Justice in the workplace: the centrality of social versus judgmental predictors of performance varies by gender

Abstract

Men and women are said to perceive justice differently, with women proposed to be more concerned with relational issues and men focused more on material issues. In this study, the potential for differential effects of justice on performance by gender was analyzed across the four contemporary types of justice. Respondents were 265 male and 113 female occupationally diverse employees in a single organization. The results show significant differences in how men and women respond to the four justice types with only one – informational justice – acting similarly by gender. The differential relationships between each of the justice types and the outcomes by gender highlight the utility of the four factor approach to measuring organizational justice. Women were more interested in maintaining social harmony than men. The results appear to strongly support the use of the justice judgment model over the group-value model as a means of explaining the gender differences. Implications for management include the importance of informational justice both generally and within the performance appraisal process.

Keywords:

• gender
• informational justice
• organisational justice
• perceptions
• performance appraisal