A New Perspective on Equity Theory: The Equity Sensitivity Construct

Equity theory proposes that individuals who perceive themselves as either underrewarded or overrewarded will experience distress, which leads to efforts to restore equity. There still appear to be individual differences in regard to equity, however. To explain these differences a new construct, equity sensitivity, is proposed. Equity sensitivity describes 3 classes of individuals along a continuum: 1. Benevolents, who prefer their outcome/input ratios to be less than the outcome/input ratios of the comparison other, 2. Equity Sensitives, who prefer their outcome/input ratios to equal those of comparison others, and 3. Entitleds, who prefer their outcome/input ratios to exceed the comparison others. These general preferences for equity can be traced to internal standards. This construct helps explain perceptions of job satisfaction, quantity and quality of work, absenteeism, and turnover.