Mediating Hierarchical Labor Conflicts: Procedural Justice Makes a Difference—for Subordinates

Investigating mediations of hierarchical labor conflicts, this study focuses on the influence of hierarchical position on perceptions of procedural justice, mediation effectiveness and its moderating effect on this relationship. Since the influence of hierarchical position is omnipresent in organizational life, it is most likely that also parties’ perceptions and appreciation of the mediation will be affected. To test our hypotheses, we use data from real mediation cases dealing with hierarchical labor conflicts in the Netherlands. In line with our hypotheses, results indicate that supervisors—compared with subordinates—perceive more procedural justice and perceive the mediation as more effective. The most striking result however, is that especially subordinates’ perceptions of mediation effectiveness are determined by perceptions of procedural justice: especially when confronted with low levels of procedural justice, their perceptions of mediation effectiveness are negatively affected. This is not true for supervisors. Implications for mediation theory and practice are discussed.