Mystery shopping through the lens of organizational justice

摘要

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to share how the concept of organizational justice could help to explore employee satisfaction with the mystery shopping appraisal system. Design/methodology/approach - The research was conducted at a fast-food restaurant chain located in Russia. Data were collected through an online-questionnaire distributed among all 516 chef-cashiers of the 86 restaurants of the chain located in Saint Petersburg. The questionnaire consisted of 17 closed-ended and one open-ended questions. Findings - Violations of norms of procedural, distributive, and informational justice were identified. The majority of the chief-cashiers thought that the norms of interpersonal justice were met. Practical implications - The paper also discusses how training and development professionals could use the concept of organizational justice to improve employee satisfaction with a mystery shopping appraisal process. The results collected through the questionnaire can be used in at least two ways: to implement structural changes in the process and to determine and address training needs of three groups of employees. Originality/value - Perceptions of organizational justice predict employee satisfaction with different aspects of a performance appraisal system. This paper is first to explore how the concept of organizational justice could be useful in evaluating employee satisfaction with such performance appraisal method as mystery shopping.