Seeing the “forest” or the “trees” of organizational justice: Effects of temporal perspective on employee concerns about unfair treatment at work

Abstract

What events do employees recall or anticipate when they think of past or future unfair treatment at work? We propose that an employee’s temporal perspective can change the salience of different types of injustice through its effect on cognitions about employment. Study 1 used a survey in which employee temporal focus was measured as an individual difference. Whereas greater levels of future focus related positively to concerns about distributive injustice, greater levels of present focus related positively to concerns about interactional injustice. In Study 2, an experimental design focused employee attention on timeframes that differed in temporal orientation and temporal distance. Whereas distributive injustice was more salient when future (versus past) orientation was induced, interactional injustice was more salient when past orientation was induced and at less temporal distance. Study 3 showed that the mechanism underlying the effect of employee temporal perspective is abstract versus concrete cognitions about employment

Will I Cooperate? The Moderating Role of Informational Distance on Justice Reasoning

“…The results suggest CLT may provide a useful theoretical framework for understanding the interplay between justice facets, overall justice, and individuals' reactions to fairness. CLT has already been used in justice research to understand the differences in the salience of justice facets (Cojuharenco et al 2011;Cojuharenco and Patient 2013). Our research suggests CLT also allows understanding the relative importance of overall justice versus justice facets.…”

“…Recently, justice research has utilized CLT to better understand justice reasoning (Cojuharenco et al 2011;Cojuharenco and Patient 2013). In their 2011 study, Cojuharenco, Patient, and Bashshur explored the effects of temporal perspective on the salience of different types of injustice.…”

“…critical variable to consider in justice research (Ambrose and Schminke 2003), we still know little about the effects of organizational context on justice reasoning (see Cojuharenco et al 2011;Jones and Martens 2009 for exceptions). This oversight leads to an incomplete understanding of individuals' perceptions of and reactions to justice in the workplace.…”

Effort Aversion: Job choice and compensation decisions overweight effort

“…Amir and Ariely, 2007), on construal level (e.g. Cojuharenco et al, 2011), and on differences in attribute weighting across joint and single evaluation modes (e.g. Hsee et al, 2012).…”

“…Previous research shows that the concern accorded distributive justice in the workplace (e.g. receiving fair compensation) increases with temporal distance (Cojuharenco et al, 2011). To the extent that job choice occurs at a temporal remove from actually working, the high-level concept of fair compensation will be weighted more heavily in choice than in experiential evaluations.…”