The analysis of interactional justice from the manager's perspective: The effect of subordinate's competence and warmth

Considering that one of the factors that determine behaviors, perceptions, or attitudes of subordinates is the characteristics of the managers, it can be thought that the opposite may also be true based on interactionist perspective. That is, it can be predicted that the characteristics of subordinates can affect behaviors of managers. Based on this, this study, in which main purpose is to understand whether and how the characteristics of subordinates affect the behavior of managers, has four sub-objectives: Understanding the effect of subordinates' characteristics (competence, warmth) on managers' perceived justice about their own behavior (interpersonal justice and informational justice); examining the mediating role of subordinate trust on this effect; exploring whether subordinate-supervisor fit has a moderating role in the relationship between subordinates' characteristics and trust in subordinates and, finally, examining how managers' perceptions about their own behavior affect subordinates' perceived organizational justice. To achieve this aim, the quantitative method was used. The sample for this research consists of subordinate-supervisor couples working together in the same department. Within the scope of the research, 150 subordinate-supervisor couples (300 participants in total) were reached, and data were obtained through face-to-face survey with the participants. The data regarding the warmth of the subordinate, the competence of the subordinate, trust in the subordinate, the subordinate-supervisor fit and the perceptions of the managers regarding the fairness of their own behavior were obtained from the managers, and the data for the fairness of the managers' behaviors were obtained from the subordinates. SmartPLS and SPSS package programs were used in the analysis of the data. The most obvious results reached in the research were: (1) managers acted more fairly when they trust their subordinates, whom they consider competent and warmth; and (2) managers who found their own behavior fair have also been perceived fair by their subordinates.