Attributional fairness theory: The cognitive precursors of organizational justice judgments

The present study used Weiner's attribution theory and assignment of responsibility model in an attempt to identify cognitive precursors to justice judgments, and thus to improve the prediction of post-injustice behaviors. By combining several aspects of Folger and Cropanzano's Fairness Theory with attribution theory constructs, the present study offered a new, testable model of injustice and connected two literatures (organizational justice and attribution theory) that were clearly overdue for a merger.; The results of this research offer partial support for the proposed model and considerable support to the contributing theories of Weiner (1995) and Folger and Cropanzano (1998, 2001). A link, while tenuous, has been made between the attribution and organizational justice literatures. The model that was tested is not ideal, but it is the first organizational justice model to explicitly include an attributional process as a cognitive antecedent of organizational justice judgments. It is also the first empirical evidence that accountability is a factor in the formation of justice judgments. Future research will be needed to further refine the model.