Workload, Task Importance, and Perceptions of Fairness: Effects on Organizational Justice and Workplace Stress
Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Abstract
Workplace dynamics are shaped by differences in the amount and importance of their assignments. The differences may influence how employees perceive their organization. There is limited research examining the interaction of workload patterns and task importance and how it influences stress appraisal and organizational justice. The present study will apply a role-based perspective to examine how workplace characteristics of task assignment influence employees' evaluations of their work experiences. This study will examine whether the pattern of workload and task importance affects stress appraisal and perceptions of distributive justice. The primary focus will examine whether types of high workload and task importance influence those outcomes. It is hypothesized that high workload will be associated with greater stress appraisal, but lower perception of distributive justice. High-importance work is hypothesized to be associated with higher perceptions of distributive justice. An interaction between type of workload pattern and perceived task importance is hypothesized to be associated with greater stress appraisal and lower perceptions of distributive justice. Comparisons involving low-workload patterns, constant or seasonal, will be conducted as exploratory analyses. Participants will be at least 18 years of age and must have employment experience. Participants will be recruited from the undergraduate and graduate populations at Middle Tennessee State University, as well as from social media and CloudResearch. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the eight experimental conditions in a 2 x 2 design, with additional low-workload conditions included for exploratory analyses. Participants will read a workplace scenario describing their assigned condition. The scenarios will be similar, aside from the manipulation of workload and task importance. Distributive justice will be measured by using the distributive justice dimension of Colquitt's (2001) Organizational Justice Scale, and the participants will complete a stress appraisal measure. Two-way factorial analyses of variance (ANOVAs) will be conducted separately for stress appraisal and distributive justice to examine the main effects of workload and importance, as well as their interaction. Exploratory analyses will examine whether low-workload patterns differ from high-workload patterns and importance. Findings are expected to contribute to research on workplace roles and dynamics by demonstrating how characteristics of assigned work can shape employees' perceptions of justice and stress. This study may also provide insight into whether constant or seasonal high workloads can influence employees' experiences differently. Practically, the findings help organizations consider both the amount of work assigned and the perceived importance of those tasks when developing task-assignment practices.
Date
November 2026
Subject
Industrial and organizational psychology
Document Type
posters
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Workload, Task Importance, and Perceptions of Fairness: Effects on Organizational Justice and Workplace Stress
Workplace dynamics are shaped by differences in the amount and importance of their assignments. The differences may influence how employees perceive their organization. There is limited research examining the interaction of workload patterns and task importance and how it influences stress appraisal and organizational justice. The present study will apply a role-based perspective to examine how workplace characteristics of task assignment influence employees' evaluations of their work experiences. This study will examine whether the pattern of workload and task importance affects stress appraisal and perceptions of distributive justice. The primary focus will examine whether types of high workload and task importance influence those outcomes. It is hypothesized that high workload will be associated with greater stress appraisal, but lower perception of distributive justice. High-importance work is hypothesized to be associated with higher perceptions of distributive justice. An interaction between type of workload pattern and perceived task importance is hypothesized to be associated with greater stress appraisal and lower perceptions of distributive justice. Comparisons involving low-workload patterns, constant or seasonal, will be conducted as exploratory analyses. Participants will be at least 18 years of age and must have employment experience. Participants will be recruited from the undergraduate and graduate populations at Middle Tennessee State University, as well as from social media and CloudResearch. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the eight experimental conditions in a 2 x 2 design, with additional low-workload conditions included for exploratory analyses. Participants will read a workplace scenario describing their assigned condition. The scenarios will be similar, aside from the manipulation of workload and task importance. Distributive justice will be measured by using the distributive justice dimension of Colquitt's (2001) Organizational Justice Scale, and the participants will complete a stress appraisal measure. Two-way factorial analyses of variance (ANOVAs) will be conducted separately for stress appraisal and distributive justice to examine the main effects of workload and importance, as well as their interaction. Exploratory analyses will examine whether low-workload patterns differ from high-workload patterns and importance. Findings are expected to contribute to research on workplace roles and dynamics by demonstrating how characteristics of assigned work can shape employees' perceptions of justice and stress. This study may also provide insight into whether constant or seasonal high workloads can influence employees' experiences differently. Practically, the findings help organizations consider both the amount of work assigned and the perceived importance of those tasks when developing task-assignment practices.
Department
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology