Abstract:

Leaders’ adherence to fairness rules refers to managerial actions that act in accordance with the standards of organizational justice dimensions. Social exchange theory and deontic model of justice were employed to explain why leaders adhered to rules of justice. Influential factors that can predict whether leaders will act fairly include leaders’ moral characteristics, fairness experience, status and employees’ communication style, trustworthiness, belongingness perceived in leaders’ interaction with employees. Future research is expected to improve the theory explanation from the perspective of complementary models, explore organizational factors, investigate indirect social exchange and conduct native research on fairness enactment.

Key words: leader, justice rules, social exchange, interpersonal interaction