How Employee's Knowledge of Employment Law and Perceived Procedural Injustice Affect Employees' Intent to Sue Their Employer

Abstract

This study investigated how the knowledge of employment law and an employee’s perception of procedural justice affect an employee’s willingness to sue his or her employer. Participants were 127 employees from various organizational sectors ranging in age, race, educational levels, and occupational levels. A significant negative correlation was found between knowledge of employment law and willingness to sue. A significant negative relationship was also found between knowledge of employment law and perceived procedural justice. While not significant, a negative correlation was found between perceived procedural justice and willingness to sue. Thus, knowledge of employment law is helpful and dangerous. One the helpful hand, more knowledge is associated an employee being less likely to sue, but on the other, dangerous hand, knowledge is also associated with greater employee awareness of injustice, which might increase his or her desire to sue. The results indicated that perceived procedural justice might be a suppressor variable that increases the ability of knowledge to predict willingness to sue. Overall, the findings start a foundation for further research in this area, which has been limited thus far.