Vicarious Justice Shapes Observers' Climate Perceptions: Moderating Role of Collectivism.
| Author | Purang, Pooja |
Introduction
Reactions to employee mistreatment outside the dyad of victim and transgressor influence perceptions of fairness judgments of organizations and individuals and are relevant for varied reasons. Third party perspectives, comprise the large number of third parties e.g. co-workers, friends and others who get information through the organizational grapevine and social media about a victim's mistreatment, can influence the victim's reaction (Skarlicki & Kulik, 2005; Barley, 1991). Also members learn vicariously about the treatment they can expect from the organization and superiors which would further influence their attitudes on the job. Lastly, third party responses define the scope and norms that regulate human behavior providing insights into acceptable ethical behavior in organizations. How an observer reacts to another's negative experience involves the perceptions of injustice and understanding this viewpoint would provide more insights in the existing literature on justice theory and evolution of unethical behavior in an organization.
Prior research has identified specific outcomes due to vicarious experiences in the organizational setting like lowering of fairness perceptions (van den Bos & Lind, 2001), negative effect on respondents who are identified with the group, reduction of group engagement of observers (Okimoto, 2009), reduced work performance and lowered commitment (Brockner et al., 1987), high levels of emotional labor (Spencer & Rupp, 2009) and positive emotions in vicarious punishment condition of unethical behavior (Trevino & Ball, 1992). These studies highlight that vicarious justice influences attitudes and behavior of observers in an organization based on which this study attempts to look at how vicarious justice influences perceptions of procedural justice climate in an organization as fairness judgments of supervisors and organization can be learned vicariously. Furthermore, fairness perceptions also guide engagement (Saks, 2006; Kahn, 1990). However, this has remained unexamined in the context of vicarious justice so this study also aims to investigate the effect of vicarious justice on employee engagement. Since corporations today are constantly engaged in increasing commitment and engagement of employees to the organization it is important to examine factors that enhance engagement. Also cross cultural variations in outcomes of justice have been established by research, thus to fully investigate the effects of vicarious justice examining them with collectivist values would help improve the understanding of the notion of justice in the contemporary Indian settings. More clarity on norms that guide fairness perceptions of observers and reasons for their reactions to such incidences would provide new ideas on improving ethical behavior in Indian workplaces.
Development of Procedural Justice Climate
Individuals in an organization observe others in their groups and form judgments about fairness of procedures experienced by other members and how these can affect them, and sometimes procedural injustice against one can be interpreted as an injustice against the entire group (Naumann & Bennett, 2000). At the same time research also identifies climate perceptions that reflect meaning derived from the organizational context like policies, practices and procedures that an organization rewards or supports (James, Joyce & Slocum, 1988). Similarly a procedural justice climate can exist guided by policies, practices and procedures in the organization that communicate procedural justice to employees. Thus procedural injustice against another member can imply possibility of such treatment for observers and hence shaping perceptions of procedural justice climate in the organization even when one is not the victim of the ill-treatment. Furthermore, the fairness heuristic theory provides fairness as a social heuristic to deal with the fundamental social dilemma (1) in the organizational setting, and justice relevant information leads to formation of general justice judgments which further guide social decisions and interpretations of new information (Lind, 2001). In organizational settings individuals may use social accounts in the absence of personal experiences to draw on. Hence others' experiences can provide indicators of fairness that may lead to perceptions of work environment and thereby influence the observers' behavior and attitudes. Based on the above arguments, this study hypothesizes vicarious justice influences procedural justice climate.
Hypothesis 1: Vicarious justice positively effects perceptions of procedural justice climate.
Vicarious Justice Shapes Employee Engagement
Employee engagement was first defined by Kahn (1990) as harnessing of organization members' selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances. Engagement is fostered by the development of three psychological states i.e. meaningfulness, availability and safety. Schaufeli et al. (2006) defined work engagement as a positive, fulfilling work-related motivational state of mind characterized by dedication, vigor and absorption. It represents a psychological and a motivational state, wherein employees invest in their work and promote organizational goals.
Prior research on justice has found positive effects of fairness on higher satisfaction, motivation to improve (Latham et al., 2005; Cawley et al., 1998; Maslach & Leiter, 2008) and higher perceptions of procedural justice are likely reciprocated by higher organizational engagement (Saks, 2006). Kahn (1990) found that transformational leaders who incorporate interactional and fair leadership styles create meaning for employees which is necessary for engagement. Den Hartog and Belschak (2012) found that work engagement mediates the relationship between ethical leader behavior which was characterized by fair and respectful treatment of followers and positive and negative discretionary behaviors such as counterproductive behavior. Research on different aspects of well-being in the workplace explains the effects of different forms of justice to the employees perceiving they are fairly rewarded, believing they are being interacted with respectfully and are receiving timely and accurate explanations (Lawson, Noblet & Rodwell, 2009). The above studies highlight the role of fairness in enhancing different forms of engagement by providing what inputs about the treatment to...
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