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Organizational respect dampens the impact of group‐based relative deprivation on willingness to protest pay cuts
Author(s) -
Osborne Danny,
Huo Yuen J.,
Smith Heather J.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/bjso.12069
Subject(s) - relative deprivation , psychology , social psychology , moderated mediation , mediation , political science , law
Although group‐based relative deprivation predicts people's willingness to protest unfair outcomes, perceiving that one's subgroup is respected increases employees' support for organizations. An integration of these perspectives suggests that subgroup respect will dampen the impact of group‐based relative deprivation on workers' responses to unfair organizational outcomes. We examined this hypothesis among university faculty ( N = 804) who underwent a system‐wide pay cut. As expected, group‐based relative deprivation predicted protest intentions. This relationship was, however, muted among those who believed university administrators treated their area of expertise (i.e., their subgroup) with a high (vs. low) level of respect. Moderated mediation analyses confirmed that group‐based relative deprivation had a conditional indirect effect on protest intentions via participants' (dis)identification with their university at low to moderate, but not high, levels of subgroup respect. Our finding that satisfying relational needs can attenuate responses to group‐based relative deprivation demonstrates the benefits of integrating insights from distinct research traditions.