FAIRNESS, PERFORMANCE AND THE PUBLIC SECTOR: THE ROLE OF FAIRNESS IN ANTI-PUBLIC SECTOR BIAS

Despite evidence that government performs well in several domains, a narrative in western countries of its poor performance remains. Scholars sometimes refer to these persistent negative perceptions in the presence of countervailing evidence or without supporting evidence as anti-public sector bias. However, not all studies find evidence of this bias, indicating a factor is moderating the effect. To show that context matters, I explore a different type of context, perception of fairness of the organization’s actions or decisions. I test in three studies whether an organization’s actions or decisions being perceived as unfair causes citizens to be more likely to exhibit anti-public sector bias. Combining two policy theories, interest group theory and social construction framework, with a theory of justice rules and overall fairness, this dissertation develops a framework and tests several resulting propositions. This dissertation tests these propositions using three online survey experiments that manipulate the sector along with justice rules, distribution of benefits, distribution of burdens, and social construction. The first experiment tests this relationship by manipulating distribution of benefits and distribution of burdens. The second experiment further tests this relationship between fairness and anti-public sector bias by manipulating the social constructions/perceived deservingness of the target population. The third experiment manipulates the violation of a distributive justice rule, need. I ask each experiment respondent to evaluate the performance of the fictional organization. Then I test if the effect of sector on perceived performance (anti-public sector bias) differs between fair and unfair organizations.