Exploring HR Differentiation from Co-Workers’ Perspective: A Deontic Justice Theory Perspective

Providing employees with individualized HR practices has become an important component of HR strategies. Despite the growing prevalence of individualization of HRM, research has overlooked the downside of such practices, in particular from co-workers’ perspective. This is an important omission because research to date has built on the assumption that the impact of HR differentiation on employees not entitled to such practices is either trivial or non-existent. Taking a first step, this research offers a conceptual model that explains how and under which conditions co-workers of a focal employee who is entitled to HR differentiation are likely to support and withdraw their support from the focal employee. Integrating deontic justice theory with research on perceived motivational climate (i.e., performance oriented versus mastery oriented unit climate), the proposed conceptual model underlines that differentiating HR practices is like a double-edged sword and caution is needed when implementing them in a team setting.