A Rage for Justice: An Application of Referent Cognitions Theory to Legal-Claiming by Terminated Workers

This research utilizes referent cognitions theory (RCT, Folger, 1993) to investigate the filing of legal claims by terminated workers. Specifically, three questions are investigated: (1) whether procedural, distributive, and interactional justice interact to predict legal-claiming; (2) whether state anger (a reaction to a situation) partially mediates the relationship between the three-way interaction of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice, and legal-claiming; and (3) whether trait anger (a dispositional trait) moderates the relationship between this three-way justice interaction and legal-claiming. Five hundred eighty-three terminated employees were surveyed at unemployment insurance offices on the east coast. The results support predictions that a three-way justice interaction predicts legal-claiming, that state anger is a partial mediator of this relationship, and that trait anger moderates the relationship between the three-way justice interaction and legal-claiming. The implications for organizational justice and RCT are discussed. Further, there is discussion of managerial interventions to reduce legal-claiming.