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Mystery shopping through the lens of organizational justice

Marina Pashkina (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)
Maria S. Plakhotnik (Department of Management, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation)

Industrial and Commercial Training

ISSN: 0019-7858

Article publication date: 16 February 2018

Issue publication date: 20 February 2018

640

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to share how the concept of organizational justice could help to explore employee satisfaction with the mystery shopping appraisal system.

Design/methodology/approach

The research was conducted at a fast-food restaurant chain located in Russia. Data were collected through an online-questionnaire distributed among all 516 chef-cashiers of the 86 restaurants of the chain located in Saint Petersburg. The questionnaire consisted of 17 closed-ended and one open-ended questions.

Findings

Violations of norms of procedural, distributive, and informational justice were identified. The majority of the chief-cashiers thought that the norms of interpersonal justice were met.

Practical implications

The paper also discusses how training and development professionals could use the concept of organizational justice to improve employee satisfaction with a mystery shopping appraisal process. The results collected through the questionnaire can be used in at least two ways: to implement structural changes in the process and to determine and address training needs of three groups of employees.

Originality/value

Perceptions of organizational justice predict employee satisfaction with different aspects of a performance appraisal system. This paper is first to explore how the concept of organizational justice could be useful in evaluating employee satisfaction with such performance appraisal method as mystery shopping.

Keywords

Citation

Pashkina, M. and Plakhotnik, M.S. (2018), "Mystery shopping through the lens of organizational justice", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 50 No. 3, pp. 109-122. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT-11-2017-0088

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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