The authors suggest that procedural and distributive factors interactively combine to influence individuals' reactions to their encounters with other people, groups, and organizations. Results from 45 independent samples (reviewed herein) show that (a) level of procedural justice is more positively related to individuals' reactions when outcome fairness or valence is relatively low and (b) level of outcome fairness or valence is more positively related to individuals' reactions when procedural justice is relatively low. They present various explanations of the interaction effect. Theoretical progress may be achieved through future efforts to delineate the conditions under which each of the explanations is more versus less likely to account for the interaction.
An emerging trend within the organizational justice, social exchange, and organizational citizenship behavior literatures is that employees maintain distinct perceptions about, and direct different attitudes and behaviors toward, multiple foci such as the organization, supervisors, and coworkers. However, these multifoci developments have progressed, for the most part, independently of one another. Thus, to gain a more complete conceptualization of the employee experience, this review brings these respective literatures together. Specifically, the authors (a) review and organize multifoci research and theory in justice, social exchange, and citizenship behavior, (b) develop a “target similarity” model to provide a theoretical framework for conceptualizing and integrating multifoci research, and (c) o fer suggestions for future multifoci research.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. The influence of individuals' prior commitment to an institution on their reactions to the perceived fairness of decisions rendered by the institution was examined in two different field settings. The first study examined how layoff survivors' work attitudes and behaviors after the layoff changed as a function of (1) their level of organizational commitment prior to the layoff and (2) their perceptions of the fairness of the decision rule used to keep certain employees and lay off others. In the second study, we explored how citizens' commitment to legal authorities changed as a function of their initial level of commitment and their perceptions of how fairly they were treated in their recent encounters with legal authorities. Consistent results emerged across these two settings: The most negative reactions were exhibited by those who previously felt highly committed but who felt that they were treated unfairly by the institution. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.When people react to their experiences with particular authorities, those authorities and the organizations or institutions that they represent often benefit if the people involved begin with high levels of commitment to the organization or institution represented by the authorities. Studies have identified two types of benefit. First, in his studies of people's attitudes toward political and legal institutions, Tyler found that attitudes after an experience with the institution were strongly affected by prior attitudes (Tyler, Casper, and Fisher, 1989). Single experiences influence post-experience loyalty but certainly do not overwhelm the relationship between pre-experience and post-experience loyalty. Thus, the best predictor of loyalty after an experience is usually loyalty before that experience. Second, people with prior Loyalty to the organization or institution judge their dealings with the organization's or institution's authorities to be fairer than do those with less prior loyalty, either because they are more fairly treated or because they interpret equivalent treatment as fairer (Tyler, 1990).Although high levels of prior organizational or institutional commitment are generally beneficial to the organization or institution (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990), under certain conditions high levels of prior commitment may actually sow the seeds of reduced commitment. When previously committed individuals feel that they were treated unfavorably or unfairly during some experience with the organization or institution, they may show an especially sharp decline in commitment. The present studies were designed to test this hypothesis, which, if confirmed, would suggest that organizational or institutional c...
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