WHAT WORKPLACE PROTECTIONS DO EMPLOYEES HAVE IN US ORGANIZATIONS? A MODERN-DAY ANALYSIS OF DISTRIBUTIVE AND PROCEDURAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS AS A METHOD OF EMPLOYEE EQUITY AND POWER

Abstract
The concepts of Procedural and Distributive Justice have been subject to extensive research since it was theorized in the 1970’s in the fields of social and industrial/organizational psychology. The weakness with the majority of the research is the lack of actual employees as the sample populations and used mostly students. Anderson and Ruderman (1987) were some of the original scholars who used actual federal employees in their studies and this research was considered one of the major research studies in the field of Procedural and Distributive Justice. This research has undertaken the concepts of the original study that was conducted by Anderson and Ruderman and created a comparison study that used a similar research design framework. A sample of 521 employees from multiple industries across all geographic locations in the U.S. were obtained. Using the Survey from the Anderson and Ruderman studyallowed for the same questions to be asked today versus 1987 of employees about Justice Systems in their jobs and employment situations. Similar Hypotheses were tested. Results were found to be similar in most cases with some slight deviations. The variances can be potentially attributed to the use of more advanced statistical tools that are available in today’s research than was available and economically feasible for use in 1987. The findings indicate a need for management to provide equal treatment of employees and provide them with greater opportunities for engagement and involvement in their work environment.

Keywords
Employee Relations, Human Resource Management, Labor Relations, Unions

Cite this paper
Steven Cates, Jason Jackson, Carrie O’Hare, Robert B. Potts, Nanda Nandakumar Purohit, Ernelyn J. Navarro, Sean Doyle, WHAT WORKPLACE PROTECTIONS DO EMPLOYEES HAVE IN US ORGANIZATIONS? A MODERN-DAY ANALYSIS OF DISTRIBUTIVE AND PROCEDURAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS AS A METHOD OF EMPLOYEE EQUITY AND POWER , SCIREA Journal of Management. Volume 9, Issue 3, June 2025 | PP. 210-248. 10.54647/management630174

References

[ 1 ]	Adams, J. S. (1965). Inequity in social exchange, in Berkowitz, L. (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Academic Press, pp. 267-299.
[ 2 ]	Afghan, P.E., Arry, H., Arry, B., Mohd Saudi, M.H.. & Sinaga, H.O. (2018). Impact of distributive and procedural justice on turnover intention and counterproductive work behavior: Mediating role of organizational cynicism, Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, 10(6S), 1651-1678.
[ 3 ]	Ahuja, M., & Thatcher, J. (2005). Moving beyond intentions and toward the theory of trying: Effects of work environment and gender on post-adoption information technology use. MIS Quarterly, 29, 427–459.
[ 4 ]	Alexander, S., & Ruderman, M. (1987). The role of procedural and distributive justice in organizational behavior. Social Justice Research, 1(2), 177–198.
[ 5 ]	Arifin, W. N. (2017). Exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha. wnarifin.github.io
[ 6 ]	Aryee, S., Chen, Z. X., & Budhwar, P. S. (2004). Exchange fairness and employee performance: An examination of the relationship between organizational politics and procedural justice, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 94(1). 1-14.
[ 7 ]	Barnard, C. I. (1938). The functions of the executive. Harvard University Press.
[ 8 ]	Bies, R. J. (2005). Are procedural justice and interactional justice conceptually distinct? In J. Greenberg & J. A. Colquitt (Eds.), Handbook of Organizational Justice (pp. 85–112). Erlbaum.
[ 9 ]	Blader, S. L., & Chen, Y. R. (2012). Differentiating the effects of status and power: A justice perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 994–1014. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026651
[ 10 ]	Blader, S. L., & Tyler, T. R. (2005). How can theories of organizational justice explain the effects of fairness? In J. Greenberg & J. A. Colquitt (Eds.). Handbook of organizational justice. Erlbaum..
