Justice sensitivity's impact on strike outcomes in Germany and France

Abstract

Introduction. – Injustices are often described as causes for strikes.Objective. – With this study, we aimed to test if trait justice sensitivity (victim and observer sensitivity)was related to strike attitudes, willingness to strike, and non-normative strike behavior and if theserelations were mediated by the traits of anger or empathy. Additionally, we compared samples from twocountries (Germany and France) in the respective measures.Method. – We collected data from 424 participants (231 were German, 193 were French) using an onlinequestionnaire and established scales. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.Results. – We observed that the effect of victim justice sensitivity on willingness to strike and non-normative strike behavior was mediated by anger. Furthermore, empathy mediated the effect of observerjustice sensitivity on the legitimacy of strikes and the support of strikers. The overall model was notmoderated by country.Conclusion. – We showed for the first time that trait variables also play a significant role in strike outcomes.Our results imply that national differences in industrial relations systems did not influence our modelsignificantly. Results also indicated (unexpectedly) that French participants reported significantly lowerwillingness to strike, significantly more negative reactions towards strikes, less legitimacy of strikes,and less support of strikers compared to the German sample – differences that warrant further researchexamining potential reasons.