Just and Unjust Punishment: Influences on Subordinate Performance and Citizenship

Abstract

This justice-theory-based study of punishment surveyed supervisors and their disciplined subordinates about specific punishment events. Path analysis results suggested that two personality traits—belief in a just world and negative affectivity—were associated with the subordinates' perceptions of the events. Perceived harshness, a distributive characteristic of the events, was associated with the supervisors' perceptions of the subordinates' subsequent performance. Subordinate control, a procedural characteristic of the events, was associated with the supervisors' perceptions of subsequent citizenship behaviors.