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It’s not my job: Compensatory effects of procedural justice and goal setting on proactive preventive behavior

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 November 2018

Run Ren*
Affiliation:
Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
Aneika L. Simmons
Affiliation:
Department of Management and Marketing, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX, USA
Adam Barsky
Affiliation:
Department of Management, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
Kelly E. See
Affiliation:
Business School, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, USA
Celile Itir Gogus
Affiliation:
Faculty of Business Administration, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
*
* Corresponding author. Email: renr@gsm.pku.edu.cn

Abstract

In two experiments, we examined the function of procedural justice in signaling individuals’ value to the group by arguing that individuals treated fairly are more likely to engage in proactive preventive behavior, a behavior that involves proactively revising or correcting the mistakes and intentional deceptions of coworkers. In addition, we extend Staw and Boettger’s (1990) work on task revision and demonstrate that procedural justice and goal setting have compensatory effects, such that procedural justice can be combined with performance goals to reap the valuable aspects of goal setting while minimizing some of the unintended side-effects. Our findings also contribute to the ongoing discussion of the mixed effects of goal setting, as well as the effects of multiple goal assignment.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2018

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