An application of organizational justice theory to a community disaster

Abstract

The experiences of 100 residents of Fort Collins, Colorado, who were affected, financially and otherwise, by the 1997 flood were examined within the context of organizational justice. Theories of fairness provided a framework for exploring the outcomes of interactions between residents and City authorities in a community setting rather than the workplace, the traditional milieu for organizational justice research. This framework was also used to explore participants' self-reported levels of stress. Participants were recruited from neighborhoods that sustained damage from drainage system overflows rather than creek flooding. In order to limit the study to the neighborhoods of interest, a non-random sample was used. Participants' self-reported levels of flood impact, stress (retrospective and recent), perceptions of fair treatment by City authorities, and evaluations of the City were examined by a telephone survey. Hypotheses stating that perceived fair treatment of residents by the City would be related to positive evaluations of the City and lower levels of retrospective stress were generally supported, although the relationship between fair treatment and stress was small. A predicted positive relationship between impact severity and increased retrospective stress was also supported. Contrary to predictions, a negative relationship was found between impact severity and recent stress; however, this appears to reflect a floor effect in that those with lower levels of retrospective stress had less room to improve. The predicted negative relationship between impact severity and evaluations of the City was not supported, but a predicted positive relationship between perceived distributive fairness (extent of compensation) and satisfaction with compensation was supported. Four posthoc analyses were also considered. First, justice and retrospective stress were negatively correlated when impact was omitted from the analysis. Second, a negative correlation was also found between evaluations of the City and retrospective stress. Two of the posthoc analyses tested the potential that satisfaction with compensation might mediate between impact and either retrospective stress or evaluations of the City. While its possible role as a mediating variable was not supported, satisfaction was negatively related to retrospective stress and positively related to evaluations of the City when impact was held constant. It was concluded that retrospective stress was positively related to reported impact and negatively related to perceptions of fair treatment, evaluations of the City, and outcome satisfaction. Recent stress was negatively related to reported impact but was not related to perceptions of fair treatment by the City. Evaluations of the City were related to perceptions of fair treatment and outcome satisfaction but not to the reported amount of damage sustained. Finally, those reporting distributive fairness also reported outcome satisfaction. Study limitations and suggestions for future research in this area are also discussed.