Organizational Psychology

The work is devoted to the analysis of factors related to the support of the subordinate’s intention to fight for the unfair punishment cancellation. The purpose of the study was to analyzethe relative contribution of belief in a just world, belief in a competitive world, the assessment of the punishment fairness, the attribution of guilt to the chief and the subordinate, the likelihood of successin trying to cancel the punishment and the impact of success on the department work in support of the intention to fight for the punishment cancellation. Method. The sample consisted of 1471 people (813 of them were women) in the age range of 18 to 70 years, the average age being 35.5, who completed the questionnaire online. The questionnaire included the “Scale of belief in a just world”, the “Scale of belief in a competitive world, a brief version”, a vignette with the description of the situation and questions about the situation described in the vignette. Findings. The results of the regression analysis showed that the probability of success contributes more to the support of intentions to fight for the punishment cancellation than the subjective assessment of the punishment fairness, guilt and responsibility of the parties to the conflict, social beliefs and the expected impact of success on the department work effectiveness. Gender differences in the structure of contributions of the considered predictors are revealed. Conclusion. The belief in a competitive world alone makes a significant direct contribution in support of the intention to fight for the punishment cancellation among men; the contribution of belief in a just world is not significant; the contribution of the assessment of punishment as a fair one is not significant. The direct contribution of belief in a competitive world is lower among women than the reverse contribution of belief in a fair world for all; the contribution of assessing the fairness of punishment is significant.