Abstract
The diversity of the South African population may lead to opinions that test fairness is not a pure empirical problem, but requires certain subjective value judgements. The aim of this study was to identify applicants' underlying reasons for evaluating a selection technique as being fair/unfair. These fairness perceptions were analysed by means of the organisational justice theory. The total sample consisted of 328 mature university students (M = 30,6) all of whom had work experience. The analyses comprised two sets of comparisons. The first set involved Black (uninformed) and White (uninformed) groups. The second comparison involved informed versus uninformed black students. Exposure to the subjects Strategic Personnel Management and/or undergraduate Industrial Psycohology, in which the nature and value of various selection techniques are studied, constituted the variable'being informed'. It was hypothesised that the Black (uninformed) and the White (uninformed) groups would perceive the value of the 11 justice rules for the total fairness perception across the ten selection techniques differently. Substantial support was found for this hypothesis. The same hypothesis was investigated for the Black (informed) and the Black (uninformed) groups, but no significant differences were found to support the latter hypothesis. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of South African selection practices.