Procedural Justice and the

Organization of Labor

Tom R. Tyler
Department of Psychology
New York University

Presented at the Conference on Social and Psychological

Foundations of Economic Life. European Science Days
2001. July 2-5, 2001 - Steyr, Austria
 The psychology of motivation

 One important issue underlying the organization of

labor is the psychology of employee motivation --
 What motivates employees to do their jobs well?

 The structures of organizations and the rules

governing the workplace are most effective when they
are based on an accurate model of what motivates
employees
 Workplace design

 The underlying assumption is that the structure of

the workplace influences employee motivation
 This leads to a strategy of trying to design work

institutions to produce desired employee behavior

 This can be contrasted to a selection model (get the

right people for the job)
 Motivational goals

 Before we can address the question of which are the

appropriate models of employee motivation, we need
to identify the workplace behaviors that we want to
motivate
 What behavior do we
want from employees?

 I focus on two types of workplace behavior:

 Rule following

 I follow organizational policies

 I do not steal, etc.

 Job performance

 I do my job well (in-role, required tasks)

 I volunteer to help (extra-role tasks)

 Why do we want these motivations?

 The occurrence of these behaviors facilitates the

efficiency and effectiveness of organizations
(organizational psychology)

 Employee engagement in organizations enhances

employee’s psychological well being (positive
psychology)
 Possible motivations for
employee workplace behavior

 I will distinguish between two basic types of

employee motivation:
 Reward based motives
 Command and control

 Pay for performance

 Reinforcement based leadership

 Social motives
 Reward-based motivations

 Incentives – pay for good work

 Sanctions – punishment for rule breaking
 Level of rewards received
 Salary, benefits

 Future opportunities for promotion

 Relative to other possibilities

 Social motives

 Attitudes: Things that people want to do

 Intrinsic motivation (I like my job)

 Commitment (I like my organization)

 Loyalty (I like my supervisor)

 Values: Things that people feel that they ought to do

 Personal responsibility and obligation
 Two types of behavior

 Mandatory (Required)

 Discretionary (Voluntary)
 A typology of behavior

Mandatory Discretionary
(Required) (Voluntary)
Rule following Compliance Deference

Job In-role Extra-role

performance behavior behavior
 Question #1: What motivates employee

behavior in the workplace?

 This is an empirical issue.

 I will report the results of several efforts to address it.
 Multi-company study

 Single corporation study - bankers

 Multi-company study

 401 employees drawn from various companies in the

New York area
 Employees complete questionnaires
 Evaluating their workplace

 Reporting on workplace behavior

 From Tom Tyler and Steve Blader (2000),

Cooperation in Groups, Philadelphia: Psychology
Press.
 Study of a single corporation

 New York City-based financial services company

(banking)
 540 private banking group employees
 Completed questionnaires about their workplace

 Independent supervisor ratings of employee behavior

 Rule-following behaviors

 Rule following
 Mandatory (Compliance)
 How often do you comply with work related

rules and regulations

 Voluntary (Deference)
 How often do you willingly follow corporate

policies?
 How often do you follow rules when no one is

watching what you do?

 Job performance behaviors

 Mandatory (In-role behavior)

 How often do you adequately complete your

required work projects?

 Voluntary (Extra-role behavior)

 How often do you volunteer to do things that are not

required by your job?

 Instrumental motivation
(multi-company study)

 Incentives (rewards for performance)

 If you do your job well, how much does that

improve your pay and benefits?

 Sanctions (punishment for rule breaking)

 If you are caught breaking a rule, how much does

it hurt your pay and benefits?

 Instrumental motivation
(multi-company study)

 Level of rewards received

 Overall, I receive excellent pay and benefits

where I work
 I have good opportunities for promotion.

 It would be very difficult for me to find another

job with the pay and benefits of my current job.