[ 11 ]	Bradley, M., & Moe, C. (2015). Organizational change through decision making and policy: A new procedural justice course for managers and supervisors. Cops, 8(4).
[ 12 ]	Brebels, L., De Cremer, D., van Dijke, M., & van Hiel, A. (2011). Fairness as social responsibility: A moral self-regulation account of procedural justice enactment. British Journal of Management, 22, 47–58.
[ 13 ]	Brown, T. A. (2006). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. Guilford.
[ 14 ]	Cammann, C., Fichman, M., Jenkins, G. D., & Klesh, J. R. (1983). Assessing the attitudes and perceptions of organizational members. In Seashore, S. E., Lawler, E. E., III, Mirvis, P., and Cammann, C. (eds.), Assessing Organizational Change, Wiley.
[ 15 ]	Cates, S, Jackson, J., O’Hare, C., & Leigh Tonelli, B. (2023). Pilot program: A replication study of procedural justice and distributive justice exogenous variables after 36 years. International Journal of Education, Business and Economics Research, 3(4), 46-72. https://doi.org/10.59822/IJEBER.2023.3404
[ 16 ]	Choi, M. (2011). Employees' attitudes toward organizational change: A literature review. Human Resource Management, 50(4), 479–500. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20434
[ 17 ]	Clark, P., Gallagher, D., Pavlak, T., (1990), Member commitment in an American union: the role of the grievance procedure, Industrial Relations Journal, Vol. 21, Iss. 2, pps. 147-157, Wiley Publishing, June, 1990.
[ 18 ]	Cohen-Charash, Y., & Spector, P. E. (2001). The role of justice in organizations: A meta-analysis, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 86(2), 278-321.
[ 19 ]	Cook, I. (2021), “Who is driving the Great Resignation?”, Harvard Business Review, September 15, https://hbr.org/2021/09/who-is-driving-the-great-resignation.
[ 20 ]	Cornelis, I., van Hiel, A., & De Cremer, D. (2012). The effect of followers' belongingness needs on leaders' procedural fairness enactment. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 11, 31–39. https://doi.org/10.1027/1866- 5888/a000053
[ 21 ]	Cornelis, I., van Hiel, A., De Cremer, D., & Mayer, D. M. (2013). When leaders choose to be fair: Follower belongingness needs and leader empathy influences leaders' adherence to procedural fairness rules. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49, 605–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.02.016
[ 22 ]	COVID-19 Strategic review and research agenda. Journal of Management Policy & Practice, 23(2), 48-57.
[ 23 ]	Cropanzano, R., Prehar, C.A., & Chen, P.Y. (2002). Using social exchange theory to distinguish procedural from interactional justice, Group and Organization Management, 27(3), 324-351.
[ 24 ]	Eaton, A. E., Gordon, M., & Keefe, J. H. (1992). The impact of quality of work life programs and grievance system effectiveness on union commitment. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 45, 591-604.
[ 25 ]	Fiorito, J., & Padavic, I., (2022). What do workers want? Unions’ social value, ILR Review, 75(2), 295–332.
[ 26 ]	Folger, R., & Greenberg, J. (1985). Procedural justice. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 3, 141-183.
[ 27 ]	Folger, R., & Konovsky, M. A. (1989). Effects of procedural and distributive justice on reactions to pay raise decisions. Academy of Management Journal, 32, 115-130.
[ 28 ]	Folger, R., & Bies, R. J. (1989). Managerial responsibilities and procedural justice. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 2(2), 79-90.
[ 29 ]	Fryxell, G., & Gordon, M. (1989). Workplace justice and job satisfaction as predictors of satisfaction with union and management. Academy of Management Journal, 32, 851-866.
[ 30 ]	Gharbi, H., Aliane, N., Al Falah, K., & Sobaih, A., (2022). You really affect me: The role of social influence in the relationship between procedural justice and turnover intention. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(5162), 1-13.
