Special Issue on Procedural Fairness - American Judges Association

ably influenced judgments of procedural fairness amongrestaurant employees but not among restaurant managers, and(b) perceived procedural fairness favorably influenced proceduralapproval among restaurant employees, but not amongrestaurant managers. Study 4 also supported the predictionthat authorities would be more influenced than subordinatesby outcome concerns: (c) perceived efficacy of the procedureat reducing the Hepatitis threat had a more favorable effect onprocedural fairness among restaurant managers than amongrestaurant employees, and (d) perceived efficacy of the procedurehad a favorable effect on procedural approval amongrestaurant managers but not among restaurant employees.Therefore, despite numerous differences between Study 4and the preceding studies (e.g., a shift from a legal context toa business context, a shift from a retrospective evaluation inwhich the procedure’s outcomes were known to a prospectiveevaluation in which the procedure’s outcomes are unknown,and a shift in the nature of the decision maker and decisionrecipient roles), the findings of this study are consistent withthose of Studies 1-3. These results supported the hypothesisthat decision makers’ fairness judgments and procedural evaluationsare shaped by outcome concerns, in contrast with decisionrecipients, whose fairness judgments and procedural evaluationsare primarily influenced by treatment and relationalconcerns.NEW DIRECTIONS IN PROCEDURAL FAIRNESSRESEARCHIn each of the studies described above, decision makers anddecision recipients adopted different criteria when judgingprocedural fairness and procedural satisfaction. Decision recipients’fairness judgments were driven primarily by concernsabout treatment—respectful treatment increased judgments ofprocedural fairness and satisfaction—but decision makers’fairness judgments were driven primarily by concerns aboutoutcomes—effective threat reduction and beneficial outcomesincreased judgments of procedural fairness and satisfaction.While these findings point to potentially important limitationsregarding the generalizability of some procedural fairnesseffects, they also leave a fundamental question unanswered:Why does this disparity between decision makers and decisionrecipients occur? In order to understand why decision makersand decision recipients focus on different concerns when judgingprocedural fairness and satisfaction, we will consider themotivational assumptions of two important and influentialpsychological theories of fairness: the group value and relationaltheories. We propose that while those motivationalassumptions are well suited to the situation confronting subordinatesin their encounters with authorities, they might beless well suited to the situation confronting authorities.PROTECTING THE GROUPVS. ASCERTAINING STATUSIN THE GROUPAccording to the groupvalue 22 and relational 23 theoriesof procedural fairness,respectful, trustworthy, andunbiased procedures matterbecause they communicateinformation to people abouttheir standing in valued social[D]ecision makers'fairnessjudgments andproceduralevaluations areshaped byoutcomeconcerns....groups. These theories have been consistently supported instudies of decision recipients (who are highly motivated to beperceived as valued group members) reflecting on theirencounters with decision makers (who are representatives ofthe group’s values).On the other hand, decision makers or authorities might beless concerned with their group standing, since it is clearlyhigh, and instead more concerned with other issues. We suspectthat group authorities (including legal, as well as politicaland organizational authorities) are likely to see protecting theirgroup’s welfare—a motivation that Stangor and Leary 24 claim isa primary human motivation—as a particularly importantresponsibility. If so, when they encounter tension between protectingthe group and treating group members with dignity andrespect, they might perceive a responsibility to attend to thepragmatic rather than the relational concerns.In one recent study, we investigated whether authorities’ relativelygreater reliance on outcomes might be driven by theirrelatively greater concern with protecting their group’s welfare.In part because we think these processes are not limited tolegal settings, and because we are interested in testing theseeffects in diverse contexts, this study, like one of our studiesdescribed above, relied on a vignette that described a threat inan organizational context. 25Participants were instructed to imagine themselves as partof a small company as they read a letter written by the CFO tothe company employees. The letter described a financial threatto the company—the escalating cost of employee health insurance—andindicated that the CFO was considering changes toemployees’ coverage in order to respond to this threat. In thisexperiment, as in our previous ones, we systematically variedthe perspective participants adopted as they read the letter.Participants who were randomly assigned to the decision makerrole imagined themselves as the CFO who wrote the letter,while participants who were randomly assigned to the decisionrecipient role imagined themselves as a company employee.The letters themselves varied on two other dimensions: (a)the magnitude of threat to the company posed by the escalatingcosts, and (b) whether the CFO would permit the employee to22. Tom R. Tyler, The Psychology of Procedural Justice: A Test of theGroup-Value Model, 57 J. PERSONALITY & SOC. PSYCHOL. 830 (1989).23. Tyler & Lind, supra note 5.24. Charles Stangor & Scott P. Leary, Intergroup Beliefs: Investigationsfrom the Social Side, in 28 ADVANCES IN EXPERIMENTAL SOCIALPSYCHOLOGY 243 (Mark P. Zanna ed., 2006).25. Diane Sivasubramaniam et al., Respect and Threat: Authority-Subordinate Disparities in Responses to Transgression, paper presentedat the annual meeting of the American Psychology-LawSociety, Jacksonville, FL (March, 2008).Court Review - Volume 44 67