 Measuring internal motivation
(multi-company study)

 Intrinsic motivation
 My job is enjoyable, worthwhile

 Commitment to work organization

 I feel that the organization for which I work deserves

my loyalty.
 Measuring internal motivation
(multi-company study)

 Values – Legitimacy
 I feel that I should accept the decisions of my

supervisor, even when I think they are wrong.

 Work organizations are most effective when

people follow the directives of their supervisors

 Measuring internal motivation
(multi-company study)

 Value congruence
 My moral values and the values of my work

organization are very similar.

What shapes employee workplace behavior?
(multi-company study)

35%
0.3
30% 0.28

25%

20% 0.17 0.16

15%

10%

5%

0%
Comply Defer In-role Extra-role

Note. Entries are the total variance explained by rewards,

attitudes, and values.
 What shapes employee workplace behavior?
(multi-company study / unique variance explained)

25%

0.2
20% 0.18

15%

10%
0.06
0.05 0.05
5%
0.02 0.02
0
0%
Comply Defer In-role Extra-role

Reward based Attitudes and values

Note. Entries are the unique variance explained by each cluster of variables.
 Distinguishing the influence of attitudes
and values on work behavior
(multi-company study / unique variance explained)

18%
0.16
16%
14% 0.13

12%
10%
8%
6% 0.05 0.05

4%
0.02 0.02 0.02
2% 0.01 0.01 0.01
0 0
0%
Comply Defer Required Voluntary
behavior behavior

Reward based Attitudes Values

 What shapes employee rule-following
behavior in the workplace?
(single corporation study)

16%
0.14
14%

12%
0.1
10%

8%

6%

4% 0.03
0.02
2%

0%
Comply Defer

Reward based Values

Entries are the unique variance explained by each factor.

 What shapes employee rule-following
behavior in the workplace?
(single corporation study)

Using an independent indicator of rule-following behavior

0.4 0.37
0.35

0.3

0.25
Reward based
0.2 0.17
Values
0.15

0.1

0.05

Note. Entries are beta weights for a regression equation. The dependent
variable is the supervisor’s rating of employee rule-following behavior.
 Conclusion #1

 Employees’ attitudes and values have an important

influence on behavior in the workplace
 Question #2. What characteristics of employees’
work environments shape their behavior?

 We can compare the influence of three issues

 Rule/policy favorability
 Organizational rules usually lead to decisions that favor me.
 Rule/policy fairness
 How fair are the outcomes you receive from your work
organization?
 The fairness of organizational procedures
 How fairly does your organization make decisions?
 The idea of procedural justice

 People value being the members of an organization

that they experience as making its decisions fairly
 Bruno Frey – Procedural utility

 The empirical question:

 Does procedural justice influence employee’s attitudes,
values, and behaviors?
 The influence of the work environment
(multi-company study)

35% 0.33

30%
25%
20%
15% 0.13
0.09
10%
0.06
5%
0%
Attitudes Values Required Voluntary
behavior behavior

Entries are the total variance explained.

 Results of the multi-company study
0.4 0.38
0.35
0.35
0.3 0.27

0.25
0.2
0.15 0.14
0.15 0.11
0.1
0.1 0.08 0.08
0.05
0.05 0.02 0.02

0
Attitudes Values Required Voluntary
behavior behavior

Procedural fairness Distributive fairness

Outcome favorability

Entries are beta weights for regression equations.

 Results of the single corporation study
0.3

0.25 0.24 0.23

0.2

0.15

0.1

0.05 0.03
0.02
0 0
0
Values Rule following behavior
Procedural fairness Distributive fairness
Outcome favorability

Entries are beta weights for regression equations

 Conclusion #2

 The justice of organizational procedures shapes

employees’ attitudes, values, and behaviors

 It also strongly influences employees’ behavior

 Question #3. What shapes judgments about the
procedural justice of workplace rules and policies?

