Organizational Justice and the Justification of Work Force Diversity Programs

Companies have begun implementing diversity programs with the assumption that they will result in competitive advantage. We utilize an organizational justice framework to examine such work force diversity programs and their potential effects on beneficiaries' attitudes under positive distributive outcomes, an area which has received little attention. Our findings reveal that justified diversity programs result in positive general attitudes and more favorable opinions about hiring than non-justified diversity programs. However, justification had no effect on opinions and ratings of diversity programs, per se.