoretical underpinning, one emphasizing survivors' perceptions of their job insecurity. Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt (1984) suggested that the level of job insecurity survivors experience depends on: (1) perceived threat, which is affected by such issues as the estimated likelihood of job loss, and (2) perceived control, which is influenced by survivors' belief that they or their employer can take some action to help them counteract the negative consequences of job loss. According to this two-component model of job insecurity, survivors' level of job insecurity should be: (1) highest when perceived threat is high and perceived control is low, (2) lowest when perceived threat is low and perceived control is high, and (3) moderate when both threat and control are high or both threat and control are low. The central dependent variable in the present study-change in the work effort survivors make, relative to the prelayoff period-was chosen for several reasons. First, survivors' level of effort is one of the key determinants of their job performance; the other is ability. It seems unlikely that ability
A meta-analysis of single-item measures of overall job satisfaction (28 correlations from 17 studies with 7,682 people) found an average uncorrected correlation of .63 (SD = .09) with scale measures of overall job satisfaction. The overall mean correlation (corrected only for reliability) is .67 (SD = .08), and it is moderated by the type of measurement scale used. The mean corrected correlation for the best group of scale measures (8 correlations, 1,735 people) is .72 (SD = .05). The correction for attenuation formula was used to estimate the minimum level of reliability for a single-item measure. These estimates range from .45 to .69, depending on the assumptions made.
A meta-analysis of single-item measures of overall job satisfaction (28 correlations from 17 studies with 7,682 people) found an average uncorrected correlation of .63 (SD = .09) with scale measures of overall job satisfaction. The overall mean correlation (corrected only for reliability) is .67 (SD = .08), and it is moderated by the type of measurement scale used. The mean corrected correlation for the best group of scale measures (8 correlations, 1,735 people) is .72 (SD = .05). The correction for attenuation formula was used to estimate the minimum level of reliability for a single-item measure. These estimates range from .45 to .69, depending on the assumptions made.
As distasteful as the announcement and implementation of layoffs may be, it is critical that managers confront this issue. They need to gain an understanding of how layoffs affect employees and to learn how to manage workforce reductions more effectively. Our research suggests several points for managers to keep in mind. First, management should seriously consider alternatives to layoffs; and if a layoff is unavoidable, the number of people to be laid off should be reduced as much as possible. Second, corporations should offer employees a variety of assistance programs to help them to find new employment in the long run and to cope with unemployment in the short run. Third, corporations should follow specific procedures to treat the laid-off employees humanely, and to decrease losses in morale and productivity among survivors. Fourth, corporations should work cooperatively with unions, governmental agencies, and the local community to minimize the negative after-effects of layoffs. Layoffs of blue-collar workers as a result of deindustrialization of manufacturing, and layoffs of white-collar employees as a result of acquisitions, are likely to continue. Managers need to think carefully about the consequences of such layoffs; and they need to take actions to reduce the emotional suffering and financial hardships that layoffs can create.
The predictability of success of life insurance salesmen, and the judgment policies of 16 Agency Managers who select them, were investigated within the lens model paradigm. Each judge observed 200 profiles abstracted from the records of salesmen for whom 1-year, dichotomous criterion information was available. The profiles consisted of 64 cues, abstracted from personnel files, with ecological cue intercorrelations intact. An additional 160 cases were available for cross-validation. The criterion was moderately (and usefully) predictable from a cross-validated linear combination of the cues. There was relatively little agreement among the judges' decisions and considerable disagreement about the proportion of profiles judged acceptable. Judges were consistent but inaccurate in their predictions, substantially overusing scores on the Aptitude Index Battery. Unit weighting was superior to bootstrapping, but regression statistics were used to select the cues for unit weighting. Several cluster analytic techniques were tried, but none was really effective in differentiating preexisting groups. Accuracy of insight was generally poor and was not related to experience. Potential relationships between the judgment literature and two others, the interviewing and rating literatures, were explored.
