Towards behavioural equality: the impact of employee perception of justice on employee attitudes towards company equality approaches in large UK main contractor companies

Abstract

Although large UK main contractor companies have put increasing resources into reducing inequalities experienced by employees who are out-group members, we lack understanding of the factors necessary to support this endeavour. Resistance to equality approaches from in-group members is common, but there is currently a lack of understanding regarding the type of environments that may make such responses more or less likely. This thesis inhabits a ‘behavioural equality’ perspective that embraces a deeper understanding of employees' reactions to company equality approaches. In doing so it introduces organisational justice to the field of critical diversity studies to question whether justice is a determinant of attitudes towards equality approaches. The research drew on a multiple embedded case study as a research strategy and examined the relationship between employee perceptions of justice, company equality approaches and employee attitudes. Three large main contractor companies were analysed, using expert interviews to determine the intent of the company’s response to equality, questionnaires to establish the relationships between perceptions of justice and attitudes toward equality approaches and employee interviews to analyse consequences.The questionnaire returned 782 usable responses across three organisations and established a substantial relationship between employee perceptions of interactional justice and employee attitudes towards company equality approaches. The employee interviews utilised critical incident technique to conduct interviews with eight employees to analyse any outcomes from the relationship established between perceptions of interactional justice and attitudes towards equality approaches. The qualitative analysis revealed that perceptions of interactional justice influenced whether employees aligned with the in-group or the company, presented in the employee alignment framework and model.In-group aligned employees demonstrated attitudes and behaviours designed to protect the in-group such as spurious support for company equality approaches, seeing company equality approaches as bad for the company and good for out-groups, justifying inappropriate behaviour and resistance to company equality approaches. Whereas company aligned employees showed genuine support for company equality approaches, saw out-group support as beneficial to the company, demonstrated a desire to hold inequality to account and valued upskilling around equality. The employee alignment model presents these attitudes and behaviours as a result of employee perceptions of interactional justice. The implications for practice are, where employees hold negative perceptions of interactional justice, main contractor companies should focus on improving these perceptions before implementing equality approaches to prevent increasing instances of backlash and discrimination. The original contribution to knowledge is the proposal of a new approach to equality theory that intends to reduce resistance and increase employee engagement, termed behavioural equality. It is supported by an empirical link between employee perceptions of interactional justice and attitudes towards equality approaches; and reinforced by the inference that justice perceptions may directly impact attitudes and behaviours towards equality approaches and out-groups. A further contribution is the employee alignment model, which demonstrates how employee behaviours are influenced by interactional justice in the context of company equality approaches. These findings explain employee resistance to equality approaches and provide a plausible solution to the inconsistent outcomes of company equality approaches. Although this work has focused on the construction sector, there is evidence that the findings apply to any UK or even global company or social grouping.