Feelings Of Unfairness Research Articles

Tend to one's own house: The effect of firm CSR on employee effort

AbstractWe examine whether a firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions that benefit external parties can cause the firm's employees to reduce their effort. We expect employees will reduce their effort in response to their firm's external CSR actions when they perceive that they are treated poorly by the firm and that the firm's external CSR actions use resources that could have been readily transferred toward improving employee treatment. We expect that, when employees hold both of these perceptions, they will react negatively to the firm's CSR actions due to heightened feelings of unfairness. Results support our expectations and theory. We find that employees respond negatively to CSR only when they perceive that they are treated poorly by their firm and that CSR uses transferable resources. Further, we find these effects are driven by employees' perceptions of the fairness of their firm's actions toward employees. Our study suggests that firms should consider how employees perceive their treatment by the firm and the transferability of the resources used for CSR actions that benefit external parties.

Bridging power and fairness: unravelling the impact of informal networks on organisational justice in the ARAB region

PurposeWasta, the prevailing form of informal networks in the Arab region, exerts a significant controversial influence on organisations in this region. Despite the pervasive negative perceptions and alleged detrimental effects of Wasta, it remains a frequently employed practice. This research aims to comprehensively explore the influence of Wasta on organisational justice across organisations in the Arab world, with Jordanian organisations taken as an illustrative case.Design/methodology/approachEmploying a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 employees from various industries in Jordan.FindingsThe study reveals that Wasta significantly affects distributive, procedural and interactional justice within organisations, eliciting feelings of unfairness and hopelessness among employees.Practical implicationsThis study recommends that HR departments focus on implementing ethical policies and standards to enhance transparency in organisational decision-making processes. By understanding and addressing the implications of Wasta, organisations can foster a more just and equitable workplace environment.Originality/valueThis study advances our understanding of informal network theories in the Arab world by highlighting the interconnectedness between Wasta and organisational justice, and its profound impact on the work environment and employees. This study also explains how Wasta directly influences decision-making processes, at high managerial levels.

Resource Constraints Lead to Biased Attention but Decrease Unethical Behavior

ABSTRACTSubjective experiences of resource scarcity can make individuals short‐term oriented, capture attention, and trigger feelings of unfairness. However, the impact of scarcity on information processing and ethical decision‐making remains poorly understood. This eye‐tracking study explored how acute financial scarcity affects selective information search and ethical decision‐making in an economic task with competing incentives (N = 60, 12,000 observations). Results revealed that participants experiencing financial scarcity displayed a strong attentional bias towards financially tempting information, although they ultimately did not behave more unethically. These findings might reveal a “moral boundary” dictating when attentional biases translate into decision‐making. Our results contribute to understanding how individuals in scarcity contexts process and prioritize information in ethical decision‐making, helping organizations and policymakers combat stereotypes surrounding resource‐deprived individuals, and design evidence‐based policy interventions promoting ethical behavior in financially scarce situations.

Unfairness brings malice: Malevolent creativity is modulated by perceived unfairness of others

Creativity which is driven by negative intention can be termed as malevolent creativity (MC). Existing findings revealed that unfairness promoted regular antisocial behavior like aggression or lying. But the relationship between unfairness and creative antisocial behavior (i.e., MC) have not been investigated. Based on AMORAL theory, two studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between unfairness and MC from trait and state levels respectively. In Study 1, participants completed several questionaries about unfairness, MC, and other personality traits in online formats. Results showed that MC was significantly correlated with individuals’ unfairness, aggression, and moral disengagement. Aggression and moral disengagement played mediating roles between unfairness and MC. In Study 2, the Ultimatum Game paradigm was used to activate participants’ feelings of unfairness and they were further asked to solve MC problems in control or unfair conditions. Results showed that the experience of unfair condition enhanced individuals’ MC performance. Anger and implicit aggression played mediating roles between unfairness and MC. These findings indicate that individuals’ MC performance might be enhanced by unfairness and this effect could be related to individuals’ moral disengagement, aggression and anger.

