The Influence Of Authority Punishment On Third-parties' Cooperation In The Process Of Procedural Injustice:the Mediating Role Of Uncertainty

Procedural justice is the key antecedent of employee's cooperation, and this effect also exists in third-parties perspective. This is to say, procedural injustice treatment can reduce cooperation of third-parties (observers, i.e., coworkers). However, existing studies have found that procedural justice can predict third-parties' cooperation, and the mediating role of non-instrumental factors, few studies examine which instrumental factor can mediate this effect. Meanwhile, procedural injustice events often occur in organizations. The common response of organizational authorities is to punish violators,but few studies examine the effect of punishment from authorities on third-parties'cooperation after procedural injustice events occur. In order to explore whether instrumental factors can mediate the effect between procedural justice on third-parties'cooperation, and the active role of punishment from authorities towards third-parties,according to fairness heuristic theory and uncertainty Imanagement theory, the present study will explore the mediating role of instrumental factors (e.g., uncertainty) between procedural justice and third-parties' cooperation (study 1), and the positive effect and mechanism of the punishment result of the authority and the desire to punish toward third-parties' cooperation(study 2).Situation paradigm (experiment 1) and behavior paradigm (experiment 2) were used in study 1, and the mediating role of uncertainty between procedural justice and the third-parties' cooperation was repeatedly verified. Experiment 1 and 2 were both single factor experiments, where the independent variable was procedural justice (justice vs.injustice), and the dependent variables were uncertainty and cooperation. The results showed that procedural justice had significant predictive effects on third-parties'uncertainty and cooperation, and the effect of procedural justice on third-parties'cooperation was mediated by uncertainty.Based on study 1, through situation paradigm (experiment 3) and behavior paradigm(experiment 4), study 2 explored the positive effect and mechanism of the punishment result of the authority and the desire to punish toward third-parties' cooperation.Experiment 3 and 4 were 2(punishment results vs. no punishment results) × 2(desire to punish, no desire to punish) randomized experiment design, and the dependent variables were uncertainty and cooperation. The results showed that the results of authority punishment and the desire to punish could interactively affect the third-parties'uncertainty and cooperation behavior. Specifically, under the condition of no punishment results, the desire to punish could reduce third-parties' uncertainty and elevate cooperation. The effect of punishment result of the authority and the desire to punish toward third-parties' cooperation was mediated by uncertainty.At last, the present study explored the theoretical and practical values, and the shortcomings of present study and the future research were analyzed.