Donald E. Conlon

Justice at the Millennium, a Decade Later: A Meta-Analytic Test of Social Exchange and Affect-Based Perspectives

Although a flurry of meta-analyses summarized the justice literature at the turn of the millennium, interest in the topic has surged in the decade since. In particular, the past decade has witnessed the rise of social exchange theory as the dominant lens for examining reactions to justice, and the emergence of affect as a complementary lens for understanding such reactions. The purpose of this meta-analytic review was to test direct, mediating, and moderating hypotheses that were inspired by those 2 perspectives, to gauge their adequacy as theoretical guides for justice research. Drawing on a review of 493 independent samples, our findings revealed a number of insights that were not included in prior meta-analyses. With respect to social exchange theory, our results revealed that the significant relationships between justice and both task performance and citizenship behavior were mediated by indicators of social exchange quality (trust, organizational commitment, perceived organizational support, and leader-member exchange), though such mediation was not apparent for counterproductive behavior. The strength of those relationships did not vary according to whether the focus of the justice matched the target of the performance behavior, contrary to popular assumptions in the literature, or according to whether justice was referenced to a specific event or a more general entity. With respect to affect, our results showed that justice-performance relationships were mediated by positive and negative affect, with the relevant affect dimension varying across justice and performance variables. Our discussion of these findings focuses on the merit in integrating the social exchange and affect lenses in future research.

Cooperation, Competition, and Team Performance: Toward a Contingency Approach

A passive, reusable visual amusement or warning device includes a handle and a number of light diffracting strips bearing an embossed holographically generated diffraction pattern. The diffraction pattern in the foil is produced in a planar format, and the strips bearing the pattern are displayed and viewed in a curved format. Ambient light striking the strips is diffracted to produce a dynamic, kaleidoscopic readily noticed display of brilliant colors.

Customer perceptions of corporate responses to product complaints: The role of explanations.

Using the justice and impression management literatures as a guide, we examined company responses to customer complaints in a field study. Explanations in which a company accepted responsibility fo...

SOME TESTS OF THE SELF-INTEREST AND GROUP-VALUE MODELS OF PROCEDURAL JUSTICE: EVIDENCE FROM AN ORGANIZATIONAL APPEAL PROCEDURE

This study examined how outcome, appeal method, and group membership influenced judgments about procedural and distributive justice made by people who appealed parking violations using a university...

Group decision process and incrementalism in organizational decision making

In two studies examining resource allocation, support is found for the notion that group decisions are affected in systematic ways depending on whether or not there was individual consideration of the problem before meeting as a group. Specifically, compared to no prior consideration groups, prior consideration groups (1) escalate their commitment more in progress (i.e., ongoing) decisions,and (2) are less willing to concentrate resources on a single project in adoption (i.e., resource utilization) decisions. The findings challenge the blanket assertion that divergent views in a group decision context is always related to better decisions.

The fairness of decision rules

Prior work on resource allocation has generally considered only a small number of allocation rules, usually reflecting equity or equality. We use a scenario study to examine the effect of eight different allocation rules (past performance, future performance, rank, random draw, chance meetings, business need, personal need, and political reasons) on recipient reactions to the gain or loss of three different kinds of resources in an organizational setting. We find evidence that allocations based on past performance and random draw rules lead to the highest fairness perceptions and the lowest expectations that the decisions made will lead to intragroup conflict. However, fairness judgments are also influenced by a variety of other factors, such as the type of resource being allocated and whether the recipient is advantaged or disadvantaged relative to others in the workgroup (what we term the “egocentric interaction”). We discuss how our results might influence managers’ allocation decisions.

The Manager Giveth, the Manager Taketh Away: Variation in Distribution/Recovery Rules Due to Resource Type and Cultural Orientation

Although the resource allocation literature has frequently examined the decision rules used to distribute monetary resources, many other types of resources have not been systematically studied. In addition, very little is known about the allocation rules that might be used when resources are recovered (i.e., taken away) as opposed to distributed. As managers frequently face decisions regarding the distribution or recovery of different resources, developing a greater understanding of the rules they might use to give or take away resources is important. This study examined the difficulty of resource allocation decisions and allocation rule choices. Our results suggest need rules are generally preferred by allocators, although rule preferences were affected by both the type of resource and whether the resource was being distributed rather than recovered. In particular, the preference for equality rules was stronger when resources were recovered. Our findings also suggest that managers may find recovery decisions more difficult than distribution decisions, and that monetary and affiliative resources are among the most difficult to allocate.

Examining the impact and role of special issue and regular journal articles in the field of management

The article discusses the impact and role both special issue and regular issue articles have in management research and publication. There has been a trend in recent years to reserve publication sp...

The effects of physical and social context on evaluations of captive, intensive service relationships

Expanding a conceptual framework, we differentiated services on the basis of their levels of captivity (the difficulty of a customers leaving) and intensity (the number of services performed), arguing that context is especially critical to service delivery when these levels are high. Data from cruise ships generally supported our hypotheses. We report effects of physical and social context on evaluations made by passengers, industry experts, and government regulators. Implications for managers of other service settings are discussed.

The Mediator as Leader: Effects of behavioral style and deadline certainty on negotiator behavior

This study investigated the effects of different mediator behavioral styles and disputant knowledge regarding negotiation deadline on bargaining behavior. A 2 x 2 factorial design varied mediator behavioral style (task-oriented versus person-oriented) and deadline certainty (certain versus uncertain) in a simulated laboratory dispute. Disputants with task-oriented mediators made larger initial offers and reached settlement more rapidly under uncertain-deadline rather than certain-deadline conditions. Subjects with person-oriented mediators did not differ significantly in the size of their initial offers or speed of settlement across deadline condition. Similar interactions emerged for a number of attitudinal measures. The results suggest that person-oriented mediators are effective regardless of deadline uncertainty, while the effectiveness of task-oriented mediators is contingent on the ambiguity inherent in the dispute. Implications of the results for procedural and distributive justice theory and research are also discussed.