Abstract
A topic that remains underexplored in public management research is how the appearance of a formal rule or policy as guiding personnel decisions may affect employee perceptions of organizational decision outcomes. In this article, we consider how the locus of decision making (e.g., the apparent source of a decision) affects perceptions of a decision’s fairness. We examine this question with three survey experiments using case vignettes, each describing a distinct personnel decision-making scenario. In each case vignette, we manipulate the locus of decision making (a single supervisor, a team of supervisors, or an organizational policy). We find heterogeneous effects across the three case vignettes. We conclude with a discussion of the implications and future directions for public management research.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 392-412 |
Number of pages | 21 |
Journal | Public Personnel Management |
Volume | 48 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 1 2019 |
Keywords
- decision making
- organizational justice
- rules and policies
- survey experiment
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Public Administration
- Strategy and Management
- Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
- Management of Technology and Innovation