Communicating the results of risk-based breast cancer screening through visualizations of risk: a participatory design approach

BackgroundRisk-based breast cancer (BC) screening raises new questions regarding information provision and risk communication. This study aimed to: 1) investigate women’s beliefs and knowledge (i.e., mental models) regarding BC risk and (risk-based) BC screening in view of implications for information development; 2) develop novel informational materials to communicate the screening result in risk-based BC screening, including risk visualizations of both quantitative and qualitative information, from a Human-Centered Design perspective.MethodsPhase 1: Interviews were conducted (n = 15, 40–50 years, 5 lower health literate) on women’s beliefs about BC risk and (risk-based) BC screening. Phase 2: In three participatory design sessions, women (n = 4–6 across sessions, 40–50 years, 2–3 lower health literate) made assignments and created and evaluated visualizations of risk information central to the screening result. Prototypes were evaluated in two additional sessions (n = 2, 54–62 years, 0–1 lower health literate). Phase 3: Experts (n = 5) and women (n = 9, 40–74 years) evaluated the resulting materials. Two other experts were consulted throughout the development process to ensure that the content of the information materials was accurate. Interviews were transcribed literally and analysed using qualitative thematic analysis, focusing on implications for information development. Notes, assignments and materials from the participatory design sessions were summarized and main themes were identified.ResultsWomen in both interviews and design sessions were positive about risk-based BC screening, especially because personal risk factors would be taken into account. However, they emphasized that the rationale of risk-based screening and classification into a risk category should be clearly stated and visualized, especially for higher- and lower-risk categories (which may cause anxiety or feelings of unfairness due to a lower screening frequency). Women wanted to know their personal risk, preferably visualized in an icon array, and wanted advice on risk reduction and breast self-examination. However, most risk factors were considered modifiable by women, and the risk factor breast density was not known, implying that information should emphasize that BC risk depends on multiple factors, including breast density.ConclusionsThe information materials, including risk visualizations of both quantitative and qualitative information, developed from a Human-Centered Design perspective and a mental model approach, were positively evaluated by the target group.

Digital Natives and Signalling in Employment Interviews: An Inquiry into the Acceptance and Perceived Fairness of Different Interview Modes

The paper investigates the signalling behaviour of digital native applicants in employment interviews and analyses how their reactions differ in face-to-face versus video-mediated contexts. The social presence within the interview setting and the possibility of employing impression management tactics are of particular interest to understanding the subjective acceptance and perceived fairness of the two types of selection procedures. The analyses of novel primary data from a German survey with 513 valid responses reveal that digital natives, similar to older applicants, appreciate signalling to lower information asymmetries. Regardless of interview mode, social presence and impression management are strong positive drivers of acceptance and perceived fairness. While members of the generational cohort still accept face-to-face interviews more than those mediated by videoconferencing technology, they perceive the former as less fair. This result, which may be explained by the specific characteristics of digital natives, contradicts the findings of studies that have investigated preceding generations. Hence, the paper complements the literature on applicant reactions by focusing on two younger generational cohorts, namely Generation Y and Z. Furthermore, the adoption of the signalling framework in this context suggests that the beneficial effects of signalling may stand vis-à-vis feelings of unfairness, which can be interpreted as additional psychological costs that are driven by moral considerations.

МЕНТОРСТВО ЯК ІНСТРУМЕНТ РОЗВИТКУ ПРОФЕСІЙНИХ МОЖЛИВОСТЕЙ ПРАЦІВНИКІВ ПІДПРИЄМСТВА

The aim of the article is to unveil the potential of mentorship and the specifics of models for developing the professional capabilities of enterprise employees. Mentorship is a method of leveraging the potential of experienced employees who have accumulated a wealth of knowledge and experience, embodying values and attitudes crucial for the enterprise. It has been established that mentorship inherently includes the following primary functions: providing psychosocial support and offering career or professional support, which encompasses tasks related to developing the enterprise's potential. It is proven that mentorship is effective when mentors and mentees trust each other, share their achievements and failures, and interact sincerely. Stability in work, the mentee's self-confidence, and understanding of future steps are criteria for the success of a mentorship program. The article outlines the features of identifying the effectiveness of mentorship with the onset of the war in Ukraine. A significant portion of current mentorship focuses on stabilizing the enterprise's operations and providing psychological support to employees. Effectiveness is determined by the mentee's ability to move forward. The risks associated with implementing mentorship include the possibility of deteriorating interpersonal relationships due to feelings of unfairness among mentees; creating a sense of threat in the mentor, who fears that the mentor-mentee relationship undermines their authority; and the potential for perpetuating unacceptable elements of the enterprise's organizational culture. Possible obstacles to implementing mentorship in an enterprise may include a mentor's unwillingness to share knowledge; generational misunderstandings; low awareness of the mentorship concept; and an inability to transfer knowledge effectively. It is substantiated that the main models of behavior for mentees and mentors that yield results include individual mentorship (one-on-one), group mentorship, reciprocal mentorship, online mentorship, reverse mentorship, and competency-based mentorship. The article presents the advantages, disadvantages, and potential uses of each model. Each of these models can be adapted to the specific needs of the enterprise or individual mentees. The choice of mentorship model depends on the goals, resources, and context of the interaction.