[ 31 ]	Gordon, M. E., & Fryxell, G. E. (1993). The role of interpersonal justice in organizational grievance systems. In R. Cropanzano (Ed.), Justice in the workplace: Approaching fairness in human resource management. Erlbaum.
[ 32 ]	Gorsuch, R. L. (2008). Factor analysis (2nd ed.). Psychology Press.
[ 33 ]	Green, D. K. (2020). Using R to analyze & evaluate survey data: Part 1 [R Project]. Datascience+. https://datascienceplus.com/using-r-to-analyze-evaluate-survey-data-part-1/
[ 34 ]	Greenberg, J. (1988). Equity and workplace status: A field experiment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 73(4), 606–613. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.73.4.606
[ 35 ]	Greenberg, J. (1990). Organizational justice: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Journal of Management, 16, 399-432.
[ 36 ]	He, H., Zhu, W., & Zheng, X. (2014). Procedural justice and employee engagement: Roles of organizational identification and moral identity centrality, Journal of Business Ethics, 122(4), 681-695.
[ 37 ]	Hoogervorst, N., De Cremer, D., & van Dijke, M. (2013). When do leaders grant voice? How leaders' perceptions of followers' control and belongingness needs affect the enactment of fair procedures. Human Relations, 66, 973–992. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726713482150.
[ 38 ]	Hunton, J. (1996a). Involving information system users in defining system requirements: The influence of procedural justice perceptions on user attitudes and performance. Decision Sciences, 27, 647–671.
[ 39 ]	Hunton, J. (1996b). Procedural justice and user involvement in developing accounting software: The effects of instrumental voice, choice, noninstrumental voice, and involvement expectations. The Journal of Information Systems, 10, 27–47.
[ 40 ]	Hunton, J,. & Beeler, J. (1997). Effects of user participation in systems development: A longitudinal field experiment. MIS Quarterly, 21, 359–388.
[ 41 ]	Hunton, J., & Price, K. (1997). Effects of the user participation process and task meaningfulness on key information system outcomes. Management Science, 43, 797–812.
[ 42 ]	Isbell, D. (2021). EFA and CFA Intro. RPubs by RStudio. https://rpubs.com/isbell_daniel/efa_cfa_intro
[ 43 ]	Ives, B., & Olson, M. (1984). User involvement and MIS success: A review of research. Management Science, 30, 586–603.
[ 44 ]	Jones, D. A. (2009). Getting even with one’s supervisor and one’s organization: Relationships among types of injustice, desires for revenge, and counterproductive work behaviors, Journal of Organizational Behavior, 30(4), 525-542.
[ 45 ]	Karkoulian, S., Assaker, G., & Hallak, R. (2016). An empirical study of 360-degree feedback, organizational justice, and firm sustainability, Journal of Business Research, 69(5), 1862-1867.
[ 46 ]	Khaola, P., & Coldwell, D. (2019). Explaining how leadership and justice influence employee innovative behaviours, European Journal of Innovation Management, 22(1), 193-212.
[ 47 ]	Kim, C. W., & Mauborgne., R. (1998). Procedural justice, strategic decision making, and the knowledge economy, Strategic Management Journal, 19(4), 323-338.
[ 48 ]	Klotz, A. C., Swider, B. W., Shao, Y., & Prengler, M. K. (2021). The paths from insider to outsider: A review of employee exit transitions. Human Resource Management, 60(1), 119–144. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.22033
[ 49 ]	Konovsky, M.A. (2000). Understanding procedural justice and its impact on business organizations, Journal of Management, 26(3), 489-511.
