Which is More Important: Relationships with Superiors or with Colleagues? Examining Taiwanese Employees’ Justice Perceptions on Co-workers’ Punitive Events

In this study, we examine justice perceptions of Taiwanese employees in response to co-workers’ punitive events. We raised the following question: When one’s co-worker is punished by a superior, does his or her (the “member’s”) justice perceptions vary more as a function of his or her relationships with the superior or more of those with the punished co-worker? We developed a working hypothesis based upon concepts of Chinese behaviors. In order to test our hypothesis empirically, we conducted a study in Taiwan, where the culture is strongly affected by Confucian teachings. We analyzed 65 cases where the scores on each independent variable were either in an in-group category or in an out-group category and omitted all other cases. We found support for interaction effects for perceptions of procedural justice but not of distributive justice. From our results, we discuss implications to Chinese organizational behavior.