The Other Face of Justice An Investigation of Managers’ Justice Rule Adherence in the Granting of I-deals

This study seeks to investigate how managers’ justice enactment (i.e., adherence to equity and procedural rules) affects the granting of idiosyncratic deals (i-deals). In contrast to studies that focus on employee reactions to injustice, this study takes a managerial focus and attempts to understand why managers behave fairly. Drawing on manager-focused justice theories, I hypothesize that justice enactment from managers strengthens the association between employee past performance and i-deals. Moreover, I identify the dispositional (i.e., justice sensitivity), motivational (i.e., cognitive motives), and social (i.e., felt accountability) factors that underlie justice enactment related to the granting of i-deals. The proposed model builds upon and complements previous research on i-deals by exploring the meaning of fair exchanges as perceived by managers. Hypotheses were tested using a sample of 213 manager-employee dyads nested in 60 work-groups. Results show variation in the degree of adherence to equity and procedural rules across managers as well as variation in the degree of justice rule adherence towards individual employees. Results also provide some support for the general idea that justice enactment affects the granting of i-deals.