The Effect of Followers' Belongingness Needs on Leaders' Procedural Fairness Enactment

An important component of ethical leadership entails leaders' enactment of procedural fairness. The present two studies examined the role of followers' relational motives as antecedents of leaders' adherence to procedural fairness rules and explored the mediating role of attraction. In an experimental study, we demonstrated that followers' belongingness needs influenced leaders' inclination to grant them voice. This finding was corroborated in a multisource field study of organizational supervisors. Furthermore, these two studies demonstrated that the effect of followers' belongingness needs on the enactment of fair procedures was mediated through a process of interpersonal and group attraction. We discuss the relevance of these findings for theories of procedural rule adherence as a dependent variable and for the literature on ethical leadership.