The distribution of rewards and resources is a universal phenomenon that occurs in social systems of all sizes, from small groups to whole societies (Parsons, 1951; Parsons, Shils, & Olds, 1951). All groups, organizations, and societies deal with the question of allocating rewards, punishments, and resources. The manner in which a social system deals with these issues has great impact on its effectiveness and on the satisfaction of its members. For these reasons, it is not surprising that social scientists from many disciplines—political scientists, economists, sociologists, and psychologists—have been concerned with the problem of allocation (e.g., Jones & Kaufman, 1974; Leventhal, 1976a; Pondy, 1970).
The research reported here used a multimethod approach to investigate the effects on survivors-i.e., the individuals who remain after a layoff has taken place-of their prior identification with and the organization's compensation to those laid off. Based on a justice theory framework, we hypothesized that survivors would exhibit the most negative reactions (from an organizational perspective) when they identified with the layoff victims and when they felt that the victims had not been well compensated. These two independent variables were manipulated in a laboratory study in which work performance served as the dependent variable. A field study was also used to survey employees who had survived a major layoff in their work organization. Included in the survey were measures of the independent variables, as well as the dependent variable: survivors' change in organizational commitment, relative to the pre-layoff period. As expected, survivors reacted most negatively when they identified with layoff victims who were perceived to have been inadequately compensated. The negative reaction took the form of reduced work performance in the lab study and lowered organizational commitment in the field study. Explanations, theoretical and practical implications, and avenues for further research are discussed.
The present article chronicles the history of the field of organizational justice, identifies current themes, and recommends new directions for the future. A historical overview of the field focuses on research and theory in the distributive justice tradition (e.g., equity theory) as well as the burgeoning topic of procedural justice. This forms the foundation for the discussion offive popular themes in contemporary organizational justice research: (a) attempts to distinguish procedural justice and distributive justice empirically, (b) the development of new conceptual advances, (c) consideration of the interpersonal determinants of procedural justice judgments, (d) new directions in tests of equity theory, and (e) applications of justice-based explanations to many different organizational phenomena. In closing, a plea is made for future work that improves procedural justice research methodologically (with respect to scope, setting, and scaling), and that attempts to integrate and unify disparate concepts in the distributive and procedural justice traditions.
A review of recent research demonstrates that people are more willing to accept decisions when they feel that those decisions are made through decision-making procedures they view as fair. Studies of procedural justice judgements further suggest that people evaluate fairness primarily through criteria that can be provided to all the parties to a conflict: whether there are opportunities to participate; whether the authorities are neutral; the degree to which people trust the motives of the authorities; and whether people are treated with dignity and respect during the process. These findings are optimistic and suggest that authorities have considerable ability to bridge differences and interests and values through the use of fair decision-making procedures. The limits to the effectiveness of such procedural approaches are also outlined. Une recension des recherches recentes montre que les gens sont prets a accepter des decisions quand ils sentent que ces decisions sont prises a la suite d'une procedure decisionnelle qu'ils considerent equitable. De plus, les etudes sur les jugements dans les procedure judiciaires suggerent que les gens evaluent l'equite prioritairement sur la base des criteres fournies a toutes les parties en conflit: possibilites de participation: neutralite des autorites; confiance dans les motifs des autorites; et procedure qui traite les personnes avec dignite et respect. Ces resultats optimistes suggerent que les autorites peuvent, par des procedures equitables de prise de decision, concilier des differences, des interets et des valeurs. Les limites a l'efficacite de ces approches procedurales sont aussi soulignees.