[ 50 ]	Legal Theory Lexicon 049: Distributive Justice. Legal Theory Lexicon. https://lsolum.typepad.com/legal_theory_lexicon/2006/07/legal_theor y_le.html
[ 51 ]	Lin, J. (2021a). A practical introduction to factor analysis: Exploratory factor analysis [Seminar Course]. UCLA: Statistical Consulting Group. https://stats.oarc.ucla.edu/spss/seminars/introduction-to-factor-analysis/a-practical-introduction-to-factor-analysis/
[ 52 ]	Lin, J. (2021b). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in R with lavaan [Seminar Course]. UCLA: Statistical Consulting Group. https://stats.oarc.ucla.edu/r/seminars/rcfa/
[ 53 ]	Lin, J. (2021c). Introduction to structural equation modeling (SEM) in R with lavaan [Seminar Course]. UCLA: Statistical Consulting Group. https://stats.oarc.ucla.edu/r/seminars/rsem/
[ 54 ]	Lin, J. (2021d). Latent growth models (LGM) and measurement invariance in R [Seminar Course]. UCLA: Statistical Consulting Group. https://stats.oarc.ucla.edu/r/seminars/lgm/
[ 55 ]	Lind, E.A., & Tyler, T.R. (1988). The social psychology of procedural justice, Plenum Press.
[ 56 ]	Lind, E. A., & van den Bos, K. (2002). When fairness works: Toward a general theory of uncertainty management. In B. M. Staw & R. M. Kramer (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior: An annual series of analytical essays and critical reviews (pp. 181–223). Elsevier Science/JAI Press.
[ 57 ]	MacCoun, R. J. (2005). Voice, control, and belonging: The double-edged sword of procedural fairness. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 1(1), 171-201.
[ 58 ]	Maiese, M (2003, June). Distributive justice. Beyond intractability. https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/distributive_justice
[ 59 ]	Mayer, D., Nishii, L., Schneider, B., & Goldstein, H. (2007). The precursors and products of justice climates: Group leader antecedents and employee attitudinal consequences. Personnel Psychology, 60, 929–963. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00096.x
[ 60 ]	McCarthy, J. (2022). U.S. approval of labor unions at highest point since 1965, Gallup, Politics,.
[ 61 ]	McFarlin, D. B., & Sweeney, P. D. (1992). Distributive and procedural justice as predictors of satisfaction with personal and organizational outcomes. The Academy of Management Journal, 35(3), 626-637.
[ 62 ]	Microsoft. (2020). Structural models (EFA, CFA, SEM...). The Microsoft R Application Network (MRAN). https://mran.microsoft.com/snapshot/2020-0306/web/packages/parameters/vignettes/efa_cfa.html
[ 63 ]	Milkman, R., & van der Naald, J., (2022). The state of the unions 2022: A profile of organized labor in New York City, New York State, and the United States, CUNY Academic Center. CUNY Academic Works.
[ 64 ]	Miller, A., & Jhamb, S., (2022). A comprehensive programmatic investigation of the antecedents and consequences related with the Great Resignation of individuals and organizations: A COVID-19 strategic review and research agenda. Journal of Management Policy & Practice, 23(2), 48-57.
[ 65 ]	Miller, D. T. (2001). Disrespect and the experience of injustice, Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 527-553.
[ 66 ]	Mirchandani, D., & Lederer, A., (2014), Autonomy and procedural justice in strategic systems planning, Info Systems, 24, 29–59.
[ 67 ]	Moorman, R. H., Blakely, G. L., & Niehoff, B. P. (1998). Does perceived organizational support mediate the relationship between procedural justice and organizational citizenship behavior? Academy of Management Journal, 41, 351-357.
[ 68 ]	Moore, J. (2000). One road to turnover: An examination of work exhaustion in technology professionals. MIS Quarterly, 24, 141–168.
[ 69 ]	Mumford, E., & Henshall, D. (1979). A participative approach to computer systems design: A case study of the introduction of a new computer system. Halsted.
[ 70 ]	Mumford, E., Bancroft, N., & Sontag, B. (1983). Participative design – success and problems. Systems, Objectives, Solutions, 3, 133–141.
