Are Organizational Justice Effects Bounded by Individual Differences? An Examination of Equity Sensitivity, Exchange Ideology, and the Big Five

• Published in: Group & organization management Vol. 32; no. 3; pp. 290 - 325
• Main Authors: Scott, Brent A., Colquitt, Jason A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA Sage Publications 01-06-2007; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Behavior; Decision making; Difference; Distributive justice; Employees; Equity; Ideology; Injustice; Job satisfaction; Justice; Organizational behavior; Organizational justice; Organizational research; Personality; Personality traits; Preferences; Procedural justice; Ratios; Regression analysis; Social exchange theory; Studies; social exchange; justice; personality; equity
• ISSN: 1059-6011; 1552-3993
• DOI: 10.1177/1059601106286877

This study explored the extent to which two theoretically derived individual differences (equity sensitivity and exchange ideology) moderated the effects of injustice on behavioral reactions. Participants (N = 707) completed hypothetical vignettes that manipulated distributive, procedural, and interpersonal justice and assessed potential reactions in terms of task performance, citizenship, withdrawal, and counterproductive behavior. Results showed that exchange ideology, but not equity sensitivity, emerged as a significant moderator of several justice-outcome relationships. In addition, a usefulness analysis comparing the moderating potential of the more narrow equity sensitivity and exchange ideology variables to the broader Big Five revealed that the two narrow variables were more impactful moderators than were the Big Five, though these differences were because of the effects of exchange ideology.