Explaining Façades of Choice: Timing, Justice Effects, and Behavioral Outcomes

Organizations sometimes present their members with facades of choice: situations that appear to promise a choice but that, in fact, do not do so. Our study examines how facades of choice, relative to genuine choice, influence justice perceptions and negative and compensatory behavioral reactions. We then consider how the adequacy and timing of explanations for façades of choice affect justice perceptions and negative and compensatory reactions following façades of choice. Results indicate that the impact of explanations is influenced by their adequacy and timing (before or after one actually suffers the broken promise inherent in a façade of choice), suggesting that the experience of an injustice may frame a person's understanding of the explanation given for that injustice.