I. Overview. Introduction. The Design of This Study. II. The Antecedents of Cooperative Behavior. Why Study Cooperative Behavior in Groups. Instrumental Motivations for Engaging in Cooperative Behavior. Internally-driven Cooperative Behavior. III. The Influence of Justice: Procedual Justice and Cooperation. The Influence of Justice Based Judgments. Procedural Justice and Cooperative Behavior. IV. The Meaning of Procedual Justice: The Four Component Model. Relational Models of Procedual Justice. A Two Component Model of Procedural Justice: Quality of Decision-making and Quality of Treatment. Creating a Four Component Model of Procedural Justice: Adding the Distinction Between Formal and Informal Sources of Justice. V. Social Identity and Cooperative Behavior: Status and Psychological Engagement. Social Identity and Cooperative Behavior. Justice and Group Status: The Antecedents of Status Evaluations. Psychological Engagement with the Group. VI. Discussion Conclusion: Understanding Group Behavior From a Non-Instrumental Perspective. VII. References. VIII. Appendices
It is no secret that U.S. industry, once the most productive in the world, is now lagging behind its global competitors. What is not well known is that blue-collar productivity is not necessarily the problem. Between 1978 and 1986, for example, the number of production workers declilned by six percent while real output rose 15 percent. White-collar productivity decreased six percent while the number of workers increased by twenty-one percent. Downsizing, which involves reducing the workforce, but also eliminates functions and redesigns systems and policies to contain costs, is becoming more common in U.S. companies. Despite its pervasiveness, however, downsizing has rarely been investigated by organization and management researchers. This article seeks to identify the processes used in effective downsizing as well as the consequences that result. The authors studied organizational downsizing and redesign for four years in thirty organizations in the automobile industry. Six general strategies are presented that highlight the best practices of these firms that are downsizing effectively.
There has been an increasing amount of research conducted on issues of procedural justice. Although this research has demonstrated that the type of procedure used to allocate outcomes has an independent influence on people's judgments of the fairness of a decision, there is growing empirical evidence that such judgments are influenced by the enactment of the procedure as well. Fairness concerns raised about the propriety of a decision maker's behavior during the enactment of procedures are representative of a desire forinteractional justice. In this paper, we present three studies that examine the effects of giving acausal account, or a justification, versus not providing a justification, on judgments of interactional fairness and endorsement of a decision maker's actions. In Study I, a laboratory study, ratings of interactional fairness and support for a manager were higher when subjects received a causal account that claimed mitigating circumstances for a manager's improper action than when they did not receive such a causal account. A second laboratory study replicated the same pattern of findings in two different organizational contexts. In addition, it was found that the perceived adequacy of the causal account was a critical factor explaining its effect. In Study 3, a field setting, ratings of both interactional fairness and procedural fairness were higher when a manager provided anadequate causal account to justify the allocation of an unfavorable outcome. The discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for research on interactional and procedural justice.
In the terms of referent cognitions theory, high-justification procedures are those sufficiently appropriate to inhibit resentment regardless of the outcomes they produce. With low-justification procedures, however, resentment is predicted to increase the more unfavorably actual outcomes compare with those that would have resulted from using other procedures instead. The ordinary-context conditions of an experiment in which subjects had been instructed that their responses were used merely to index typical reactions to experiments produced such results. But within endorsement-context conditions in which subjects thought their responses were used to determine whether their experimenter would be hired as someone placed in charge of conducting research subjects expressed uniformly greater resentment in the low-justification conditions than in the high-justification conditions regardless of how favorable their outcomes might have been otherwise. The results are discussed in terms of reasons why the appropriateness of procedures sometimes becomes a predominant concern.
217 middle managers from 3 industrial groups responded to an open-ended questionnaire in which they described the determinants of particularly fair or unfair performance appraisals. By Q-sort procedure, the responses were categorized and combined to yield 7 distinct determinants of fairness in performance evaluations. Ratings of the perceived importance of these determinants were factor analyzed, revealing 2 distinct factors—Procedural and Distributive determinants. The implications of the determinants are discussed with respect to existing research and theory on justice in organizations. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Data from a survey of 102 currently employed people reveal that their judgments of procedural fairness were positively associated with the opportunity for voice, decision-maker justification, and decision-maker sincerity. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for procedural justice theory and research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In the present paper we first provide illustrations of the variety of uses to which P. J. Hoffman's "The Paramorphic Representation of Clinical Judgment" (1960) has been put, with a fairly comprehensive literature review.
