Framing Effects, Procedural Fairness, and the Nonprofit Managers’ Reactions to Job Layoffs in Response to the Economic Shock of the COVID-19 Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the viability and effectiveness of nonprofit organizations compelling them to make tough choices. Evidence suggests that different wordings or message settings may affect people’s decisions when presenting equivalent outcome information with positive or negative framing. Nevertheless, there have been few attempts to assess how procedural fairness and framing effects shape nonprofit managers’ reactions to job layoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a survey experiment, we explore whether framing effects—by affecting perceived outcome favorability—and procedural fairness interact to influence nonprofit managers’ trust and support for their organizations. The findings of this 2 × 2 between-participants experimental design indicated that only when procedural fairness was relatively low did nonprofit managers react more favorably in the positive frame (keep) than in the negative frame (layoff) condition. This study adds to our understanding of how the pandemic impacts nonprofit managers, including their commitment to continue working in the sector, and has practical implications for nonprofit organizations that manage resilience in a crisis.