Unfair Reward Research Articles

Effects of Organizational Supports on the Stress of Construction Estimation Participants

Forecasting the likely cost of construction work before tendering is known as to be a hazardous task. Both underestimates and overestimates may present problems to clients and contractors. Not surprisingly, cost-engineering activities can be stressful for those responsible. Coping with the stresses requires action on the part of the individuals affected and the organizations to which they belong. This paper examines the effect of organizational supports in the process of project estimation through a survey of construction estimation participants in Hong Kong. Using correlation analysis and regression analysis, it is found that: (1) the stressors of autonomy and feedback are directly related to the stress experienced by cost engineers; (2) informal organizational supports (particularly concerning relationship conflict, Type A behavior, work underload, lack of autonomy, and unfair rewards and treatment) are far more effective than formal supports in reducing stress; and (3) lack of autonomy and lack of feedback are predictable variables affecting stress. Cost-engineering managers and supervisors need to carefully distinguish between those who prefer hands-on support and those who prefer hands-off support. A good communication and team decision-making process and a fair reward and treatment system may help establish close relationships among cost engineers in a company and ensure sufficient autonomy to cost engineers and the participants in the estimation process.

Subjective and objective stress in construction cost estimation

Cost estimators play an important role in an organization, as they produce most predictions of probable final construction cost. Since both under‐ and overestimates can be costly, attention should be paid to the estimating tasks. People involved are therefore likely to experience a considerable amount of mental and emotional stress as a result of inaccurate estimation. The types of stress can be divided into objective stress (OS), subjective stress (SS) and emotional exhaustion (EE). The research described in this paper examined the relationships between OS, SS, EE and stressors based on a survey of construction cost estimation personnel. T‐tests, factor analyses, correlation analyses and regression analyses were applied to identify differences between the professional estimators and other personnel, and the types of stress endured. The results indicate that the stress levels of both the professional estimators and other personnel are similar, with OS being significantly higher than SS, which is in turn significantly higher than EE. For professional estimators, increased levels of OS were found to be mainly associated with lack of autonomy and unfair reward and treatment. Increased SS and EE, on the other hand, appeared to be a function of relationship conflict, work underload, lack of feedback, lack of autonomy and unfair reward and treatment.

Children's Perceptions of Unfair Reward and Punishment

Being able to judge the fairness of a personal encounter and having an appreciation of the associated feelings are important components of prosocial development. This study explored a common feature of everyday experience: unfair reward and unfair punishment. Scenarios depicting 4 possible variants of unfairness were read to children aged 9 to 11 years, who then made judgments regarding the degree of unfairness and the nature and strength of the feelings experienced by the characters. Our hypothesis that children with classroom conduct problems would judge the non-receipt of a deserved reward as worse than the receipt of an undeserved punishment was not confirmed. This differentiation, however, did prove to be characteristic of boys in general, but not girls. Being asked to think of unfair things that had actually happened did not appear to influence the children's responses to hypothetical unfair situations, but did reveal that children experience and remember a variety of unfair events in everyday family contexts. This study provides evidence that children actively monitor the receipt of social reward and punishment according to their perception of fairness.

Impression management messages and reactions to organizational reward allocations: The mediating influence of fairness and responsibility

In this scenario‐based experiment we examined the relationships among impression management messages, evaluations of reward allocations (fairness and responsibility) and reactions to rewards (anger, approval of manager and overall job satisfaction). The results suggest that impression management messages directly influence fairness and responsibility, and indirectly influence anger and approval. Specifically, justifications and enhancements increased evaluations of fairness, excuses decreased attributions of responsibility for unfair rewards, and entitling accounts increased attributions of responsibility for fair rewards. Also, justifications and enhancements indirectly decreased anger, increased approval, and increased job satisfaction through the mediating influence of fairness. Excuses and entitling accounts indirectly decreased anger and increased approval through the mediating influence of responsibility.