The Effect of Comparative Direction and Comparative Gap on Self-Deception.

Self-deception refers to an individual holding inflated beliefs about their abilities, plays a crucial role in human behavior and decision-making. Individuals may inflate their abilities when subject to comparisons with others. This study examined the impact of social comparison on self-deception through the implementation of two behavioral experiments. In Experiment 1, we recruited a sample of 152 undergraduate students. Participants were falsely informed that they performed better (downward comparison) and worse (upward comparison) than average on a game. Subsequently, their level of self-deception was assessed by asking them to predict their performance in a future game, with more inflated predictions indicating greater self-deception. In Experiment 2, we gathered 126 undergraduate students to broaden the current study. This experiment examined the combined effects of comparison direction and comparison gap on self-deceptive behavior. The findings showed that self-deception was more common in circumstances of upward comparison than in downward comparison or no comparison (Experiment 1). Furthermore, Individuals were more inclined to participate in self-deception when encountering a notable performance gap relative to others, particularly in scenarios involving upward social comparison (Experiment 2). The findings suggested that when confronted with threatening social comparative information, people tended to use self-deception to protect themselves. Members of the large gap group experienced strong feelings of unfairness and negative emotions, which led to self-protective behaviors and a greater likelihood of self-deception.

Differences in Quality of Female Nursing Work Life Based on Gender and Nursing Perspectives

The quality of a nurse’s work life is the degree of satisfaction regarding personal and organizational needs based on experience in a work organization. A nurse with a dual role is the nurse who acts as a mother and a professional nursing staff at the same time. The purpose was to determine differences in the quality of female nurses’ work life in gender and nursing perspective at Balung General Hospital and Kalisat General Hospital in Jember Regency. The research method uses a comparative study with a quantitative research type. The sampling technique in this research is random sampling with a total of 115 samples. Data collection was conducted by using questionnaires about the quality of nurses’ work life from the nursing perspective and questionnaires conflict with women’s dual role from the gender perspective. Data processing using the Mann-Whitney analysis test with a 95% significance level (α=0.05). The results using Mann-Whitney analysis showed that there is a difference between the gender perspective and the nursing perspective (p=0.000). The mean results showed that the nursing perspective () is higher than the gender perspective (). The conclusion shows that the quality of female nursing work life from the gender perspective needs to be improved. The hospital needed to review further regarding work schedules and shift time; the family needed to provide full support and good cooperation; and female nurses themselves must also have good coping control, time, and energy management. Apart from that, it is necessary to have a policy from the room head and team leader regarding the distribution of schedules for female nursing staff without reducing the feeling of unfairness for male health workers.

Fairness and Support for Populist Parties

On the premise that issues of fairness are important to voting behavior but often unrecognized, we explore how feelings of unfairness increase support for populist parties. We distinguish personal unfairness, the view that one’s own economic situation is unfair, from social unfairness, the view that the economic situation of others in society is unfair. Based on findings in psychology, we argue that uncertainties associated with the transition to a globalized knowledge economy heighten people’s feelings of personal unfairness and find empirical support for that contention. We develop arguments about why feelings of personal unfairness should increase support for the populist right and feelings about social unfairness should increase support for the populist left and find empirical support for them. Our results contribute to explanations for why people vote for the populist right rather than the left and underline the roles that uncertainty and issues of fairness play in electoral politics.

