“Justice” and “fairness” are not the same thing

Organizational justice researchers tend to treat as synonyms the terms “justice” and “fairness”. We discuss different definitional arguments, concluding that these two concepts are distinct. Justice should be defined as adherence to rules of conduct, whereas fairness should be defined as individuals' moral evaluations of this conduct. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘Work’ or ‘leisure’? The protestant work ethic and participation in an employee fitness program

Is a company's in-house fitness center perceived as a place to engage in ‘leisure ’activities that are distinct from ‘work’, or as an extension of normal ‘work ’activities? This exploratory study examined the possibility that Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) beliefs might influence the frequency with which employees use their company's exercise programs and facilities. If exercise programs are regarded as ‘leisure’, then PWE endorsers would likely not participate, but the reverse might be true to the extent that such programs are seen as ‘work’. A short survey was completed by 335 employees of a large Canadian corporation which maintained an in-house fitness center that had been in operation for 16 months. The sample was almost evenly divided between users and non-users of the facilities. Results indicated that PWE endorsement was positively related both to the frequency with which respondents visited their company's fitness center, and to the perception that exercise provided work-related benefits, and these findings suggest that on-the-job fitness is regarded more as a component of ‘work ’than of ‘leisure’. ‘A corporate fitness program is the hottest perk since the executive washroom ’(Hoffman and Hobson, 1984, p. 110).     

‘Implicit justifications’ and self-serving group allocations

In comparison to allocating resources to oneself, when allocating resources to one's group, people are able to ‘get away with’ taking more than a fair and equal share because there exists an implicit justification that fellow group members will benefit. Such an implicit justification enables people to hide their self-serving motivation. Results reveal that subjects allocating a sum of money between their group and a competing group took a significantly greater share of the resource than subjects allocating between themselves and a competing individual. Whether the allocation was made public or kept private had a significant impact on this relationship: the difference between group and self allocations was significantly greater when the allocation was made public than when kept private. However, subjects allocating only to themselves and in private were almost as self-serving as subjects allocating to their group (both in private and in public). The only case where subjects were overly constrained by equality was when they were allocating to only themselves and the allocation was made public. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A meta‐analytic comparison of self‐reported and other‐reported organizational citizenship behavior

Given the common use of self‐ratings and other‐ratings (e.g., supervisor or coworker) of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), the purpose of this meta‐analysis was to evaluate the extent to which these rating sources provide comparable information. The current study's results provided three important lines of evidence supporting the use and construct‐related validity of self‐rated OCB. The meta‐analysis of mean differences demonstrated that the mean difference in OCB ratings is actually quite small between self‐ and other‐raters. Importantly, the difference between self‐ and other‐raters was influenced by neither the response scale (i.e., agreement vs. frequency) nor the use of antithetical/reverse‐worded items on OCB scales. The meta‐analysis of correlations showed that self‐ and other‐ratings are moderately correlated but that self–other convergence is higher when antithetical items are not used and when agreement response scales are used. In addition, self‐ratings and supervisor‐ratings showed significantly more convergence than self‐ratings and coworker‐ratings. Finally, an evaluation of self‐rated and other‐rated OCB nomological networks showed that although self‐rated and other‐rated OCBs have similar patterns of relationships with common correlates, other‐rated OCB generally contributed negligible incremental variance to correlates and only contributed appreciable incremental variance to other‐rated behavioral variables (e.g., task performance and counterproductive work behavior). Implications and future research directions are discussed, particularly regarding the need to establish a nomological network for other‐rated OCB. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Empirical examination of the individual‐level personality‐based theory of self‐management failure

The individual‐level personality‐based theory of self‐management failure posits that personality predisposes individuals to self‐defeating behavior that, in turn, leads to self‐management failure (Renn, Allen, Fedor, & Davis, 2005). To provide a partial test of the theory, a model is hypothesized that operationalized personality with neuroticism and conscientiousness of the Big Five personality dimensions; self‐defeating behavior with inability to delay gratification, procrastination, and emotional self‐absorption; and self‐management with personal goal setting, monitoring, and operating. The model was tested using data collected from 286 working employees and structural equations analysis. Results supported nine of 11 theory‐derived hypotheses. As hypothesized, high neuroticism was associated with improper personal goal setting, monitoring, and operating; and emotional self‐absorption and procrastination accounted for the relationship between high neuroticism and ineffective self‐management. In addition, low conscientiousness was associated with inferior self‐management practices, and inability to delay gratification and procrastination partially explained the relationship between low conscientiousness and poor self‐management. The findings provide new insight into how high neuroticism and low conscientiousness may contribute to self‐management failure. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Restructured frame‐of‐reference training improves rating accuracy

The use of heuristic judgments is prevalent in organizations and negatively impacts accurate employee assessments. To minimize the negative impact of heuristic judgments (i.e., anchoring and adjustment), we aim to improve rating accuracy by restructuring frame‐of‐reference (FOR) training. We conducted five studies (N = 1,143) using different samples (three including participants with hiring experience), training environments (onsite and online), and rating contexts (evaluations of sales representatives, teachers, contract negotiation specialists, and retail store managers). Across the five studies, the average improvement in rating accuracy was at least twice as large for restructured FOR (vs. control) training as it was for typical FOR (vs. control) training; the difference in rating accuracy between restructured and typical FOR training was statistically significant. Furthermore, minimizing the anchoring effect rather than increasing opportunities for rating adjustments improved rating accuracy (Study 4). Finally, restructured FOR training achieved higher criterion validity (i.e., a higher strength of the association between ratings regarding a target and the target's objective performance) than did typical FOR training (Studies 3 and 5). We discuss implications for improving the effectiveness of diverse training programs and the accuracy of judgments in organizations.     

Measuring the violence of dust explosions with the “20 l sphere” and with the standard “ISO 1 m vessel”: Systematic comparison and analysis of the discrepancies

On the basis of a systematic testwork with a number of different dusts, the explosion indices as determined within the 20 l sphere and with the ISO-VDI 1 m³ vessel have been compared. The repeatability has been assessed and since some systematic deviations appear a refined physical analysis of the explosion processes is developed. It appears in particular that the cube root law supposed to link both vessels is not verified. A striking illustration of this appears when a dust with a significant explosion severity inside the 20 l sphere is not even explosible in the larger vessel. It is strongly suggested that the ignition energy is forcing very significantly the explosion in the smaller vessel inducing several tens of Celsius degrees of preheating. It is shown also that the inner level of turbulence is decreasing very fast in the 20 l sphere during the flame development so that difficult-to-ignite mixtures would tend to burn at a lower combustion rate. It is further demonstrated that the major bias between the chambers can be explained and quantified with these elements. A correlation with the standard 1 m³ vessel and a grid of interpretation of the data is proposed.     

Merit pay raises and organization‐based self‐esteem

We developed and tested a theory of the relationship between merit pay raises and organization‐based self‐esteem (OBSE) in a longitudinal study of hospital employees. We predicted that the positive relationship between merit pay raise size and OBSE would be stronger when pay‐for‐performance (PFP) perceptions were high and predicted further that this interaction would be stronger among older employees. As predicted, merit pay raises were not related to OBSE levels for younger employees, but, among older employees, larger merit raises increased OBSE when PFP perceptions were high and decreased OBSE when PFP perceptions were low. Implications of the study for merit pay theory and practice are addressed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.