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Workplace justice outcomes as a function of adversaries' gender composition: A field assessment

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Abstract

There is extensive documentation that the sex of organizational members may bias a wide variety of managerial decisions and workplace outcomes. While such effects have been persuasively demonstrated, the “sex context” of these effects has received little attention. It is argued here that it is not merely the sex of the actor, but the nature of the dyadic match (male/male; female/female; male/female; female/male) that is a critical influence on outcomes. This hypothesis is strongly supported by gross differences in workplace justice outcomes based on the dyadic composition of the actors involved in dispute proceedings (n=369) in a field setting. These results are tempered, however, inasmuch as analysis also indicates differences in the severity of disputed issues across these dyadic compositions.

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Dalton, D.R., Todor, W.D. & Owen, C.L. Workplace justice outcomes as a function of adversaries' gender composition: A field assessment. J Bus Psychol 1, 203–217 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01020809

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