The Apparent Locus of Managerial Decision Making and Perceptions of Fairness in Public Personnel Management

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 sour...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public personnel management 2019-09, Vol.48 (3), p.392-412
Main Authors: Stritch, Justin M., Pedersen, Mogens Jin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Decision making
Employees
Exhibits
Human resource management
Job Performance
Job Satisfaction
Justice
Perceptions
Personnel Management
Research Design
Supervisors
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0091-0260
1945-7421
DOI:10.1177/0091026018819017