The manager giveth, the manager taketh away: Variation in distribution/recovery rules due to resource type and cultural orientation

Although the resource allocation literature has frequently examined the dec ision rules used to distribute monetary resources, many other types of reso urces have not been systematically studied. In addition, very little is kno wn about the allocation rules that might be used when resources are recover ed (i.e., taken away) as opposed to distributed As managers frequently face decisions regarding the distribution or recovery of different resources, d eveloping a greater understanding of the rules they might use to give or ta ke away resources is important. This study examined the difficulty of resou rce allocation decisions and allocation rule choices. Our results suggest n eed rules are generally preferred by allocators, although rule preferences were affected by both the type of resource and whether the resource was bei ng distributed rather than recovered. In particular the preference for equa lity rules was stronger when resources were recovered Our findings also sug gest that managers may find recovery decisions more difficult than distribu tion decisions, and that monetary and affiliative resources are among the m ost difficult to allocate. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserv ed.