Roles of reciprocity and fairness concerns in airline-airport systems with environmental considerations

Operations of airports and airlines are highly inter-dependent. Over the past decades, we have witnessed all kinds of alliances and coordination between airports and airlines. The observed industrial practices uncover that airports reward their airline partners with aligned objectives such as those in environmental sustainability, thereby displaying the positive reciprocity behaviors. However, the airport's preferential treatment towards a particular airline may induce the feeling of unfairness to the other airlines, leading to non-trivial peer-induced fairness concerns. In this paper, by building game-theoretic mathematical models, we analytically explore the impacts of reciprocity and fairness concerns on environmental sustainability in a single-airport two-airlines system. Our analysis highlights the importance of the cardinal relationship between an airport and airline(s) and shows that (i) a higher level of reciprocity of airport towards an airline helps improve the greening level, (ii) the presence of peer-induced fairness concern yields a lower revenue-sharing fraction of the fairness concerned airline, and (iii) improving the passengers’ environmental awareness is favorable for enhancing the environmental sustainability. To enhance research rigor, we examine various extended models. We show that the theoretical findings derived in the main model remain robust in the extensions.

Investigating environmental values and psychological barriers to sustainable behaviors among college students

Sustainable and pro-environmental actions at the individual level are influenced by a myriad of external and internal factors. The “value-action gap” describes the disconnect between one’s environmental values and attitudes, and their actual behaviors. While many acknowledge that climate change is a major threat in today’s world, a multitude of structural and psychological barriers exist which prevent individuals from engaging in eco-friendly practices. This study investigated environmental values and psychological barriers to pro environmental behavior among college students in a North American University. Data was collected through a survey that received 765 responses and used the New Ecological Paradigm - NEP and the Dragons of Inaction Psychological Barriers - DIPB measurement scales. Students widely expressed environmental values and concern about climate change. Agreement or strong agreement with statements reflecting the New Ecological Paradigm ranged from 67% to 92%. Respondents agreed that action should be taken to promote sustainability, but they might need help to translate beliefs into action. The most influential psychological barriers showed: resistance to transforming habits and lifestyles, need for more information on how to change, and a feeling of unfairness in face of industry-caused environmental degradation. Most students would be willing to engage in a sustainability campaign. Identifying what prevents students from changing their habits and behaviors will help guide institutional efforts to promote a culture of sustainability on our campus. By understanding how students view and practice sustainability on an individual level, measures can be implemented that effectively address and overcome psychological barriers to pro-environmental behaviors.

Innovating HRM Recruitment: A Comprehensive Review Of AI Deployment

Recently, the integration of digitalization has led to the prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI) in human resource management (HRM), such as the utilization of artificial intelligence (AI)-based applications during the recruitment process. These AI-driven technologies have risen to prominence due to their ability to facilitate synergistic collaboration between humans and computer intelligence to effectively achieve desired goals. This paper reviews the research conducted on AI-based HRM and its consequences for recruiting outcomes. The systematic literature review is based on a search within the Web of Science and Scopus databases, which resulted in 46 peer-reviewed journal articles published from 2019 to 2023. The findings of the study were divided into five categories: (a) AI-based HRM, (b) ethics of AI in HRM, (c) benefits of AI-enabled selection tools, (d) risks of AI-enabled selection tools, and (d) usage of AI in recruitment in different country contexts. This paper provides a general overview of AI-based HRM management and its duality and complexity. One of the toughest challenges for HRM is to maintain a collaborative spirit when human workers are with AI-enabled robots’ side by side. Organizations are required to perceive both the potential risk and the opportunities that AI recruiting tools may generate. From the perspective of article outcomes, the majority of related studies have been performed in African and Asian countries, which suggests that there is a lack of empirical studies in the European region. One of the major causes may be assumed to be legislation issues, precisely general data protection rules (GDPRs), which hinder the process of adopting technology-based recruiting tools. During AI decision making, fairness should be at the centre of the procedure. Despite some preferences for AI recruitment, such as streamlining HR tasks, this raises many ethical and legal issues that should be solved—at least balanced—not to leave feelings of unfairness among potential employees. AI-based technology solutions require significant time and effort to peacefully exist in the job market. HR managers should not have the feeling of danger of being replaced by AI recruiting tools. To combine best of both worlds, the collaboration of human resources and artificial intelligence is very prominent; however, surveillance of AI technologies should never be lost. This article sheds light on key trends in the literature and the main drivers and obstacles associated with the adoption of AI-enabled recruiting tools. There is growing academic interest in AI utilization in the HRM process, which has been discussed in the current paper. Additionally, future study recommendations are proposed.