Hoffman's paper has had a profound effect on the field of judgment and decision making, as evidenced by the fact that it has been cited numerous times, and for many purposes. The main focus of the literature review will be those publications that have averted to the scientific status of regression models of judgment. After doing so we will quote Hoffman directly to ascertain exactly what Hoffman's paper said about the central issue. The next section is a more general discussion of models in science, relying primarily on expositions by M. Black (1962) and M. B. Hesse (1966). In the final section we return to the scientific status of regression models of human judgment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two methodological approaches, policy capturing and narrative self-reports, were used to examine how individuals combine information about job characteristics and probabilities of receiving job offers (expectancies) in decisions to pursue job vacancies. 10 college students evaluated 24 hypothetical job alternatives at 3 expectancy levels in terms of overall attractiveness and whether they would apply for a job interview. A variety of within-S analyses were used to infer how probabilities of receiving a job offer affect peoples' propensities to apply for jobs. Results indicate that there was wide individual variability in the way expectancies influenced job-search patterns. Low probabilities of receiving job offers acted as much stronger search deterrrants for some Ss than for others. Results are discussed in terms of (a) possible sources of individual differences in expectancy usage, (b) the value of using multiple methodologies to investigate decision processes, and (c) the desirability of broadening the types of questions typically asked about the role of expectancies in job search and choice. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In a randomized field experiment involving 173 salaried employees, treatment Ss received an explanation for an ongoing pay freeze. This explained the fairness of the decision process leading to the freeze and the fairness of the implementation of the freeze. The explanation mitigated the effect of the resultant economic hardship on employee attitudes, turnover intentions, and perceptions of procedural justice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Contends that hyperactivity as a diagnostic concept involves behavior as observed by parents, school, direct observation, and test results. The lens model of hyperactivity has its roots in the psychology of perception. Behavior is studied in the environment in which the organism has evolved and to which the organism is adapted. The model distinguishes between perception and thinking. In the perceptual mode, S relies on cues, integrates them by some sort of weighted averaging mechanisms, and posits a best bet. In the thinking mode, S is often precisely correct, but when an error is made it is likely to be extreme and absurd. The lens model approach can be applied to situations of human judgment, including those involved in hyperactivity. Two studies involving 11 professionals making diagnostic decisions on 52 case profiles and 72 professionals making diagnostic judgments on 80 case profiles illustrate its use. Determinants involved in diagnosing hyperactivity are dependent on who is doing the diagnosing. Variability depends on thresholds, thinking vs perception, and definitions. It is important to distinguish between the sources of variance—the child and the diagnostician. (3 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
An applicant who was rejected for a graduate program claimed that he had been discriminated against because he was physically handicapped. To analyze the policy of the admissions committee, the data on all 210 completed applications were used as predictors in a multiple regression analysis. Predictors included GPAs, Graduate Record Examination scores, ratings of letters, and other commonly used admissions information. The resulting equation accounted for 79% of the variance in the committee's judgments. Predicted judgments (not using physical handicap as a predictor) were obtained for each applicant. The handicapped applicant's predicted rating was lower than his actual rating by the committee and than the predicted ratings of accepted applicants. This provided evidence that the committee had not discriminated. Eight additional graduate faculty members rated 50 hypothetical applicants. Their data, used to form 4 "simulation committees," showed the same results. Findings demonstrate that the social judgment model provides a useful method of assessing claims of discrimination. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study examined how personnel managers (n= 19) and line managers (n= 28) make disciplinary decisions. Using a policy-capturing approach, subjects were asked to respond to disciplinary incidents that varied in terms of three factors likely to affect managerial attributions about the cause of the disciplinary problem (managerial provocation, personal problems, or tenure). The incidents also varied in terms of factors made relevant by the economic, institutional/legal, and hierarchical contexts. Of the six variables manipulated, the factor relating to the institutional/legal context had the largest impact on the decisions made by the personnel managers, and the factor relating to the hierarchical context had the largest impact on the decisions made by the line managers. While provocation was relatively important for both line and personnel managers, personal problems, tenure, and the economic implications of the decision had more modest impacts on managerial decisions. The results also suggest that there is substantial variation across managers in terms of the decision rules employed when responding to disciplinary cases.
