In the Aftermath of Unfair Events: Understanding the Differential Effects of Anxiety and Anger

Abstract

After decades of domination by social exchange theory and its focus on a manager-centered perspective, fairness scholars have recently issued numerous calls to shift attention toward understanding employees’ subjective “lived-through” experiences and in situ responses to unfair events. Using appraisal theories, we argue that focusing on the employee’s perspective highlights the importance of emotions in fairness experiences. Further, this emphasis creates opportunities for novel insights regarding the emotions that are likely to be relevant, the constructive responses that can emerge from unfairness, and the interplay between unfair events and entity fairness judgments. Using a daily diary study with event sampling, we highlight the importance of anger and anxiety in understanding how individuals experience and react to unfair events. Results indicated that anger elicited counterproductive work behaviors, whereas anxiety initiated problem prevention behaviors (i.e., a subdimension of proactive work behavior). Further, by engaging in problem prevention behaviors, employees can positively influence their subsequent overall fairness judgments. Experiences of an unfair event can also be shaped by individuals’ preexisting overall fairness judgments, such that preexisting overall fairness judgments are negatively associated with anger but positively associated with anxiety. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, including the influential role of emotions for fairness experiences, how employees’ own behaviors can influence subsequent overall fairness judgments, the interplay between unfair events and entity judgments, and ensuring that fairness is effectively managed on a daily basis.

“Is there anything good about a water advisory?”: an exploration of the consequences of drinking water advisories in an indigenous community

“…Rather, health encompasses physical, spiritual, emotional, and psychological health [ 7 ]. Worry and anger are both negative emotions, but anxiety most often comes from a place of uncertainty and fear about handling an injustice, while anger comes from the need to blame someone for an injustice [ 35 ]. Collectively, the negative emotional responses points to the broader health implications of living under a BWA.…”

How emotions influence alliance relationships: The potential functionality of negative emotions

“…. reducing the potential threat and its inherent ambiguity as well as reestablishing a sense of control" (Barclay & Kiefer, 2019, p. 1809. In other words, anxiety fuels a tendency to move toward the partner.…”

“…Anger is an emotion that is critical in influencing organizational processes and outcomes (Gibson & Callister, 2010; van Kleef et al, 2012). Anger is defined by Gibson and Callister (2010, p. 68) as “an emotion that involves an appraisal of responsibility for wrongdoing by another person or entity and often includes the goal of correcting the perceived wrong.” Many studies suggest that anger is an outcome of the violation of justice norms (Barclay & Kiefer, 2019; Cropanzano, Weiss, Suckow, & Grandey, 2000). Perceptions of injustice fuel anger and resentment (Cropanzano et al, 2000; Pillutla & Murnighan, 1996) and interpersonal conflict (Allred, 1999), and they may motivate individuals to harm another person (Skarlicki & Folger, 1997).…”

“…At the intrapersonal level of analysis, the intensity of the anger that is experienced by an alliance decision maker in response to an actual–ought process discrepancy depends on the degree to which the emergence of the actual–ought process discrepancy is attributed to a partner’s opportunism (whether it is reflected in behaviors that the partner should not have shown or in a failure to show behaviors that he or she should have shown). The experience of anger, which tends to result from such perceived wrongdoing, is a key motivator of behavioral responses aimed at confronting the wrongdoer and remedying the situation (Lazarus, 1991; Barclay & Kiefer, 2019). Anger is associated with the behavioral tendency to move against the partner.…”

“…Indeed, empirical work has demonstrated that anxious interactants (relative to those in a neutral emotional state) lessen their expectations, respond to their opponents’ offers more quickly, and are less demanding in their initial offers (Brooks & Schweitzer, 2011). Anxiety has been linked to problem prevention behaviors by “…reducing the potential threat and its inherent ambiguity as well as reestablishing a sense of control” (Barclay & Kiefer, 2019, p. 1809). In other words, anxiety fuels a tendency to move toward the partner.…”