It’s not only what you do, but why you do it: How managerial motives influence employees’ fairness judgments.

Abstract

Although past research demonstrates that perceived fairness leads to many benefits, it also tends to assume that fairness flows almost exclusively from justice adherence. We instead reason that when employees form fairness judgments, they consider not only the extent to which supervisors adhere to justice but also why supervisors do so. In particular, our work outlines three distinct theoretical pathways to fairness. Supervisory justice motives affect fairness judgments via supervisors' justice rule adherence (behavioral) and via employees' attributed motives (attributional), such that prosocial (self-interest) motives are positively (negatively) related to fairness judgments after controlling for justice. We also reason that people jointly consider supervisory motives and justice when forming fairness judgments (interactive), such that the relationship between prosocial (self-interest) motives and fairness judgments is more positive (negative) when justice is lower versus higher. We test our predictions across six studies, both survey and experimental. Our results support the three pathways for prosocial justice motives and the behavioral and attributional (but not interactive) pathways for self-interest justice motives. Our work suggests organizations trying to promote fairness should avoid inadvertently instilling a self-interest justice motive in their supervisors.

Study of the Effect of Procedural Justice on Performance

“…Employee perceptions of procedural justice are based on the methods employed by management (Sherf & Liu, 2022). The processes used by leaders to shape the features of their organizations are related to procedural justice (Putra et al, 2023).…”

Self-relevant appeals to engage in self-monitoring of alcohol use: A microrandomized trial.

“…One way to increase the value of minimal monetary incentives for self-monitoring is to highlight their self-relevance in the request (i.e., prompt) to self-monitor. Extant literature in decision science suggests that the self-relevance of relatively minimal rewards can be enhanced via appeals to the person's self-interest and/or prosocial motives (Aknin et al, 2020;Alba & Williams, 2013;Muir et al, 2022). Although people are typically motivated to enhance their own personal welfare, they also strive to enhance the welfare of other people or entities that are tied to their identity, beliefs, or values (Bekkers & Wiepking, 2011;Goldstein et al, 2011).…”

“…Extant research in psychology and decision science suggests that engagement can be enhanced by offering information that is self-relevant; that is, information that represents and is valuable to the self (Short et al, 2015; Vansteenkiste et al, 2018). The self-relevance of a relatively modest financial incentive may be enhanced by highlighting self-interest motives and/or prosocial motives (Muir et al, 2022). Self-interest motives concern the desire to benefit oneself (Folger & Salvador, 2008), which is primarily driven by a focus on economic and reputational benefits (Muir et al, 2022).…”

“…The self-relevance of a relatively modest financial incentive may be enhanced by highlighting self-interest motives and/or prosocial motives (Muir et al, 2022). Self-interest motives concern the desire to benefit oneself (Folger & Salvador, 2008), which is primarily driven by a focus on economic and reputational benefits (Muir et al, 2022). For example, individuals may be motivated to engage in a given task because the monetary incentives they receive for engaging can be used to purchase desired items, such as a tablet or a laptop (Alba & Williams, 2013).…”

Fairness in a work context: Understanding the link to job satisfaction in the oil and gas industry

“…When supervisors treat employees differently (i.e., taking some to lunch and never the others) this will also affect perceptions of fairness within the work setting. When employees are looking at the fairness of decision making by their supervisor, they consider how consistently he/she adheres to organizational justice rules (Muir et al, 2022).…”