Chapter 5: Cultural Influences on Perceptions of Distributive and Procedural Justice

This chapter presents a framework for studying culture’s influence on organizational justice. I explore how culture influences perceptions that one’s outcomes are fair or unfair (distributive justice) and that the procedures used to determine these outcomes are fair or unfair (procedural justice). First, I review definitions of culture and identify 13 dimensions of culture that seem relevant for organizational justice research. Special attention is focused on expanding dimensions of culture beyond those typically studied by organizational researchers. Perceptions of justice are then depicted as resulting from a comparison of expectations about treatment compared to perceptions of actual treatment. The role of expectations in various conceptualizations of distributive and procedural justice is examined. Culture is proposed to influence expectations about appropriate justice rules to be used in particular contexts. Researchable hypotheses that link the 13 cultural dimensions and specific justice rules are presented and summarized. In addition, suggestions are provided for researchers that focus on examining the influence of culture on expectations for various kinds of treatment in organizational contexts.