| Injustice in organizations threatens serious consequences for individuals and firms alike. Still, current theories of distributive justice inadequately describe the justice phenomenon across levels of theory. In addition, several authors have recently argued that definitions of justice might be culture-specific. This research explored relationships among organizational cultural values, strategies used to allocate rewards to employees, and employee perceptions of distributive fairness.; Respondents from ten organizations representing various industries participated in this study (N = 222), providing data on cultural values, reward strategies, and attitudes. Results suggested that organizational cultural values were not generally related to a firm's reward allocation strategies. Results also indicated that a generalizable pattern of reward strategies tended to be used by all firms, possibly stemming from overriding cultural values of society. This reward strategy pattern was comprised of elements of consideration for job value, human capital, individual and group performance, and social welfare.; Results also indicated that when organizations' professed reward allocation strategies matched employees' perceptions of reward strategies actually used, employees perceived higher levels of fairness. This finding suggests the importance of formally communicating criteria for differentiating rewards to employees. Finally, results indicated that an organization's cultural direction, or value orientation, influenced employee attitudes more than either cultural strength or person-culture fit. A model is presented which integrates distributive justice theories across levels of analysis, and accommodates societal and organizational cultural value differences. |
