Distributive justice vs. procedural justice: Perceptions of fairness of Saudi Arabian civil service employees in their performance appraisal system.

Abstract

This study uses the concepts of distributive justice and procedural justice to examine Saudi Arabian civil service employees' determinants of fairness in their performance appraisal system. A survey of 400 civil service employees in different public sector agencies in two major cities of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh and Jeddah, was conducted. Seven hypotheses were proposed and tested. The composite dependent variable was the "Perceived satisfaction and fairness of the performance appraisal system." Data were collected by means of a questionnaire. Multiple regressions and T-tests analyses were used to analyze the gathered data. The study found that perceptions of fairness among Saudi civil service employees an their performance appraisal system were strongly related to four procedural justice factors: (1) feedback received from the performance evaluation process helped to identify strengths and weaknesses of employees' performance, (2) the extent to which performance appraisal was used for setting goals for future performance, (3) participation in goal setting, and (4) whether the performance appraisal was used for determining training needs. These findings provide strong support for procedural justice theories. Moreover, this study found that cultural values may not be a significant factor in explaining Saudi civil service employees' reaction to their performance appraisal system. Finally, findings of this study have important implications for multinational companies and their consultants.