The Influence Of The Power Stability And The Social Status On Punishment Motives

In real life,people tend to use their power to punish others.Although punishment may occur in interactions between two individuals,the more common punishment usually occur in organized groups.The researchers classified the punishment motives into deterrence motives and just-deserts motives.The punishment out of deterrence motives aims at enabling violators or potential violators generate fear from organizational rules,thus achieving the goal of eliminating the same violation.However,the punishment based on just-deserts motives focuses on whether the severity of the punishment matches the severity of the violation,rather than whether the offender terminates the violation.Recently,Mooijman and his colleagues(2015)examined the influence of power on punishment motives and the mediating effect of trust.Results found that compared with the control group,high-power individuals tend to punish their subordinates with deterrence motives because they have less trust in their subordinates.However,power in an organization is not machine-parsable,but in dynamic change.That is,power is unstable(such as appointment and dismissal,multi-candidate competition,retirement,etc.).In addition,high-power individuals may have higher or lower prestige and reputation among their members in the organization.That is,differences in social status may exist between high-power individuals(e.g.,leaders who are respected or not respected by subordinates).Then,whether the influence of high power on punishment motives is moderated by power stability and social status? If so,what is the mechanism underlying it? So far,no researchers have investigated this issue.On the basis of previous studies(Mooijman et al.,2015),taking college students as subjects and their class as the organization,this study used role playing and social dilemma to do experiment.Through two studies(seven experiments),we systematically explored the influence of power stability and social status on punishment motives and the mediating role of trust.The main conclusions are as follows:1.The stability of perceived power can not only improve or weaken the leaders' deterrence motives,but also weaken or improve their trust in subordinates.2.Power with high or low status can not only weaken or improve the leaders' deterrence motives,but also improve or weaken their trust in subordinates.3.High or low trust can improve or weaken the leaders' deterrence motives of punishing subordinates.4.Stable or unstable power can partially improve or weaken the leaders' deterrence motives of punishing their subordinates by weakening or improving the leaders' trust in their subordinates.5.Power with high or low status can weaken or improve the leaders' deterrence motives of punishing their subordinates by improving or weakening the leaders' trust in their subordinates.The research conception and experimental conclusion of this study substantially advance the research results of Mooijman et al.(2015),systematicly expanding and deepening the research of Mooijman et al.(2015).This study is conducive to deepening the theoretical understanding of the influence factors of deterrence motives and its psychological mechanism.Moreover,this study has important practical guiding value for improving the mode of power setting in organizational management and the selection mechanism of individuals conferred with power.