[ 71 ]	Oh, S. S., & Lewis, G. B. (2009). Can performance appraisal systems inspire intrinsically motivated employees? Review of Public Personnel Administration, 29(2), 158-167. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X09331616
[ 72 ]	Posit team (2024). RStudio: Integrated development environment for R. Posit Software, PBC. http://www.posit.co/
[ 73 ]	Quratulain, S., Karim Khan, A, & Sabharwal, M. (2019). Procedural fairness, public service motives, and employee work outcomes: Evidence from Pakistani public service organizations, Review of Public Personnel Administration, 39(2), 276-299.
[ 74 ]	R Core Team (2023). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, https://www.R-project.org/
[ 75 ]	Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Belknap.
[ 76 ]	Restubog, S. L., Hornsey, M. J., Bordia, P., & Esposo, S.R. (2008). Effects of psychological contract breach on organizational citizenship behaviour: Insights from the group value model, Journal of Management Studies, 45(8), 1377-1400.
[ 77 ]	Revelle, W. (2023). Psych: Procedures for psychological, psychometric, and personality research. Northwestern University. R package version 2.3.3, https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=psych
[ 78 ]	Rosseel, Y (2012). lavaan: An R package for structural equation modeling. Journal of Statistical Software, 48(2), 1–36. doi:10.18637/jss.v048.i02
[ 79 ]	Rosseel, Y. (2023). The lavaan tutorial. https://lavaan.ugent.be/tutorial/tutorial.pdf
[ 80 ]	Rubin, E. V. (2009). The role of procedural justice in public personnel management: Empirical results from the department of defense, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 19(1), 125–143, https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mum035
[ 81 ]	Schaller, Z., (2022). The decline of U.S. labor unions: Import competition and NLRB elections, Labor Studies Journal, 1-30.
[ 82 ]	Scott, B., Garza, A., Conlon, D., & Kim, Y. J. (2014). Why do managers act fairly in the first place? A daily investigation of "hot" and "cold" motives and discretion. Academy of Management Journal, 57, 1571–1591. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2012.0644.
[ 83 ]	Skarlicki, D. P., van Jaarsveld, D.D., Walker, D.D. (2008). Getting even for customer mistreatment: The role of moral identity in the relationship between customer interpersonal injustice and employee sabotage, Journal of Applied Psychology,93(6), 1335-1347.
[ 84 ]	Spector, A. Z., Norvig, P., Wiggins, C., & Wing, J. M. (2023). Data science in context: Foundations, challenges, opportunities. Cambridge.
[ 85 ]	Thibaut, J., & Walker, L. (1975). Procedural justice: A psychological analysis. Lawrence Erlbaum.
[ 86 ]	Tyler, T. R., & Caine, A. (1981). The influence of outcomes and procedures on satisfaction with formal leaders. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41(4), 642–655. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.41.4.642
[ 87 ]	Tyler, T., Degoey, P., & Smith, H. (1996). Understanding why the justice of group procedures matters: A test of the psychological dynamics of the group-value model, Journal Personality and Social Psychology, 70(5), 913-930.
[ 88 ]	Tyler, T. R., & Blader, S. L. (2003). The group engagement model: Procedural justice, social identity, and cooperative behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7(4), 349-361.
[ 89 ]	Wickham H, Averick M, Bryan J, Chang W, McGowan LD, François R, Grolemund G, Hayes A, Henry L, Hester J, Kuhn M, Pedersen T. L, Miller, E, Bache, S M, Müller K, Ooms J, Jobinson D, Seidel D P, Spinu V, Takahashi K, Vaughan D, Wilke C, Woo K, Yutani H (2019). Welcome to the tidyverse. Journal of Open Source Software, 4(43), 1-6. doi:10.21105/joss.01686
[ 90 ]	Workers Are Eyeing the Exit in 2024 (2024, May 16). Microsoft and Linkedin. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/workers-eyeing-exit-2024-ryan-broad-wrepe/
[ 91 ]	Zhao, G., Chen, Y. R., & Brockner, J. (2015). What influences managers' procedural fairness toward their subordinates? The role of subordinates' trustworthiness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 59, 96–112.