| This lab study drew on fairness theory (Folger & Cropanzano, 2001), emotion regulation theory (Gross, 1998) and affective events theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) to explain why injustice extended toward others (coworker-directed justice: CJ) affects personal levels of emotional labor. Pairs of participants played coworkers working side by side as customer services representatives for a simulated software organization. As part of their roles, they interacted with customers previously trained to exhibit either fair or unfair behaviors. They also observed fair or unfair face-to-face service encounters between their coworkers and the customers. Results revealed that participants who had interacted with unfair customers experienced negative counterfactual thinking, anger, and subsequently engaged in higher emotional labor compared with participants who were treated fairly. Additionally, participants who had witnessed unfair treatment extended to their coworkers by the customers also felt emotionally challenged and thus engaged in high levels of emotional labor. These effects were significant even when the participants themselves had been treated fairly. These findings are consistent with the deontic approach to justice (Folger, 1998, 2001; Cropanzano, Goldman, & Folger, 2003) that suggests that individuals' concern for justice stems in part from non-instrumental motives. Such evidence for coworker directed justice effects on EL also suggests that the relationship between justice and emotional labor may be more complex than was once thought (Rupp & Spencer, in press). |
