Crosscultural Differences in Perceptions of Justice ; Consequences for Academia

Most universities around the world have experienced an increase in international student enrolment. Cultural diversity may be greatly beneßcial, but if not managed properly it may lead to problems in the classroom and beyond. The challenges associated with cultural diversity such as differences in languages, management styles, protocols and traditions have been widely discussed in the literature. This article focuses on a less obvious issue, crosscultural differences in perceptions of justice and their consequences for academic settings. Depending on their cultural background, students' opinions about the fairness of academic rewards, punishments and procedures may differ substantially. Our arguments and recommendations are based on generalisation of findings from 98 empirical studies that explored relationships between culture and issues of justice. We support our discussion with a series of examples typical for the college environment. The study may be of interest to a wide range of readers, including teachers, educational administrators, students and business practitioners. Introduction The effects of differences in perceptions of justice have been broadly discussed in the literature. It has been found that perception of justice significantly influences productivity (e.g. Giacobbe-Miller, Miller & Victorov 1998), preferences for pay and bonus systems (e.g. Marin 1981), work satisfaction (e.g. Janssen 2001), pay satisfaction (e.g. DeConinck & Stilwell 2003), motivation (e.g. McFarlin & Sweeney 2000), organisational commitment (Johnson, Korsgaard & Sapienza 2002), conflict resolution styles (e.g. Tyler, Lind & Huo 2000), organisational citizenship behaviour (Moorman 1991), teamwork dynamics (Kirkman & Shapiro 2000), and many other aspects of organisational life. At the same time, it has been well documented that one's cultural background greatly affects one's opinion about what constitutes fair decisions and decision-making procedures (e.g. Leung & Morris 2000; Sama &c Papamarcos 2000). With the rapid growth in the number of companies going international and diversification of the local labour force, issues involving crosscultural differences in perception of justice are becoming more salientGlobalisation has touched not only the business sector but also academia. The composition of the student body in institutions of higher education around the world has become increasingly diverse. American, Canadian, Australian and Western European colleges and universities have experienced the highest international student enrolment. With more than 500,000 international students enrolled in institutions of higher education in the USA, and Made available courtesy of Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration and Management: http://www.cceam. org/ ***Reprinted with permission. No further reproduction is authorized without written permission from the Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration and Management (CCEAM). This version of the document is not the version of record. Figures and/or pictures may be missing from this format of the document. *** ISEA • Volume 36, Number 3,2008 1 0 5 around 250,000 in each of Europe, Canada and Australia, the percentage of foreign students varies between roughly 20 and 30 per cent, with the number;, much higher for technical majors and those in graduate programmes (AUCC 2005; ! 1E 200i). Moreover, the number of students in Western European and North American colleges and universities who come from distant and more culturally different regions such as Asia and the Middle East is increasing rapidly (Breem & Thierry 2004; Rowney 2006). The lai ger cultural distance (Kogut & Singh 1988) further intensifies the effects of cultural diversity on student group dynamics (Thomas 1999; Thomas, Ravlin & Au 2005). International students benefit institutions of higher education in many ways. First, through worldwide recruitment universities can attract and retain the best available human talent. Second, one of the goals of modem education is to prepare stu.it-nts for work in the global environment. Opportunities to interact with classmates from different countries, allow students to obtain first-hand experience of work in multicultural settings. Furthermore, diversity of experiences and backgrounds in the classroom alleviates groupthink (Jams 1982; Aldag & Fuller 1993). As a result, more ideas are generated and more opinions are voiced, enriching in-class discussions and project group meetings. Finally, international students are a significant source of revenue for institutions as well as for host societies in general. For example, according to the Association of International Educators, overseas students bring over $13 billion dollars to the US economy annually (AIE 2005). While the benefits of diversity are numerous, crosscultural diversity also poses various challenges. Differences in learning styles (Braman 1998; Anakwe, Kessler & Christensen 1999; Franchi 2002), languages and nonverbal communicatii n (Taras & Rowney 2007), conflicts due to stereotyping (Stephan, Ageyev, Stephan & Abah'kina 1993; Sakata 1995), and representation and status inequalities (Blau 1977; Toh & Denisi 2003) are some of the most obvious obstacles confronting international groups, and there are many more issues to consider. This paper deals with a less commonly discussed conséquence of culture, that is, crosscultural differences in perceptions of justice and their effects on processes in the classroom and on student project teams. Traditionally, justice has been studied exclusively in the workplace* context. It may appear that the issue of crosscultural differences in perceptions of fairness is irrelevant to the university environment. Unlike employees, students do not reo'ive salary or perks; they do not compete for promotions, more convenient schedules, and \acation in high season; and generally students are not subject to the rewards and punishm^mts that are common in the workplace. Nevertheless, the issues of justice are as salient in academic settings as in the workplace. For instance, depending on cultural background, students may have radically different opinions about what constitutes a fair grade, who should receive a scholarship, how one should be punished for cheating on an exam, or how i conflict between a student and a professor should be resolved. This article analyses the consequences of crosscultural differenct s in perceptions of justice in academic settings. Although our study did not involve data collection and hypothesis testing, the existing large body of literature on crosscultural differences in perceptions of justice provides a highly consistent set of findings in this area. Our arguments are built upon findings from 98 empirical studies that addressed issues of justice in crosscultural contexts (see Table 1 for a summary). Due to space restrictions, the complete list of reviewed studies cannot be provided in this paper; however, it can be obtained from the authors upon request. 106 ISEA • Volume 36, Number 3,2008