Anger, Fear, or Sadness: Faculty Members' Emotional Reactions to Collective Pay Disadvantage

As part of a mail survey about their work experiences, university faculty members reported their specific emotional reactions to group inequities in faculty pay and benefits. The results indicate that sadness, fear; and anger are distinct emotional responses to a collective disadvantage. Group-based anger mediated the relationship between collective disadvan tage and willingness to protest whereas group-based sadness mediated the relationship between collective disadvantage and organizational loyalty. Based on an integration of cognitive appraisal models of emotion with RD theory, four other predictors of intergroup emotions-(]) the legitimacy of the process that produced the deprivation, (2) whether another agent was responsible, (3) group efficacy, and (4) whether the situation would improve or become worse-were identified and tested. The measurement of specific emo tional reactions to perceived collective disadvantage extends and refines RD approaches to collective action and organizational loyalty.

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