Identifying international assignees at risk for premature departure : The interactive effect of outcome favorability and procedural fairness

Two studies examined factors that predict expatriate managers' tendencies to think seriously about departing prematurely from their international assignments. Previous research (conducted outside of the expatriate context) has shown that individuals' willingness to stay with or leave their positions is an interactive function of outcome favorability and procedural fairness. A conceptually analogous interaction effect was found in the present studies. Whereas expatriates more seriously thought of departing prematurely when they perceived the non-work-related outcomes of their overseas assignments to be less favorable, this tendency was much less pronounced when procedural fairness was relatively high. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, as are limitations of the studies and suggestions for

[1]  Douglas R. May,et al.  Procedural justice explanations and employee reactions to economic hardship: A field experiment , 1994 .

[2]  William H. Mobley,et al.  Employee turnover : causes, consequences, and control , 1983 .

[3]  Hal B. Gregersen,et al.  Global assignments : successfully expatriating and repatriating international managers , 1992 .

[4]  Joel Brockner,et al.  Interactive Effects of Procedural Justice and Outcome Negativity on Victims and Survivors of Job Loss , 1994 .

[5]  J. Brockner,et al.  An integrative framework for explaining reactions to decisions: interactive effects of outcomes and procedures. , 1996, Psychological bulletin.

[6]  D. M. Georgoff,et al.  Harvard Business Review: David M. Georgoff and Robert G. Murdick, manager's guide to forecasting, 64 (Jan-Feb.) (1986) 110-120 , 1988 .

[7]  Robert Folger,et al.  Relative deprivation and procedural justifications. , 1983 .

[8]  J. Greenberg,et al.  Organizational Justice: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow , 1990 .

[9]  R. Bies,et al.  The predicament of injustice: The management of moral outrage. , 1987 .

[10]  J. Greenberg,et al.  Using socially fair treatment to promote acceptance of a work site smoking ban. , 1994, The Journal of applied psychology.

[11]  Hal B. Gregersen,et al.  Antecedents to Commitment to A Parent Company and A Foreign Operation , 1992 .

[12]  E. Naumann,et al.  A Conceptual Model of Expatriate Turnover , 1992 .

[13]  J. Stewart Black,et al.  Toward a Comprehensive Model of International Adjustment: An Integration of Multiple Theoretical Perspectives , 1991 .

[14]  I. Ajzen,et al.  Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior , 1980 .

[15]  T. Tyler,et al.  The Social Psychology of Procedural Justice , 1988 .

[16]  Jerald Greenberg,et al.  The Quest for Justice on the Job: Essays and Experiments , 1995 .

[17]  Roger L. M. Dunbar,et al.  Getting the job done over there: Improving expatriate productivity , 1991 .

[18]  Christopher L. Martin,et al.  Relative deprivation and referent cognitions: Distributive and procedural justice effects , 1986 .

[19]  Connie J. G. Gersick,et al.  Social Psychology in Organizations: Advances in Theory and Research , 1994 .

[20]  David A. Harrison,et al.  EXPATRIATES' PSYCHOLOGICAL WITHDRAWAL FROM INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS: WORK, NONWORK, AND FAMILY INFLUENCES , 1998 .

[21]  Stuart S. Nagel,et al.  Procedural Justice: A Psychological Analysis , 1976 .

[22]  Jerald Greenberg,et al.  Reactions to procedural injustice in payment distributions: Do the means justify the ends? , 1987 .

[23]  Nestor K. Ovalle,et al.  A review and meta-analysis of research on the relationship between behavioral intentions and employee turnover. , 1984 .

[24]  N. Adler.  International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior , 1986 .