Publication Date

7-1-2002

Degree Program

Department of Psychology

Degree Type

Master of Arts

Abstract

Employees are concerned with the fairness of organizational outcomes they receive and the fairness of the decision-making processes used to determine how these outcomes are allocated in accordance with organizational policies. The present study focused on the distributive justice and procedural justice outcomes of disciplinary actions in work place settings. This study assessed the effects of three levels of the severity of rule violation, severity of punishment, and decision-making processes utilized. The results indicated that conditions allowing participation in the decision-making process resulted in perceptions of greater procedural fairness to employees, but did not influence perceptions of distributive fairness. The moderately severe punishment was perceived to be more appropriate and more fair to the punished employee and his/her co-workers. Increased punishment severity was perceived as significantly more likely to deter future rule violations by the punished employee and the employee's co-workers.

Disciplines

Industrial and Organizational Psychology

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