| This dissertation investigates the relationship of distributive justice, job satisfaction, and pay satisfaction to equity sensitivity of respondents in a team environment. While equity sensitivity is a well established construct in the equity literature, it has not been studied in a team environment. Not only were the correlations between equity sensitivity, as measured by the Equity Sensitivity Instrument (ESI), and each of the variables distributive justice, job satisfaction, and pay satisfaction, an attempt was made to develop a multiple regression equation with distributive justice, job satisfaction, and pay satisfaction as independent variables and the ESI score as the dependent variable.; Using the equity theory literature as a base, the prominence of job satisfaction, pay satisfaction, and distributive justice was soon apparent. A more recent development, the ESI, addressed the lack of individuality of equity theory. Although distributive justice, pay satisfaction, and job satisfaction are prominently discussed in the literature, the discussion of their relationship to equity sensitivity is lacking.; These variables, distributive justice, pay satisfaction, and job satisfaction have been found to be correlated in various settings throughout the literature; therefore, it is not inconsequential that in a team environment these same variables were similarly correlated. A survey was performed at a small liberal arts college via the campus mail system. The response rate was in excess of 85% yielding 87 usable surveys.; Using correlation analysis, a slight but definite relationship was found between the ESI score and job satisfaction; that is, job satisfaction and the ESI score were significantly correlated. Pay satisfaction nor distributive justice was found to be significantly correlated to the ESI score. Results of the multiple regression model where the ESI score was the dependent variable and job satisfaction, pay satisfaction, and distributive justice were the independent variables were not acceptable since the adjusted R square was.10868.; Additional analysis was performed on subgroups. The total sample was segregated according to the ESI score where one subgroup was composed of Benevolents and the other subgroup was composed of Non-benevolents. The correlations for the Benevolent subgroup paralled the total sample; however, the correlations for the Non-Benevolent subgroup were distinct. The only significant correlation was a negative correlation between the ESI score and distributive justice. Using the same independent variables and dependent variable, the only acceptable regression model was discovered for the Non-Benevolent subgroup. The model resulted in an adjusted R square of.41233 and F test and t test statistics were acceptable.; The most prominent findings are found in the relationships in the subgroups. These findings suggest that the presuppositions of the equity literature and the equity sensitivity literature are upheld. It appears that in a team environment Benevolents will focus on inputs and Non-benevolents will focus on outcomes. |
