Fairness Monitoring: Linking Managerial Controls and Fairness Judgments in Organizations

Abstract

We argue that different types of perceived managerial controls that convey performance standards to subordinates increase the perceived relevance of particular aspects of fairness in organizations. We introduce the concept of fairness monitoring to characterize subordinates' efforts to gather and process fairness information to make sense of their organizations. In scenario and survey studies, we found that subordinates who perceive market controls engage in distributive fairness monitoring, subordinates who perceive bureaucratic controls engage in procedural fairness monitoring, and subordinates who perceive clan controls engage in interpersonal fairness monitoring. We also found that asserting clear controls and promoting the type of fairness that subordinates monitor most closely produces a positive three-way interaction affecting job satisfaction.