The Determinants and the Process of Formulating Fairness Perceptions

Few studies have dealt with the issues of organizational fairness and its determinants using the global approach advanced here. Therefore, much of the literature review will be based on existing studies with an attempt to generalize from these studies to the suggested generic approach presented here. As for a conceptual framework for the determinants of organizational fairness, we can use the approach advanced by Crawshaw, Cropanzano, Bell, and Nadisic (2013), who differentiated between content and process theories in assessing organizational fairness. Content theories suggest that there is a set of underlying human needs that can be met through fair treatment. Such a perspective, according to the authors, is useful, but conceptually incomplete. Researchers also need to specify how an individual evaluates an event with respect to these content needs. In other words, models of justice need to articulate the cognitive and emotional processes by which fairness judgments are formulated. Cropanzano, Byrne, Bobocel, and Rupp (2001) referred to these types of frameworks as process theories of justice.