Date of Award

5-1-1994

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Lynn Harland

Second Advisor

Dr. Wayne Harrison

Third Advisor

Dr. Lisa Scherer

Fourth Advisor

Dr. James Thomas

Abstract

Increasingly, organizations are implementing drug testing programs as a means of reducing the high costs of drug use. Although employees' attitudes towards various policies have been examined, two issues have not been addressed. First, justice research indicates that individuals react favorably to procedures that allow them an opportunity to express their views and arguments (i.e., voice). However, this policy has not been examined within the drug testing context. Additionally, research has not examined reactions to policies that allow managers discretion in applying procedures in order to take extenuating circumstances into account. Reactions to these drug testing policies were assessed using data from 128 undergraduate psychology students. A main effect of voice on perceptions of procedural and distributive justice was hypothesized. Voice effects were expected to be magnified in the situationally guided conditions in comparison with the rule-guided conditions. A voice by policy type interaction was predicted for trust, bias, and perceptions of relevant information. Specifically, the supervisor was expected tobe perceived as more trustworthy, less biased, and as using more relevant information in arriving at his decision of what consequence the employee was to receive when a situationally guided policy was used and voice was permitted than in the other three conditions. Partial support for the hypotheses was found. In general, subjects indicated a preference for rule-guided policies, particularly when voice is not permitted. In addition, a trend of negative reactions to the situationally guided no voice condition emerged. Specifically, in this condition, the supervisor was perceived as more biased and as using irrelevant information in the decision of what consequence the employee would receive. Implications for drug testing policy implementation is discussed.

Comments

A Thesis Presented to the Department of Psychology and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts University of Nebraska at Omaha. Copyright 1994, Cheryl L. Hendrickson.

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