Distributive Justice
Distributive justice. Theories of distributive jus tice suggest individuals make fairness judgments when they compare their inputs and outcomes with those of a referent. Sub ordinates of abusive supervisors may experience what Martin referred to as relative deprivation: the belief that they are getting less than they deserve compared to target referents. For example, subordinates of abusive supervisors may feel dis advantaged compared to peers if their supervisors spend more time berating them than providing the mentoring functions that prepare junior colleagues for advancement . Abusive supervision may also influence subordinates’ perceptions of the inputs that figure in their evaluations of distributive justice. For example, subordinates of abusive supervisors may have to overcome obstacles that increase the time and effort required to fulfill their responsibilities; for instance, gathering needed information from a superior who is more inclined to provide criticism than constructive feedback will take longer. In addition, because people are likely to see unfair procedures as producing unfair outcomes—a phenomenon known as the fair process effect—the procedural injustices subordinates of abusive supervisors experience may result
in the perception that their outcomes are not as favorable as those of subordinates who do not have abusive supervisors. Given these possibilities, sub ordinates should experience distributive injustice when their supervisors are more abusive.
