The impact of subordinate disrespect on leader justice

Employees are affected by the interpersonal treatment received from leaders (i.e. interactional justice), especially when being informed of negative outcomes (Brockner, 2010). Although respectful treatment may be expected from leaders generally, little is known about when leaders are more likely to display interactional justice and whether less interactional justice might be acceptable under certain circumstances. Drawing on reciprocity theory (e.g. Gouldner, 1960), and leader–member exchange (LMX) theory (e.g. Gerstner and Day, 1997), the purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis that employees who are disrespectful and inconsiderate toward their supervisors (i.e. who are themselves interactionally unjust) would and should receive less interactional justice when being informed of a negative outcome.

The authors conducted three experimental studies (Ns=87, 47 and 114), in the context of leaders communicating a layoff decision to their subordinates.

The results supported the predictions albeit the effect of subordinate interactional justice on supervisor justice was modest, yet consistent, across studies.

The findings are consistent with reciprocity theory and the LMX literature and suggest that leader actions when communicating bad news are dependent on employee conduct. Limitations of the studies include a primary reliance on students as participants and the measurement of behavioral intentions rather than behavior.

The studies are among the first to examine interactional injustice perpetrated by subordinates toward their leaders, and its impact on leader behavior when delivering negative outcomes. There is a paucity of literature understanding the causes of leader fairness behavior, in addition to a consideration of unfairness from perpetrators of lower positional power.