Cutback management may invoke perceptions of distributive (in)justice, potentially shaping how employees respond to change. Using a survey experiment and a longitudinal field study, this article examines how two standards of distributive justice—equality and equity—affect resistance to change in response to cutbacks. The results indicate that distributive justice negatively affects resistance to change, and that distributive equality and distributive equity may have differential effects during cutback management. By signaling distributive justice, public managers may be able to reduce resistance and maintain the organization’s capacity for change and innovation in times of financial distress.