This suggests that people act fairly in part because of what they think may be the result of other people's reaction to the self-serving behavior. People appreciate distributive equity that further supports their personal circumstances. On the other hand, more recently, social scientists, such as Miller (1999) have argued that people do care about justice and behave with justice-seeking behavior instead of this more selfish self-interest. In other words, there is no overall behavior that is common to all people. As noted in Fischer et al. (2007), what motivates employees has normally been studied in laboratory settings, which is an artificial approach. or, the better alternative, studies have asked employees about their thoughts concerning the company's allocation policies. As noted, it is important to know what employees actually perceive instead of what decision makers intend to do. Thus, Fischer's research focused on employees' perceptions of the allocation decisions made by their superiors -- from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

These researchers found a substantial variation when studying the reward systems of several different countries. The importance...

There is no "one size fits all" when it comes to reward allocation. One must look at economics and culture that affect the way that organizations and their employees will function. To better understand other countries and their people, these factors must be taken into consideration. As noted in the research: "For crosscultural psychology to contribute significantly to an understanding of work behavior, it is important to consider these contextual effects" (p. 15). In a global world, where increasing numbers of people are working in other nations and one country is overseeing the work in another country, such information is vital to the well being of the employees.
Diekmann, KA 1997. "Implicit justifications' and self-serving group allocations." Journal of Organizational Behavior, vol 18, pp. 3-16.

Fischer, R., Smith, PB., Richey, B et al. 2007 "How Do Organizations Allocate Rewards?"

Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, vol 38, no 1, pp 3-18.

Miller, DT 1999. "The norm of self-interest," American Psychologist,…