The Impact Of Group-Level Justice On Individuals' Affective And Behavioral Reactions To Unfair Events In Organizations

Abstract

The current dissertation research examines the role of group-level justice on individuals' behavioral and affective reactions to mistreatment in organizations. In the affective event model of organizational mistreatment proposed here, affective reactions to specific events are moderated by group-level justice and these affective reactions also mediate perceptions of mistreatment and subsequent behavioral reactions. As one of the important context variables, individuals use group-level justice as a reference point for their own evaluations of unfair events. Individuals under high levels of group-level justice perceive injustice from their experience of mistreatment more strongly than others because their norms and expectations are clearly violated. As a result of this, behaviors driven by strong negative affect felt by those under high group-level justice will be more likely, and behaviors driven by attitude (e.g. cynicism) will be more likely under low group-level justice. Using field survey data from 77 teams and 333 individuals, these theoretical propositions on the moderating role of group-level justice are examined. By examining the cross-level moderating effects of group-level justice and the differential effects of distinct negative emotions (anger vs. depression) on leading certain behavioral reactions, the current research contributes to a deeper understanding of how individual- and group-level factors interact in organizations.