Date of Award

Fall 9-25-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Industrial/Organizational Psychology (PhD)

Department

Industrial/Organizational Psychology

First Advisor/Committee Member

Paul R. Yost,

Second Advisor/Committee Member

Deanna Haney-Loehlein

Third Advisor/Committee Member

Nicole DeKay

Keywords

: termination letters, mass layoffs, procedural justice, informational justice, vulnerability, perceived organizational support, attributions of blame, organizational endorsement

Abstract

Layoffs are increasing in frequency and are prevalent across industries and organizations. Though there is a wealth of literature on the impacts of organizational justice and employee layoffs, research on organizational justice tends to focus on the survivors and research on communications to the victims of the terminationis limited. The purpose of this research was to investigate opportunities organizations have to move towards higher levels of justice in e-mail communications to layoff victims, improving their sense of organizational support and potentially yielding less backlash from those terminated. In this study, it was hypothesized that termination communications can affect the extent to which the terminated employees felt vulnerable, perceived organizational support, attributed blame to the organization, and future organizational endorsement.  Participants were randomly assigned to conditions with termination letters containing low/high levels of procedural and low/high levels informational justice. Layoff notices that included procedural justice increased perceived organizational support and willingness to endorse the organization, while informational justice reduced feelings of vulnerability and blame attributed to the organization. Interactional effects were not found. Mediation analyses showed that vulnerability fully mediated the effects of informational justice on organizational support, endorsement, and blame; whereas procedural justice's effects on these outcomes were direct, suggesting they potentially operate through other mediators. Post-hoc analyses using continuous, self-reported justice perceptions after the interventions replicated this pattern but showed partial (not full) mediation via vulnerability, with informational and procedural justice also having direct effects on outcomes.  The findings suggest that procedural justice and informational justice have differentiated, dimension-specific effects as procedural was more strongly tied to relational and evaluative outcomes like (perceived organizational support and endorsement), while informational justice was more strongly tied to threat-reduction outcomes (vulnerability and blame attributions), suggesting each dimension does distinct psychological work. Organizations should treat layoff communications as a deliberate, ongoing strategic process, recognizing that strong performance on one justice dimension does not substitute for the other. Individuals can proactively seek specific information about the decision process, timeline, and next steps can help lower felt vulnerability, even when organizational communication or process falls short.

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