Organizational justice and Black applicants' reactions to affirmative action.

Using organizational justice as a guiding framework, the authors studied perceptions of affirmative action programs by presumed beneficiaries. Three conceptual issues were addressed: (a) the content of different affirmative action plans; (b) the 3-way interaction among distributive, procedural, and interactional justice; and (c) the distinction between outcome favorability and distributive justice. These ideas were tested with a sample of Black engineering students who responded to 1 of 6 plans. Participants distinguished among the various plans, with some policies being viewed as more fair than others. In addition, a 3-way interaction among the 3 types of organizational justice was observed. Specifically, the 2-way interaction between distributive and interactional fairness was only significant when procedural justice was low. Implications for organizational justice and for the design of affirmative action programs are discussed.

Black applicants' reactions to affirmative action plans: effects of plan content and previous experience with discrimination.

This study examined the effects of plan content and previous experience with discrimination on Black respondents' reactions to affirmative action plans. Black engineering students (N = 1,173) were randomly assigned to 1 of 6 plans implemented by a hypothetical organization and were asked to provide ratings of perceived fairness and intention to pursue a position at the organization. There were significant effects of plan content on perceived faimess and job pursuit intentions. Perceived fairness mediated the effect of content on intentions. Furthermore, previous experience with discrimination interacted with content to affect intentions. Individuals who had experienced relatively more discrimination in the workplace reported stronger intentions to pursue a position at an organization whose plan specified special training opportunities for minorities.