A qualitative study on the challenges health care professionals face when caring for adolescents and young adults with an uncertain and/or poor cancer prognosis

BackgroundAdolescents and young adults (AYAs, aged 18-39 years) with advanced cancer have an increased life expectancy due to improvements and refinements in cancer therapies, resulting in a growing group of AYAs living with an uncertain and/or poor cancer prognosis (UPCP). To date, no studies have examined the difficulties of health care professionals (HCPs) providing care to AYAs with a UPCP. This study aimed to understand the challenges in daily clinical practice experienced by HCPs from different disciplines who provide palliative as well as general care to AYAs with a UPCP.MethodsHCPs from a variety of backgrounds (e.g. clinical nurse specialists, medical oncologists, neurologists psychologists) were invited for a semi-structured interview. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Two AYA patients were actively involved as research partners to increase the relevance of the study design and to optimise interpretation of results.ResultsForty-nine HCPs were interviewed. Overall, we found that the threat of premature death within this young patient group increased emotional impact on HCPs and evoked a feeling of unfairness, which was an extra motivation for HCPs to provide the most optimal care possible. We generated four key themes: (i) emotional confrontation (e.g. feeling helplessness and experiencing a greater sense of empathy), (ii) questioning own professional attitude and skills, (iii) navigating uncertainty (e.g. discussing prognosis and end of life) and (iv) obstacles in the health care organisation (e.g. lack of knowledge and clarity about responsibilities).ConclusionsHCPs experienced unique emotional and practical challenges when providing care to AYAs with a UPCP. The results from this study highlight the need to develop an education module for HCPs treating AYAs with UPCP to increase their own well-being and optimise the delivery of person- and age-adjusted care.

COVID-19-related stressors and coping strategies of support staff working with people with learning disabilities

Background During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, support staff working with people with learning disabilities experienced a range of stressors directly related to the effects of the pandemic on themselves and on service users. Supporting staff well-being is crucial given their essential role in the lives of people with learning disabilities.Aim To investigate the experiences, during the COVID-19 pandemic, of support staff working in residential and supported-living services for people with learning disabilities and understand the stressors staff encountered, the ways in which they managed stress and the support mechanisms they found useful.Method A qualitative descriptive approach was used and individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 support staff working in residential or supported-living services for people with learning disabilities in the south of England.Findings The COVID-19 pandemic caused additional stress for staff, including information overload, challenges in providing person-centred, holistic support, and feelings of unfairness or being let down. However, staff derived benefits from timely, practical and non-judgemental support from managers and peers, and from celebrating their own and service users’ achievements.Conclusion A greater focus on non-judgemental listening by managers, celebration of staff’s and service users’ achievements and awareness of the potential overwhelming effects of email communication could reduce the stress levels support staff are exposed to.

The effects of coworkers' development idiosyncratic deals on employees' cooperation intention

Idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) are individualized agreements of a nonstandard nature negotiated between employers and employees regarding employment terms, which are regarded as being beneficial for the organization. On the bases of social comparison theory and equity theory, we hypothesized that witnessing the development i-deals of their coworkers would trigger employees' feeling of unfairness, causing lower cooperation intention. We further hypothesized that perceived future i-deals and task interdependence would play moderating roles in this reduction. Participants were 284 employees in China. The results show that feelings of unfairness mediated the relationship between witnessing development i-deals and the witnesses' cooperation intention. The positive relationship between witnessing development i-deals and feelings of unfairness was weaker when employees perceived a stronger possibility of themselves obtaining a future i-deal, and a high level of task interdependence weakened the negative effect of feelings of unfairness on employees' cooperation intention.

