Yesterday's IO (Industrial and Organizational) psychology class was very interesting as we delved into justice at work. We went through the different perceptions of justice at work - distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice - and its relationship with job satisfaction, commitment, performance and most importantly the OCB (Organizational Citizenship Behavior) - whether or not you will help others or the organization. It's amazing to know how much impact perceived justice is on one's motivation to behave well.
To illustrate my point better, let me explain what those different types of justice are. Distributive justice looks into whether the distribution of rewards is fair. This addresses the issues of whether we should reward people at work based on how hard they work (equity) or how much they need the reward (need) or that everyone should get the same reward (equality) .
Procedural justice on the other hand questions whether the procedure for deciding the awards is fair, whether we have a "voice" in questioning that, and whether or not the company follows the rules they set.
Interactional justice discusses the matter of whether one is treated respectfully - be given the adequeate information, be shown the transparency of the matter, and be treated with politeness.
There was a field study by Greenberg (2000) that involved a company, which had lost large contracts and had decided to reduce the workers' wages temporarily instead of lay them off
. So, the experimenter got the company to give adequate explanation to one group and inadequate explanation to another group and looked at how that affect the theft in the company after a period of time. As guessed, the group with the inadequate explanation (lack of informational justice) had showed higher theft rate during the temporary wage reduction period compared to the one given adequate explanation. This was amazing to me.
No wonder companies invest a lot of money hiring IO psychologists and Human Resource Managers to increase employees' well-being, job satisfaction, and job performance.
It struck me why workers in M'sia behave so negatively about work as compared to Americans. The answer is pretty clear now.
Justice is one of the theories applied in job settings that worked (we analyzed a variety of theories that work and don't work). Goal setting is another one that motivates people to perform better and be more satisfied at work.
It's pretty cool to see applied psychology in action. =D
To illustrate my point better, let me explain what those different types of justice are. Distributive justice looks into whether the distribution of rewards is fair. This addresses the issues of whether we should reward people at work based on how hard they work (equity) or how much they need the reward (need) or that everyone should get the same reward (equality) .
Procedural justice on the other hand questions whether the procedure for deciding the awards is fair, whether we have a "voice" in questioning that, and whether or not the company follows the rules they set.
Interactional justice discusses the matter of whether one is treated respectfully - be given the adequeate information, be shown the transparency of the matter, and be treated with politeness.
There was a field study by Greenberg (2000) that involved a company, which had lost large contracts and had decided to reduce the workers' wages temporarily instead of lay them off
. So, the experimenter got the company to give adequate explanation to one group and inadequate explanation to another group and looked at how that affect the theft in the company after a period of time. As guessed, the group with the inadequate explanation (lack of informational justice) had showed higher theft rate during the temporary wage reduction period compared to the one given adequate explanation. This was amazing to me.
No wonder companies invest a lot of money hiring IO psychologists and Human Resource Managers to increase employees' well-being, job satisfaction, and job performance.
It struck me why workers in M'sia behave so negatively about work as compared to Americans. The answer is pretty clear now.
Justice is one of the theories applied in job settings that worked (we analyzed a variety of theories that work and don't work). Goal setting is another one that motivates people to perform better and be more satisfied at work.
It's pretty cool to see applied psychology in action. =D
