Changes in outcome allocations, company procedures, and interpersonal treatment that make Chinese office workers feel that they are being treated more fairly can go a long way towards improving their job satisfaction and organizational commitment, according to the results of a new study co-authored by CEIBS Associate Professor of Management Tae-Yeol Kim.

In one of the first research studies to explore how changes in fairness perceptions are associated with employee attitudes outside the United States, Prof. Kim and his co-authors have examined how changes in fairness perceptions affect the attitudes of Hong Kong Chinese office workers. Previous studies in this area have focussed primarily on US workers, and the results in western settings have shown that negative changes in fairness perceptions have a stronger impact on employee attitudes than positive changes. The results of Prof. Kim’s study showed the opposite result; positive changes had a stronger affect on the job attitudes of Chinese office workers. This may be due to cultural differences; previous studies have shown that the power distance in Chinese society means that Chinese are more likely to accept unfair treatment from authority figures.

The results of Prof. Kim’s study show that a positive change in fairness perception can enhance job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Organizations and supervisors who try to build affective commitment and enhance employees’ job satisfaction need to effectively promote and highlight these positive changes in order to leverage their beneficial effects on job attitudes. In addition, it is important for organizations and supervisors to improve employee perceptions of fairness. This can be done by establishing fair procedures in allocating rewards, providing detailed and timely explanations for decision procedures and outcomes, and tailoring communication to meet employees’ specific needs. Training supervisors to help them implement fair practices in their interactions with subordinates can also be helpful. The results of the study appear in the paper “A Dynamic Approach to Fairness: Effects of Temporal Changes of Fairness Perceptions on Job Attitudes” co-authored by Prof. Kim, Xiao-Wan Lin of University of Macau and Kwok Leung of City University of Hong Kong. It will be published by the Journal of Business Psychology.

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