A Novel Neutrosophic Likert Scale Analysis of Perceptions of Organizational Distributive Justice via a Score Function: A Complete Statistical Study and Symmetry Evidence Using Real-Life Survey Data

Abstract

In this study, ten questions measuring distributive justice on classical Likert and neutrosophic Likert scales consisting of two subdimensions—distributive and procedural justice—were used. Participants responded to the same questions for both the classical Likert and neutrosophic Likert scales within a single survey, with the neutrosophic method applied, for the first time, to the questions included in the scale. The neutrosophic scale responses were answered in percentages to resemble natural language, and the answers received for each question were reduced to the range [−1, 1] to grade the agreement approach through a score function used in neutrosophic decision-making theory. In this study, the neutrosophic scale, a scaling method with strong theoretical foundations, was compared with the traditional Likert scale. The results of the statistical analyses (exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, neural network analysis, correlation analysis, paired samples t-test, and one-way and two-way ANOVAs) and evaluations of the scales were compared to measure organizational justice within a single study. In this article, the symmetric and non-symmetric properties of statistical analysis that are specific to this paper in addition to general symmetric and non-symmetry properties are discussed. These symmetric and non-symmetric features are conceptualized according to the features on which each statistical analysis focuses. Finally, although this study presents a new area of research in the social sciences, we believe that the neutrosophic Likert scale and survey approach will contribute to collecting detailed and sensitive information on many topics, such as economics, health, audience perceptions, advertising responses, and product, market, and service purchase research, through the use of score functions.