Testing the Moral Violations Component of Fairness Theory: Moral Maturity as a Moderator of the Deon

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Testing the Moral Violations Component of
Fairness Theory Moral Maturity as a Moderator of
the Deontological Effect

• Deborah E. Rupp
• - University of Illinois at
  Urbana-Champaign

SIOP 2003, Orlando
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Fairness Theory (Folger Cropanzano, 1998 2001)

• Three necessary processes that must occur for a
  situation to be seen as unjust
• Unfavorable condition (perceived alternatives
  would have been better)
• Perpetrator could have acted differently
• The harmful actions seen as a violation to some
  ethical/moral norm of interpersonal treatment
  (perpetrator should have acted differently)

fairness as deonance (Folger, 1998 2001)
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Fairness as Deonance Being fair because we
ought to

• Accounts for third party reactions to injustice
• Deonic reactions morality-based responses to
  discrepancies between what has occurred and an
  internalized ethic of interpersonal behavior
  (Folger Cropanzano, 2001)
• Deonance An experience caused when motivated by
  moral considerations (Folger, 2001)
• Justice is more than a means to an instrumental
  or relational end, it is also an end to itself
  (Montada, 1998)
• Justice as a moral virtue (Folger, 1998)

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Empirical Support for the Model

• How to test
• Have respondents function as observers of a moral
  transgression between 2 parties with whom they
  have no relationship
• Never know identity of either party, the victim,
  or the perpetrator
• If observer is willing to make a sacrifice in
  order to seek retribution against perpetrator,
  can only be doing so out of an internalized
  justice motive (self-interest and relational
  motives ruled out)

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Empirical Support for the Model

• Kahneman, Knetsch, Thaler, 1986
• when allocating resources, individuals will
  choose to allocate less for themselves if it is
  the only way to withhold resources from someone
  who has acted unfairly

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Empirical Support for the Model

• Turillo, Folger, Lavelle, Umphress, Gee, 2002
• replicated findings and showed
• Publicity of decisions does not have a strong
  effect
• Two wrongs do not make a right
• Group identification does not have a strong effect

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Aim of Current Study Identify Moderators

• What contextual and individual difference
  variables might moderate the deontological
  effect?
• Moral Maturity?
• Cognitive Load?
• Value Preferences?
• Thoughts vs. Actions?

Will discuss today
Also Tested
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Moral Development x Justice

• Folger (1998)
• people hold a collective morality-based norm of
  fairness
• those high in moral development will more
  strongly internalize justice as a moral virtue
• Greenberg (2002)
• found those high in moral development to be more
  likely to comply to corporate ethics programs

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Hypothesis Moral Development x Fairness
Information Interaction on Allocation Choice
Just
injustice present
Equality
Choice
no injustice present
Self-serving
Low
High
Moral Maturity
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Methods

• N 315
• IV Knowledge of an injustice (yes/no)
• IV Moral maturity (SRM-SF Sociomoral Reflection
  Measure-Short Form Gibbs, Basinger, Fuller,
  1992)
• DV Allocation choice
• Real money paid out

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Payout Matrix

• In todays round, we are going to partner you
  with two teammates and you are going to decide
  how to divide a pool of money between the three
  of youBecause of scheduling complexities, your
  teammates will not be physically present today.
  However, your teammates will be making requests
  for the team using the same method employed
  here.

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Frequencies
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Who is making these choices???
Allocation choice SRM SRM (w/knowledge of an
injustice) Mean Standard Dev Selfish
allocation 2.09 .31 Equal allocation 2.59 .
30 Sacrificial allocation 3.01 .27 (punishing
unfairness)
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Moral Maturity Moderates the Deontological Effect!
Knowledge of an injustice
Allocation Decision
B -3.90 SE 1.95 Wald 3.81 R2 .24
Moral Maturity
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Implications/Future Research

• Continued support for the should component of
  Fairness theory
• Some people will make sacrifices to punish
  unfairness
• These people are higher in moral maturity
• Norm of equality strongmore research needed
• Can moral stages be superimposed onto
  organizational justices three
  roads(Cropanzano, et al., 2001)?

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END
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• Interactions with fairness information
• IV effect on probability of
• choosing sac over equal B SE Wald R2
• cognitive load .44 .94 .22ns .19
• moral maturity -3.20 1.95 3.83 .24
• hedonism -.35 .17 4.44 .24
• self-direction -.19 .09 4.53 .24
• universalism .14 .07 3.28 .23