NCJ Number
166515
Journal
Social Justice Research Volume: 9 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1996) Pages: 371-393
Date Published
1996
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This article reports on three experiments investigating people's choice of procedures.
Abstract
A review of research on procedural and distributive justice shows that, whereas distributive justice research has examined people's actual choice of outcomes, procedural justice research has paid little attention to the investigation of people's actual choice of procedures. Three experiments which did investigate people's choice of procedures involved middle-management personnel whose subordinates demanded an opportunity to voice their opinion, while their superiors demanded that the subordinates should not be allowed voice. The first two experiments found that participants who were induced to identify with the low hierarchical group (subordinates) allowed more voice than participants who were induced to identify with the high hierarchical group (superiors), but that the effect of hierarchical group membership was absent when maximizing performance or participative values were explicitly emphasized. The third experiment found that the effect of hierarchical group membership on procedural decisionmaking was also evident in persons who progressed from identifying with both hierarchical groups to identifying with one. Cross-fertilization between the fields of procedural and distributive justice will deepen understanding of social justice in general. Figures, references