An investigation into the emotional nature of injustice

Kelley Marie Daniels Barrett, Purdue University

Abstract

The present study examined the area of organizational justice from the perspective of Affective Events Theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). From this perspective, instances of procedural and distributive justice are viewed as emotion-triggering events. Emotionally-relevant individual differences (e.g., affect intensity, trait anger) are expected to influence the emotional reactions that individuals have to work events. These emotional reactions then affect individuals' perceptions of fairness, attitudes and work behaviors. Using a methodology similar to Greenberg (1987), undergraduates ( N = 91) were recruited for paid employment on a customer service task. Following simulated employment, participants received a low, medium, or high distribution by either a pay-for-performance (fair) or random (unfair) procedure. An interaction between outcome favorability and procedural fairness similar in nature to that found in the majority of organizational justice studies was expected (see Brockner & Wiesenfeld, 1996, for a review). The anticipated effect of this interaction on perceptions of outcome favorability was not found. In addition, a significant interaction contrary to the one described by Brockner and Wiesenfeld was found to have an effect on perceptions of procedural fairness. Specifically, the results showed that outcome favorability and procedural fairness interacted to have an effect on perceptions of procedural fairness such that participants receiving low outcomes tended to rate the procedures as less fair than participants receiving either medium or high outcomes. Participant self-reports of emotional states following the manipulation were examined. The anticipated interaction effects of outcome favorability and procedural fairness on participants' level of state anger, high intensity affect (e.g., surprise) low intensity affect (e.g., tranquility) were not observed. However, participants' level of trait anger moderated the effects of procedural fairness and outcome favorability on both participants' level of state anger and task satisfaction. In addition, participant's level of affect intensity moderated the effects of procedural fairness and outcome favorability on participant intention to participate again. Taken together, the findings are marginally supportive of the contention that emotions play a role in both attitudinal and behavioral reactions to instances of organizational injustice. Possible explanations for the results and their implications are discussed.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Weiss, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Occupational psychology

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