Relations between job facet comparisons and employee reactions

Abstract

This study examined relations between a variety of behavioral and attitudinal reactions and employees' feelings of inequity with regard to four job facets: job complexity, supervisory behavior, compensation, and security. Results showed that employees who felt disadvantaged (underrewarded) on each of the facets were less satisfied than those who felt equitably treated or advantaged (overrewarded) relative to their referents. Only the job complexity dimension related significantly to the behavioral reactions. Employees who felt disadvantaged on this dimension exhibited lower performance and higher absenteeism and turnover than employees who felt equitable or advantaged. The nature of the comparative referents used by employees when contrasting their compensation and job complexity facets also related to the behavioral reactions. For example, employees who used self-future referents (themselves at a future point in time) were most likely to permanently withdraw from the organization. Finally, the research examined employee reactions to various combinations of job facet inequities and to combinations of comparative referents.