THE SELF AS PREDICTOR OF EQUITY COMPARISON AND JOB SATISFACTION

ABSTRACT

Perhaps one of the most unresearched subjects is the impact of the self on employees' perceptions of and reactions to inequity (Locke, 1976; Mowday, 1979; Brockner, 1985). Therefore the purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of the self on equity comparisons and job satisfaction. The self variables in this study are the general and self; self-esteem, competence Equity comparisons refer to: work-related aspects of the thema, ability and influence. (1) the degree of equity perceived relative to others the self outside the organization (PSOEQ), of ,comparative referents selected in (POOEQ) or (2) the kind outside making pay equity evaluations (e.g. self or others inside or outside the organization). Questionnaires were used to collect data from 550 employees from 11 banks (275 bank workers) and 6 ministries, (275 Government workers) in Ibadan. Sixty-six percent were ~ales while thirty-four per cent of the respondents were females. Their average age was 39.9 years and their median educational level was high school certificate or its equivalent. Results of a series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that as expected, competence thema and influence showed signifi~ant positive association with perceived self-outside and other-outside equity. Unexpectedly, self-esteem and ability showed negative relationship with perceived equity states. However, further analysis revealed that although both low self-esteem and ability groups made relatively more favourable evaluations, on the average, low and high self-esteem or ability groups all made equitable comparisons. Expectedly, the self variables (except ability) showed significant positive associations with job satisfaction. An interesting finding was that this self variable set accounted for 25% (P