DEVELOPERS
John Stacey Adams (1963, 1965), workplace and behavioral psychologist
- Equity Sensitivity construct (Huseman, Hatfield & Miles, 1987) - "suggests that individuals react in consistent but individually different ways to both perceived equity and inequity because they have different preferences for (i.e., are differentially sensitive to) equity ... on a continuum with classes of individuals: Benevolents, Equity Sensitives, and Entitleds." Development of an equity sensitivity instrument (ESI) scale.
- Fairness Model (Carrell and Dittrich, 1978); Fairness or equity in the MIS context (Joshi, 1989)
- Norm of equity (Carrell and Dittrich, 1978; Walster, Walster, & Berscheid, 1978)
- Turnover Model (Griffeth and Gaertner, 2001 add to much earlier work in this area)
BACKGROUND
Adams (1963) noted that "the presence of inequity will motivate Person to achieve equity or reduce inequity, and the strength of motivation to do so will vary directly with the amount of inequity."
- "Equity Theory focuses upon a person’s perceptions of fairness with respect to a relationship. During a social exchange, an individual assesses the ratio of what is output from the relationship to what is input in the relationship, and also the ratio of what the other person in the relationship outputs from the relationship to what is input into the relationship. Equity Theory posits that if the person perceives that there is inequality, where either their output/input ratio is less than or greater than what they perceive as the output/input ratio of the other person in the relationship, then the person is likely to be distressed. For example, consider two situations in which change is presented to two employees. If an employee was given a salary increase and a peer was seen as being given a larger increase in salary for the same amount of work, the first employee would evaluate this change, perceive an inequality, and be distressed. However, if the situation was such that the first employee perceived the other employee being given a larger increase in salary as well as being given more responsibility and therefore relatively more work, then the first employee may evaluate the change, conclude that there was no loss in equality status, and not resist the change. This theory may be used for both explanation and prediction."(source)
- Adams' theory states that employees strive for equity between themselves and other workers. Equity is achieved when the ratio of employee outcomes over inputs is equal to other employee outcomes over inputs (Adams, 1965).
- Adams Equity Theory: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_96.htm
" Equity Theory is also called Inequity Theory as it is the unequal difference that is often the area of interest." Categorized under - Behavior, Responding to others, Collaborating with others.
According to Allen and White (2002) the "lack of predictive ability of Equity Theory" contributed to its 'falling out of favor' only to be revived by "interest in organizational justice and equity ... spurred in part by an extension of the original Equity Theory to include individual differences" and the Equity Sensitivity construct.
Relationship to Other Theories