Managers’ “social accounts” of beyond their social media log-ins.
Experts in procedural justice broaden definition of “social accounts” to include explanations for decisions and outcomes.

Maura Belliveau

Experienced managers who were permitted to give a rationale for salary decisions – a “social account” – awarded smaller salary increases to women employees but not men, in a study by Long Island University’s Maura A. Belliveau.

Less experienced managers did not use social accounts as substitutes for pay, suggesting that managers’ adherence to procedural justice was affected by age and years of experience.
More experienced managers in this study did not enhance women’ earning power.

Julie Cloutier

In addition to “social accounts,” Julie Cloutier of École des Sciences de la Gestion in Montréal  and Cornell’s Lars Vilhuber found the perceptions of fairness and justice in salary decisions are affected by:

• Salary allocation procedures,
• Perceived decision-makers characteristics,
• Salary system transparency.
  

  Lars Vilhuber

  Social accounts can mitigate bad feelings if employees believe that unfavorable outcomes occurred with fair procedures, according to Mary A. Konovsky, then of Tulane and University of South Florida’s Robert Folger.

  They investigated the impact of “social accounts” during organizational layoffs.

  

  Mary Konovsky

  Such downsizings are unwelcome by most employees, and risky for employers, who may alienate former employees and undermine brand reputation during restructurings.

  

  Robert Folger

  Three hundred and fifty-three laid-off employees said they were willing to recruit employees for the former employer when fair decision-making practices were administered in addition to “social accounts.”

  

  Denise Rousseau

  “Social accounts” for termination specifying reasons and context, significantly influenced perceptions of termination fairness by more than 130 volunteer respondents in research by Carnegie Mellon’s Denise M. Rousseau  and Karl Aquino of University of British Columbia.

  

  Karl Aquino

  Judgments of fairness were also affected by:

  • Employers’ explicitly-stated commitments of long-term employment,
  • Severance payment,
  • Employee Participation and Advanced Notice, considered a Procedural Justice practice.

  Social accounts may humanize unwelcome news and make it more palatable, but may lead seasoned managers to deviate from procedural justice best practices in the workplace.

  -*What factors affect your willingness to accept “social accounts” as substitutes for salary or perks?
  -*What are the benefits of being able to provide “social accounts” in work and social situations?

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