LAUSR

Drawing from conservation of resources theory and attribution theory, this study adds to human resource literature by investigating the relationship between role ambiguity and employees’ beliefs that their performance is unfairly evaluated by their organization, as well as the buffering roles of relevant personal resources. In particular, the presence of unclear role descriptions may spur perceptions of unfair performance appraisals, but this process should be mitigated by organization-specific experience and Islamic work values. Data from Pakistani firms offer empirical support for these hypothesized effects. From a practical perspective, the findings indicate that human resource managers who fail to provide clear role descriptions to employees can mitigate accompanying concerns about the presence of unfair performance evaluations, to the extent that they encourage employees to leverage valuable personal resources.