A Cross‐National Study of Fairness in Asia: How Perceptions of a Lack‐of‐Group Bias and Transparency in the Performance Evaluation System Relate to Job Satisfaction

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21707
• Author: Yoshitaka Yamazaki,Jeewhan Yoon
• Date: 01 November 2016
• Published date: 01 November 2016

Human Resource Management, November–December 2016, Vol. 55, No. 6. Pp. 1059–1077

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI:10.1002/hrm.21707

Correspondence to: Yoshitaka Yamazaki, PhD, Professor, Faculty of Business Administration, Bunkyo University,

1100Namegaya, Chigasaki, Kanagawa 253-8550, Japan, Phone: 81-467-53-2111, Fax: 81-467-54-3734,

E-mail: yyama@shonan.bunkyo.ac.jp

A CROSS-NATIONAL STUDY

OF FAIRNESS IN ASIA: HOW

PERCEPTIONS OF A LACK-OF-

GROUP BIAS AND TRANSPARENCY

IN THE PERFORMANCE

EVALUATION SYSTEM RELATE

TOJOB SATISFACTION

YOSHITAKA YAMAZAKI AND JEEWHAN YOON

This study explored how managers’ fairness perceptions of performance evalu-

ation systems differ across countries and relate to their job satisfaction. Lack-

of-group bias and transparency were the constructs used to assess fairness

perceptions. The data sample consisted of 903 Asian managers from the sub-

sidiaries of a leading multinational corporation (MNC) strategically expanding

its retail markets in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand. Results

showed that the fairness perceptions of lack-of-group bias and transparency con-

cerning the common performance evaluation system varied within these Asian

countries. Furthermore, those fairness perceptions were signifi cantly related to

job satisfaction among Asian managers overall, as well as in each of the fi ve geo-

graphical subgroups with the exception of Hong Kong, where the perception of a

lack-of-group bias was only marginally related to job satisfaction. These fi ndings

offer theoretical implications regarding organizational justice, cross-national

management, and performance evaluation, as well as practical implications for

leveraging organizational justice perceptions of performance evaluation systems

for the effectiveness of MNCs. ©2015 Wiley Periodicals,Inc.

Keywords: lack-of-group bias, transparency, performance evaluation systems,

job satisfaction, Asian managers, Japanese MNCs

1060 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2016

Human Resource Management DOI: 10.1002/hrm

This study seeks

to contribute

to research

and practice in

organizational justice,

cross-national

management,

and performance

evaluation by

exploring cross-

national variations

of two fairness

perceptions: lack-

of-group bias and

transparency, which

are newly proposed

in this study.

perceptions in diverse countries is still constrained

(Skarlicki, 2001); in particular, the understand-

ing of procedural and interactional fairness in

different countries and cultures remains limited

(Morris & Leung, 2000). With regard to research

design, Blader, Chang, and Tyler (2001) further

pointed out that little research has involved

cross-national designs that can directly compare

fairness perceptions between countries. Because

MNCs may want to effectively manage their

global workforce by implementing common per-

formance evaluation systems across countries

(Nohria & Ghoshal, 1997; Onyemah et al., 2010;

Welch & Welch, 2006), research needs to exam-

ine whether employees from diverse countries

respond to common performance evaluations

similarly or differently (Briscoe et al., 2009) and

whether their fairness perceptions are positively

related to their job satisfaction (Vo & Stanton,

2011) as an appropriate reaction to performance

evaluation (Hartmann, 2000). Therefore, this

study’s purpose is to address these current limita-

tions in understanding the complexity of MNCs

working in global business contexts.

The study is intended to contribute not

only to theory and research, but also to prac-

tice. Specifically, this study seeks to contribute

to research and practice in organizational justice,

cross-national management, and performance

evaluation by exploring cross-national variations

of two fairness perceptions: lack-of-group bias

and transparency, which are newly proposed in

this study. These two perceptions are similar to

those observed as cross-national and ethnocen-

tric phenomena in Vo and Stanton’s (2011) quali-

tative study of MNCs. Those fairness perceptions

are thought to be important but are relatively

underexplored aspects of organizational justice

(Vo & Stanton, 2011). Next, this study seeks to

contribute to the literature by investigating how

those two fairness perceptions are related to job

satisfaction across different countries, as well as

in each of the countries. In doing so, the article

adds to the small number of empirical studies

that have examined an organizational justice

theory-driven framework for understanding the

cross-national variations of fairness perceptions

of common performance evaluation systems and

the relationships between fairness perceptions

and job satisfaction in a cross-national study

design. Last but not least, this study aims to pro-

vide HR practitioners at MNC headquarters with a

rationale for designing and applying tailored and

fair HR practices in their performance evaluation

systems to address cross-national variations in

fairness perceptions and enhance employees’ job

satisfaction.

In a competitive, globalized economy, how

multinational corporations (MNCs) manage

their overseas employees is a key determinant

of their success (Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1989; Doz

& Prahalad, 1986). In an effort to align the

attitudes and behaviors of the entire workforce

and achieve greater global integration of their

overseas subsidiaries, MNCs pursue more formal

mechanisms of control and coordination, includ-

ing common performance evaluation systems

(Nohria & Ghoshal, 1997; Welch & Welch, 2006).

While common human resources (HR) practices

of MNCs are ideally designed to smoothly mobi-

lize a corporation’s global workforce within vari-

ous overseas host sites, the success

of the practices, particularly that

of performance evaluation, may

depend on employee fairness per-

ceptions (Vo & Stanton, 2011).

Because MNCs’ management

continues to be rooted in their home

country (Ferner & Quintanilla,

1998), their common performance

evaluation systems are embedded

in the home country and culture

(Hofstede, 2001). Briscoe, Schuler,

and Claus (2009) pointed out that

western MNCs apply their common

HR practices—including perfor-

mance management systems—across

subsidiaries globally, even those in

a non-western context. However,

subsidiaries of MNCs may face chal-

lenges in adopting common HR

practices due to various local pres-

sures (Morris, Snell, & Wright, 2006;

Onyemah, Rouzies, & Panagopoulos,

2010) and different perceptions

between home and host employees

as to whether the practices are fair

(Vo & Stanton, 2011). When the

performance management system of

the home country is employed in a

host country, therefore, it is impor-

tant to understand how fairly host-

country employees perceive it.

Yet there has been relatively limited atten-

tion to country differences in fairness percep-

tions when studying organizational justice and

specifically when studying common performance

evaluation systems of MNCs. With the overall

assumption that employees’ fairness perceptions

are universal across the globe, most research in

the area of organizational justice has been con-

ducted in North America (Skarlicki, 2001), espe-

cially in the United States (Narcisse & Harcourt,

2008). As a result, the understanding of fairness