Equity and workplace status: a field experiment

Article Abstract:

In a field experiment, 198 employees in the underwriting department of a large insurance company were randomly assigned on a temporary basis to the offices of either higher, lower, or equal-status coworkers while their own offices were being refurbished. The present study tested the hypothesis derived from equity theory, that the status value of the temporary office would create increases, decreases, or no change in organizational outcome levels. The resulting pattern of performance supported equity theory. Specifically, relative to those workers reassigned to equal-status offices, those reassigned to higher status offices raised their performance (a response to overpayment inequity) and those reassigned to higher status offices lowered their performance (a response to underpayment inequity). As hypothesized, the size of these performance changes were directly related to the magnitude of the status inconsistencies encountered. The value of these findings in extending equity theory to the realm of nonmonetary outcomes is discussed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Employee motivation, Social status, Labor productivity, Incentives (Business)

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Reactions to procedural injustice in payment distributions: Do the means justify the ends?

Article Abstract:

In a laboratory study, 192 undergraduate students performed a task for which they received either high, medium, or low monetary outcomes as a result of a fair or unfair procedure. Subjects reported that medium and high outcomes were fair regardless of the procedure used, but that low outcomes were only fair when they were based on a fair procedure. The outcomes received, however, had no impact on ratings of the fairness of the procedures used. These results corroborated earlier findings from the dispute-resolution literature, but extend them to reward-distribution contexts in which different manipulations of procedural justice were used. The limitations of equity theory in accounting for improprieties in organizational procedures is discussed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Methods, Pay equity, Achievement motivation, Incentive (Psychology), Reward (Psychology), Rewards (Psychology)

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