Three hundred and fifty-three layoff victims responded to questions describing their reactions to layoffs. Victims also described management layoff practices. Two measures of procedural fairness in layoff practices (decision-making characteristics and social accounts) and one measure of layoff outcomes (benefits level) were included. Only decision-making characteristics predicted exemployee willingness to recruit for a former employer and desire for regulation of layoffs. These results provide further evidence of the importance of procedural justice in organizational decision-making.
We conducted a survey to examine the impact of distributive and procedural justice on the reactions of 217 employees to decisions about pay raises. Distributive justice accounted for more unique variance in satisfaction with pay than did procedural justice, but procedural justice accounted for more unique variance in two other measures of attitudes about the employing institution and its authorities, trust in supervisor and organizational commitment. We discuss what our results imply about the nature of justice in organizations and the distributiveprocedural distinction.
The authors investigated the relationship between organizational justice and organizational retaliation behavior—adverse reactions to perceived unfairness by disgruntled employees toward their employer—in a sample of 240 manufacturing employees. Distributive, procedural, and interactional justice interacted to predict organizational retaliation behavior. A relation between distributive justice and retaliation was found only when there was low interactional and procedural justice. The 2-way interaction of distributive and procedural justice was observed only at a low level of interactional justice, and the 2-way interaction of distributive and interactional justice was observed only at a low level of procedural justice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Research on the psychology of procedural justice has been dominated by Thibaut and Walker's (1975) theory about the psychology of procedural preference. That theory suggests that people are concerned with their direct and indirect control over decisions. Lind and Tyler (1988) proposed a group-value theory that suggests that several noncontrol issues—the neutrality of the decision-making procedure, trust in the 3rd party, and the information the experience communicates about social standing—influence both procedural preferences and judgments of procedural justice. This study examines 3 issues. The first is whether judgments about neutrality, trust, and social standing have an independent impact on judgments of procedural justice. The results suggest that they do. The second is how Thibaut and Walker's control theory developed. The results suggest that control issues are central to the setting studied by Thibaut and Walker—disputes—but are less important in other situations. Finally, the implications of these findings for a group-value theory of procedural justice are examined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Using the methodology of policy capturing, this research identifies the role that performance, time on the job, commitment of long-term employment and employability play in judgment of termination fairness and employer obligations. Previous research (Rousseau and Anton, 1988) found that seniority and past commitments of long-term employment contributed significantly to judgments of termination fairness and obligation. The present study considered these variables along with performance (past, present and future potential) using 116 participants in human resource management courses. Results indicated that present performance, time on the job, and commitments affect judgments regarding termination fairness and obligation. Past and future performance, however, had no impact on these judgments. Implications of the findings for understanding employer and employee obligations are discussed.
To investigate the relationship between fairness and organizational outcomes, the present study examined the survey responses of government employees at six Federal installations. Indices of procedural and distributive fairness were factor-analytically derived. Multiple regression analyses indicated that both the procedural measures and the distributive measures were significantly related to measures of job satisfaction, evaluation of supervisor, conflict/harmony, trust in management, and turnover intention. Procedural fairness accounted for significantly more variance than distributive fairness in each of these criterion measures, except for turnover intention. These findings are related to conceptual and methodological issues concerning procedural fairness and organizational behavior.
Based on the post hoc sorting of the narrative comments given by supervisors of their subordinates' performance, four major substantive categories of performance explanations emerged. Explanations focusing on the meritorious aspects of performance were typically used to explain high ratings, and apologies typically accompanied the administration of low ratings. Average ratings typically received no explanation. Perceived as fairest were ratings that enhanced the subordinate's self-image. The present results demonstrate the importance of explanations in enhancing perceptions of fairness.
Manufacturing plants have been producing an increasingly homogeneous product mix over recent years. Individual plants have been manufacturing fewer and less dissimilar products. The trend is ubiquitous across industries and is unlikely to be a random event. An index of product diversification is introduced into a fixed-effects model of productivity growth derived formally from a factor-minimal cost function. Specialization at the production site is found to have spurred productivity growth. Over the 1963–87 period, decreasing product heterogeneity has accounted for about 17 percent of productivity growth in U.S. manufacturing, second in importance only to technical change and equaling the contribution of scale economies.