Performance pay or redistribution? cultural differences in just-world beliefs and preferences for wage inequality

• Autores: Douglas H. Frank, Klaus Wertenbroch, William W. Maddux
• Localización: Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, ISSN-e 1095-9920, Vol. 130, Nº. 1, 2015, págs. 160-170
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • We identify and test a specific psychological mechanism underlying cross-national differences in preferences for performance-based versus redistributive compensation systems. We posit that individuals’ beliefs in the inherent justness and deservedness of individual outcomes (i.e., just world beliefs: JWBs) can help explain individual and culture-level variation in preferences for these compensation systems. Study 1 demonstrates a general correlation between the JWBs of a culturally diverse sample of former managers and their preferences for performance versus equal pay for an individual task. Study 2 shows that American participants exhibit stronger preferences for individual performance pay versus redistributive pay than do French participants, a difference that is mediated by cultural differences in JWBs. Study 3 holds national culture constant and replicates these effects by experimentally manipulating JWBs, demonstrating the causal nature of JWBs in determining preferences for performance-based versus redistributive compensation systems. Implications for organizational incentive systems, culture, and work motivation are discussed