Managerial accounts and fairness perceptions in conflict resolution : Differentiating the effects of minimizing responsibility and providing justification

Past research demonstrating the fairness-enhancing effects of managerial accounts of controversial organizational decisions typically has confounded two dimensions, whether the manager offers a justification legitimizing the decision. We manipulated these two dimensions, within the context of third-party conflict resolution, to determine their independent effects on perceptions of fairness and reactions to the account giver. One hundred thirty-five undergraduate students read a case, written from the perspective of the 'losing' party, describing a dispute between two employees that was ultimately resolved by a managerial third party in a way that favored one employee over the other. In the case, the manager either minimized personal responsibility for the resolution or assumed responsibility; cross-cutting this manipulation, the manager either provided a justification that appealed to superordinate organizational goals or provided no justification. Results showed that, in conditions in which the manager o...