Citizen perceptions of procedural fairness and the moderating roles of ‘belief in a just world’ and ‘public service motivation’ in public hiring

This article expands our knowledge of how variation in public administrative processes affects citizen perceptions of procedural fairness (CPPF). Focusing on a specific administrative process—the selection and hiring process—we use a survey experimental design among 823 US citizens and examine the effect of a public hiring process involving the appearance of advocacy from an applicant's social contacts on CPPF. Moreover, we theoretically and empirically examine the moderating effects of two psychological constructs: ‘belief in a just world’ and ‘public service motivation’. We find that citizens rate the procedural fairness of a hiring situation much lower when the situation appears to be influenced by an applicant's social contacts. However, citizens who report stronger ‘belief in a just world’ have less concern with a hiring process marked by advocacy, whereas citizens with higher levels of ‘public service motivation’ have more concern.