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The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of supervisor’s unfair treatment on follower’s retributive and restorative justice perceptions. The main goal is to find asymmetric nonlinear trajectories in the relationship between the severity of unfair treatment and employees’ orientation toward retributive/restorative justice.

Using an experimental policy-capturing design that varied five levels of transgression severity (none to very high) within supervisor–subordinate relationship injustice situations, 168 employees rated their retributive/restorative justice preferences. Latent growth curve modeling was used to fit the overall patterns of change.

As hypothesized, the trajectory of restorative justice was convex and progressed in a negative exponential shape, whereas the retributive justice trajectory was concave but followed a less steep positive exponential shape.

The main limitation is a threat to the external validity of the results. Scenario-based surveys may not fully generalize to actual organizational situations.

These findings help managers to understand how unjust treatment can shape employees’ expectations and, thus, address it adequately. This is important to retain qualified personnel and to minimize workplace disengagement in the aftermath of poor treatment.

Restorative justice is of great importance for minor and moderate violations of justice.

By illustrating different trajectories, this study extends research on restorative and retributive justice in organizations. The results help to understand when people expect restoration and are motivated to punish wrongdoers.