The effect of status characteristics and referential structures in reward allocation

Abstract

The present study is based on Status Characteristics andExpectation States theory (Berger etA aI, 1977). The mainconcern is distributive justice and the usage of the equitynorm.The aim of the study was to investigate the combinationand the relevance of status characteristics which create thepower and prestige orders of the actors in a task groupsituation. Furthermore, the second purpose was to determinethe effect of the organizational criterion given as anexternal referential structure in order to affect the rewardallocation behavior of the sUbjects.It was expected that the status characteristics wouldcombine to produce a higher power and prestige order actorand that the reward would be allocated to the higher orderactor. It was also expected that the higher order actorwould be allocated a larger amount of reward.83 subjects from the first year students of the BogaziciUniversity participated in the study.The subjects `read nine conditions presented as shor~stories. In each condition six status characteristics werepresented (sex, age, education, seniority, ability andperformance) in order to describe two co-worker actors.Subjects were asked to choose the actor who deserves a payraise and decide the amount of reward.Chi-square analyses showed ,that the hypotheses werepartially supported.It was found that performance was the most potent andrelevant characteristic, followed by ability. Seniority andeducation were the third relevant characteristics. Sex andage had the least effect.The reward was allocated most frequently to the higherorder actor implying that the status characteristics werecombined.The organizational criteria had an effect in theexpected direction. The result regarding amount of payraise were also partially in line with the hypothesis.It is suggested that the results might have beendifferent than that of the present sudy, if the sample wasdrawn from middle age working subjects.