Employees’ relative deprivation for females and supervisory commitment: The mediating roles of interpersonal justice, informational justice, and perceived empathy

Abstract

The present study aims to test a model derived from a conceptual framework that attempted to explain negative interactions among supervisor-employee dyads from a Relative Deprivation Theory (RDT) and justice-related perspective. Employees’ perceptions of fraternal (group) deprivation on part of females compared to males in their organizations were suggested to be related to their interpersonal and informational justice perceptions as well as their perceptions of supervisors’ empathy. Employees’ perceptions of justice and empathy, in turn, were suggested to be positively associated with overall supervisory commitment. Moreover, the moderating effects of employee gender on the proposed relationships were investigated. The data was collected from 114 employees who were enrolled in undergraduate classes in a Southwestern university in USA. The proposed model as well as the alternative models were tested by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique using AMOS 6.0 software. The findings revealed that proposed mediated model was supported by the data for the independent variable of employee perceptions of “affective” relative deprivation for females in the organization and for the dependent variables of “affective supervisory commitment” and “continuance supervisory commitment”. However, employees’ gender did not have a moderating effect on the relationships in the mediated model that was supported by the data. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications as well as the suggestions for future research.