A New Measure of Distributive Justice by Data Envelopment Analysis

Traditionally, distributive justice has been measured with multiple question items to which respondents indicate the degree to which their working situation corresponds with those described in the question items. This article proposes an alternative method to measure distributive justice, using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. We apply an efficiency measure calculated in DEA for the inputs/outcomes ratio to judge distributive justice in the organization. Using the data collected from accounting workers who live in the Tokyo metropolitan area, the results of correlation analysis show that this new measure of distributive justice has significant positive correlations with all three satisfaction variables in a male sample, and with one satisfaction variable in a female sample, providing some justification for using this new variable as a measure of distributive justice.