This paper reports a study in which the effect of a key element in TA, the “stroke,” is viewed in an organizational environment. Selected communicative behaviors of a supervisor over eight-member, experimentally created workgroups were varied to create relative conditions of “overreward” or “underreward.” Responses on a Perceived Inequity Index (PII) were statistically compared to Ss' tendencies to respond to inequities by downgrading their rating of supervisory effectiveness, rationalizing the inequitable treatment, or withdrawing from the situation. Correlations support the first and third responses to inequities but not the second.
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