Choice of allocation norms and perceived fairness of malaysia corporate management

This empirical study based on a survey in Malaysian organizations was conducted to investigate perceived justice in distribution of organizational resources. It was designed to study the issues such as recruitment, promotion, performance appraisal and distribution of other perks and benefits to the workforce. Assuming value differences in the major ethnic groups in the country, namely Malays, Chinese, Indians, and others, the study however, expected differences in allocation decisions made only in Malay and Chinese majority organizations. The findings indicated that, in general, merit was the most important norm of distribution of organizational resources. This was followed by need of the recipient and equality in terms of merit and need. Contrary to expectations, Malay‐dominated organizations had lower preference for relationship, political connection, power and status, race and gender, factors compared to the Chinese. However, perception of minority ethnic groups differed from the majority on several factors including fairness of the allocation decisions. The implications of the findings are discussed in the light of management practices and organizational culture in Malaysian organization.