When are bonus payments for managers perceived as fair? Results from a quasi-experiment

We investigate under which circumstances bonus payments for managers are accepted as fair, asking workers to judge several hypothetical scenarios. We find that perceptions vary widely with the characteristics of the situation, as well as with the workers’ general attitudes. •We use vignettes to isol...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEconomics letters Vol. 125; no. 1; pp. 130 - 133
Main Authors Stephan, Gesine, Dütsch, Matthias, Gückelhorn, Cathrin, Struck, Olaf
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.10.2014
Elsevier Science Ltd
Subjects
Attitudes to work
Bonus payments
Bonuses
Compensation
Equality
Fairness
Hypothesis
Justice perceptions
Managerial compensation
Managers
Perception
Perceptions
Quasi-experiment
Studies
Wage-employment relationship
Bonus payments
Justice perceptions
J53
Quasi-experiment
J33
Fairness
Managerial compensation
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Summary:We investigate under which circumstances bonus payments for managers are accepted as fair, asking workers to judge several hypothetical scenarios. We find that perceptions vary widely with the characteristics of the situation, as well as with the workers’ general attitudes. •We use vignettes to isolate factors driving fairness judgments of manager bonuses.•Situational features explain more than respondents’ characteristics and attitudes.•The largest impact is found if a firm’s workforce also receives bonus payments.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:0165-1765
1873-7374
DOI:10.1016/j.econlet.2014.08.012