Explications causales normatives dans la distribution de sanctions professionnelles injustes

This research explores the degree of acceptability of the reasons given by a team leader to explain the unfair sanctions he/she distributes to his/her subordinates. Fifteen male high level managers leading team leaders, and 61 employees (30 women and 31 men) responded to a questionnaire in which they had to assess the desirability of the reasons given by a team leader for which he/she unfairly punished his subordinates: it might be either getting angry with them despite their good work (negative sanction) or, on the contrary, refraining intervention when they made mistakes (positive sanction). The results indicate a disaccountability of both the receiver and the distributor of the sanction, with, instead, the highlighting of contextual determinants, especially in case of negative sanction. There is also an influence of the direction of the sanction (positive vs. negative) on the stable/unstable component of the instance chosen as explanatory. These results are discussed on a theoretical level and perspectives of applications are proposed.