Acupuncture for Psychosomatic Symptoms of Hwa-byung, an Anger Syndrome: A Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objectives: Emerging studies found the potential effects of acupuncture for treating chronic pain and mental disorders, namely, depressive and anxiety disorders. Acupuncture is widely used for treating culture-related anger syndrome, Hwa-byung. This pilot trial aimed to investigate the feasibility of a clinical trial testing acupuncture for the psychosomatic symptoms of Hwa-byung.Methods: A total of 26 patients with Hwa-byung planned to be randomly assigned to the acupuncture or sham acupuncture groups. About 10 treatment sessions were applied over 4 weeks. The 100-mm visual analog scale was used to measure the six major Hwa-byung symptoms: stuffiness in the chest, heat sensations, pushing-up in the chest, feeling a mass in the throat, feelings of unfairness, and hard feelings. The criteria for assessing the success of this pilot trial were defined as improvement in three or more of the six Hwa-byung symptoms after treatment, with an effect size >0.2.Results: A total of 15 patients were finally included and randomly assigned to the acupuncture group (n = 7) or the sham acupuncture group (n = 8). After 10 treatment sessions, the Cohen's d effect sizes for acupuncture compared to sham acupuncture were >0.2 for each one of the six major Hwa-byung symptoms, which met our a priori criteria for success. Also, the effect size for the somatic symptoms of “stuffiness in the chest” was 0.81 (95% CI −0.40, 2.20), referring to a large effect size.Conclusions: Our results suggest that acupuncture treatment would be regarded as an acceptable intervention for a full-scale study of psychosomatic symptoms in patients with Hwa-byung.Trial Registration: cris.nih.go.kr, identifier: KCT0001732.

Perceived unfairness of revenue management pricing: developing a measurement scale in the context of hospitality

PurposeThis paper aims to offer a multi-dimensional scale for measuring the concept of perceived unfairness of revenue management pricing (RMP) in the context of hospitality.Design/methodology/approachTo develop a measurement scale for the perceived unfairness of RMP, the authors conducted a qualitative study using the critical incident technique to identify the key components of our measurement tool. They then collected two samples of quantitative data enabling them to have compelling evidence of the scale’s reliability and validity.FindingsThis research identified three dimensions of perceived unfairness of RMP in the context of hospitality: perceived normative deviation, perceived opacity and negative effects. The new scale proposed here is an alternative measurement instrument that could be useful for detecting and correcting some negative aspects of RMP.Practical implicationsThis measurement scale will help hotel managers to detect potential feelings of unfairness in relation to the RMP policies. It might also be used within the framework of market analyses and pricing strategy plans. Finally, the results of this research show that transparency, fairness and ethics based pricing could help hotel managers increase their revenue-per-available-room during and post COVID-19 pandemic.Originality/valueThis research develops a complete measurement scale for perceived unfairness of RMP, including cognitive and affective dimensions. The richness of this scale will help hospitality companies effectively identify the indicators that denote perceived unfairness of RMP, making them better equipped to handle customer dissatisfaction.

Complexities in Student Placements Under COVID-19 Moral and Practical Considerations

The work placement experiences of MA and BA social work students at an English university during a pandemic were explored by way of an online survey. Thirteen students responded and reported that the moral and practical consequences of a sudden forced move to the “new normal” of online working and assessment raised serious issues about the boundary between home and work life, and about the relationship-based nature of the career they thought they were entering. Experiences of moral and practical support from agencies were mixed, and a lack of consistency across different placement agencies led to feelings of unfairness in the students’ experience. Opportunities for incidental and tacit forms of learning were lacking in online working environments and students were strong of the belief that the future of social work would entail a permanent locus shift from community work to online interaction regarding the people (service users and carers) with whom they worked. This shift was largely perceived in terms of loss and a further diminution in relationship-based practice in English social work services, which have increasingly been dominated by a task and performance management culture before the onset of COVID-19.

The impact of social visibility of VIP services on satisfaction

PurposeFrom the perspective of customer segmentation, most scholars show more interest in the very important person (VIP) customer’s service experience and satisfaction; however, the way in which ordinary customers view VIP services has received less attention. Based on fairness heuristic theory and social comparison theory, this study aims to examine the impact of the social visibility of VIP services on ordinary customers’ satisfaction and explored the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of this effect.Design/methodology/approachTwo experiments were conducted, Study 1 verified the main effect and mediating effect, Study 2 tested the moderating effect.FindingsThe results show that the social visibility of VIP services decreases ordinary customers’ satisfaction and perceived fairness mediates this effect. The deservingness of VIP status moderates the connection between social visibility and perceived fairness.Research limitations/implicationsThis research changes the objects of VIP services research and focuses on ordinary customers as its main group and expands the scope of social comparisons among customers.Practical implicationsThe findings expand the scope and perspective of research on VIP services and provide guidance to service providers to reduce ordinary customers’ feelings of unfairness so as to improve customer satisfaction.Originality/valueThis study explores the effect of the social visibility of VIP services on ordinary customer satisfaction from the perspective of perceived fairness, as well as the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions of the effect.