Fairness Perceptions of an Organizational Policy

Description

This measure, (Fairness Perceptions of an Organizational Policy) developed by Grover (1991), is an example of a measure of fairness directed to a specific policy area. The policy area is organizational policies that allow parents to take family-related leave immediately follow­ing the birth of a child. The measure uses nine items to assess employee per­ceptions of fairness (two items), parental deservingness (three items), and institutional responsibility (four items).

Reliability

Coefficient alpha for fairness perceptions was .95 (Grover, 1991). Factor analysis of the nine items produced a single factor.

Validity

Fairness perceptions correlated positively with positive attitudes toward male leave-takers, positive attitudes toward female leave-takers, being of childbearing age, being female, greater likelihood of having additional chil­dren, and greater likelihood of taking parental leave (Grover, 1991).

Source

Items

Responses are obtained using a 7-point Likert-type scale where 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree somewhat, 3 = disagree a little, 4 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = agree a little, 6 = agree somewhat, and 7 = agree strongly.

Fairness perception items:

1. Paying faculty members for having babies is not fair to non­ childbearing faculty members (R)
2. Every parent deserves the right to paid leave when a child is born
3. It is everyone’s, including non-parents, responsibility to provide for children, and a parental leave policy helps to accomplish this task
4. It is not [the organization’s] responsibility to provide paid time off to new parents (R)
5. Having a child is a strain on parents, and they deserve the aid of parental leave
6. Children are a necessary part of society and it is the responsibility of large institutions like [organization] to help in the effort
7. Those who choose not to have children should subsidize those who choose to have children under a parental leave program
8. In the past, employees have borne children without the benefit of special leave, and therefore it is not fair to offer parental leave to new parents (R)
9. Having a baby is a personal choice and provisions for that event should be made by the family, rather than by the employer (R)

Items denoted with (R) are reverse scored.