 Issues
 Quality of decision making
 Neutrality, objectivity, consistency

 Quality of treatment
 Consideration, treatment with dignity

 Sources
 Organizational rules
 One’s workgroup, supervisor
 Factors shaping procedural justice judgments

Multi- Single
company corporation
study study

Quality of decision-making (org.) .26* .19*

Quality of decision-making (super.) .31* .22*
Quality of treatment (org.) .24* .43*
Quality of treatment (super.) .25* .12*
Adj. R-sq. 79% 66%
 Conclusion #3
 Organizational culture shapes judgments about the
fairness of organizational procedures.
 Question #4.
Why does procedural justice matter?

 There are two bodies of social psychological theory that

address the relationship between people and
organizations:
 Social exchange theory—people want resources
 Get them from exchanges in group contexts (pay

for work)
 Social identity theory—people want a favorable
identity
 Draw it, in part, from the status of the groups to

which they belong

 Indicators from each model
 Social exchange
 Level of resources

 Incentive mechanisms

 Social identity
 Identification-how much of self is drawn from group

membership
 Pride—Status of the group

 Respect—Status in the group

 Model

Procedural Identification Attitudes,

justice values,
behaviors
 Elements that shape group engagement
(multi-company study)
0.5 0.46
0.45 0.42
0.4 0.36
0.34
0.35
0.3
0.25 0.21
0.2 0.16
0.15
0.1 0.08
0.05
0 0
0
Identification Pride Respect

Outcome favorability Outcome fairness

Procedural fairness

Note. Entries are beta weights.

Elements of the group that shape identification
(single corporation study)

0.8 0.73
0.7
0.6 Outcome
0.5 0.44
favorability
Outcome
0.4
0.32 fairness
0.28
0.3 Procedural
0.2 0.16 fairness
0.1 0.04
0 0 0
0
Ident. Pride Respect

Note. Entries are beta weights.

 Identification and group engagement
(multi-company study)
0.6 0.55 0.55

0.5 0.48
0.45

0.4

0.29 0.28 0.29

0.3 0.27
0.23

0.2 0.17
0.15
0.12
0.1

0
Attitudes Values Rule following Voluntary
behavior workplace
behavior

Identification Pride, respect Reward levels

Note. Entries are the average Pearson correlation within each cell.
 Identification, attitudes and behavior
(single corporation study)

0.6
0.48
0.5 0.43
0.38 0.41
0.4 Identification
0.3 0.22 Pride, respect
0.2 Reward levels
0.1
0.1
0
Attitudes Voluntary workplace
behavior
Note. Entries are the average Pearson correlation within each cell.
 So, when people feel that group procedures are
fair:
 They identify with their group
 They engage themselves in that group
 How does identification fit into the procedural
justice-cooperative behavior relationship?

 Identification mediates the relationship between

procedural justice and engagement.
 The relationship between procedural justice and
engagement in groups: Identification as a mediator
(Tyler and Blader, 2000)
 Why? Because procedural justice communicates
status-relevant information

 Procedural justice judgments communicate status

- Shape one’s sense of self

 Quality of decision making

 Neutrality

 Quality of treatment
 Consideration, concern, politeness, dignity,

rights recognition
 Identification and self-esteem
(sample of corporate employees)

Identification Level of Policy

resources favorability

Self-
esteem
.47 .16 .15
(Crocker)

Note. Entries are Pearson correlations.

 Identification has broader positive consequences; it
leads to:
 Voluntary rule following
 Voluntary actions designed to help the group
 High self-esteem/self-worth
 Groups can facilitate employee identification

 The key to so doing is to have fair procedures

 Quality of decision making
 Quality of treatment
 Conclusion #4

 People care about the fairness of organizational

procedures because Procedural Fairness signals
identity-relevant information

 Organizations are important shapers of self-identities

 Summary: Procedural justice and the
organization of labor

 Employee behavior in work organizations is indepen-

dently influenced by noninstrumental motivations
 Attitudes and values
 Procedural justice judgments
 Issues of quality of decision-making and treatment

 Identity and status evaluation

 Identification

 Pride, respect
 Implications

We will gain in our ability to understand what motivates

employees by incorporating social motives of the type I
have outlined into our models.

We will also be better able to design work organizations.