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The effects of “task- and “ego-oriented” performance on two kinds of overcompensation inequity

1970; Academic Press; Volume: 5; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0030-5073(70)90015-2

1878-2647

Yoash Wiener,

Emotions and Moral Behavior

Abstract Two conditions of inequity and two control conditions of equity were manipulated as follows: (1) Input overcompensation—Subjects were told they were unqualified, but received the standard pay of $2.00 per hour; (2) Outcome overcompensation—Subjects were told they were qualified, but received higher pay than the standard ($3.00 per hour); (3) Equity—$2.00 per hour; and (4) Equity—$3.00 per hour. Within each of these conditions half of the Subjects were induced to engage in “ego-oriented” performance (Subjects believed they worked on development of a “mental alertness” test) and the other half were engaged in “task-oriented” performance (Subjects believed they worked on psycholinguistic project). The results, in terms of productivity data, provided for two main conclusions: (1) The input overcompensation manipulation seems to reflect what has been termed a “reaction to devalued self-esteem” rather than an emotion of inequity dissonance; (2) The outcome overcompensation manipulation does seem to arouse an inequity dissonance, but an alternative explanation in terms of the difference between expected and obtained pay is still available.