Understanding How Pay Transparency Shapes Generation Z Organisational Commitment in the Fashion Retail Industry

Abstract

Pay transparency has gained increasing attention as organisations reconsider how pay information is communicated within contemporary employment relationships (Schnaufer et al., 2022; Brown, 2022). At the same time, organisational commitment remains a challenge in sectors characterised by high workforce mobility and insecure employment, such as fashion retail (Kalleberg, 2009). While these issues have often been examined separately, less is known about how they intersect for Generation Z employees in retail settings, particularly in New Zealand (Baker et al., 2019).

This study explores how Generation Z employees in the New Zealand fashion retail industry experience pay transparency and how these experiences relate to their understanding of organisational commitment. Using an interpretivist phenomenological orientation, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven Generation Z retail employees in Auckland. Data were analysed through inductive thematic analysis, informed by Organisational Commitment Theory (Meyer & Allen, 1991), Equity Theory (Adams, 1963), Expectancy Theory (Vroom, 1964) and Organisational justice theory (Greenberg, 1987).

The findings suggest that pay transparency is experienced less as a direct driver of commitment and more as a reference point through which employees evaluate organisational justice, particularly fairness in outcomes, processes, and managerial communication (Castilla, 2015; Bamberger & Belogolovsky, 2017). Commitment was commonly described as provisional and shaped by both fairness perceptions and economic constraints (Kalleberg, 2009). The study offers context-specific insight into the conditional role of pay transparency in shaping organisational commitment among Generation Z retail workers.