Organizational Justice

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Organizational Justice

Organizational justice refers to the perceived fairness of an organization and is usually based on the subjective judgments of its employees. There are three components of Organizational Justice (OJ). They are described below:

1. Distributive Justice: Distributive justice is concerned with the proper allocation of resources and decision outcomes. For an organization, to be distributively just, there are three criteria that should be taken into consideration:
• EQUITY: Giving an outcome based on the level of input.
• EQUALITY: Giving the same outcome to everyone.
• NEED: Giving outcomes based on personal needs.

2. Procedural Justice: Unlike distributive justice, procedural justice is concerned with the process that leads to outcome. Sometimes outcomes may not pass the above three criteria, but because of procedural justice, employees still feel satisfaction to the outcomes. To establish procedural justice, the following characteristics should be incorporated in organizational processes:
• CONSISTENCY: Process/procedures/system should be consistent and applied objectively.
• FREE FROM BIAS: It should be free from bias and everyone should be treated the same.
• PARTICIPATION: Participation in decision making should be ensured through proper representation.
• ACCURACY: Decisions should be made accurate and based on the most up-to-date information.
• CORRECTION: There should be some mechanism to correct if any mistake happens.
• ETHICS: Professional codes and ethical norms should not be violated.

3. Interactional Justice: It is related to fairness of interpersonal communication. It has two types:
• INTERPERSONAL JUSTICE: Treating everyone with respect and dignity.
• INFORMATIONAL JUSTICE: Ensuring everyone is well-informed about organizational rules, regulations, policies, procedures, norms etc.

Please share your ideas and experiences with respect to organizational justice. Appreciate any idea you may have…

Sources:
Russell Cropanzano, David E. Bowen, and Stephen W. Gilliland (2007), "The Management of Organizational Justice"
Kasim Randeree, Imran Malik (2008), "Models for Leading with Organizational Justice: Equitable Management of the Human Resource in Diverse Environments"

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		1 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Legal Organizational Justice I am missing legal justice (or legal compliance). Shouldn't that be added as a 4th component?

		1 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	External Organizational Justice Can we also distinguish external organizational justice? Then your definition should be widened into: "Organizational justice refers to the perceived fairness of an organization and is usually based on the subjective judgments of its employees AND STAKEHOLDERS."

		1 Munadil Shafat Student (MBA), Bangladesh
	Descriptive Way to Think Organizational Justice Thanks @Jaap de Jonge: for adding two new perspectives in the context of Organizational Justice. While I appreciate your perspectives, it is true that managerial scientists only considered one stakeholder to define those components - Employees' perception. Based on this single perspective Greenberg (1990) primarily proposed the three components described in the post. Actually there are different ways to think about organizational justice. But broadly these fall into two categories: - Prescriptive (these are just, these are injust) and - Descriptive (less concerned with what is just, more concerned with what people believed to be just). Here in my post, the components of organizational justice are a product of the descriptive treatment of justice. I hope that makes sense.

		2 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Descriptive Organizational Justice Thanks for clarifying, Munadil. I understand you were focusing on descriptive organizational justice. I now did a bit of research and found a journal article by Hosmer and Kiewitz which is helpful to explain a bit further: "Organizational justice is a behavioral science concept that refers to the perception of fairness of the past treatment of the employees within an organization held by the employees of that organization. These subjective perceptions of fairness have been empirically shown to be related to 1. Attitudinal changes in job satisfaction, organizational commitment and managerial trust beliefs; 2. Behavioral changes in task performance activities and ancillary extra-task efforts to assist group members and improve work methods; 3. Numerical changes in the quantity, quality and efficiency of divisional outputs; and, though this is far more tentative, 4. Eventual changes in the competitive advantage and financial performance of the full organization." Interestingly, Hosmer and Kiewitz also propose to apply these constructs to all stakeholders, rather than just the current employees. In my view that could be really important (to include the perceptions of organizational justice of other constituencies), as this will allow things like air and water pollution, exhausting of natural resources, and climate change into the debate. Reference: LaRue Tone Hosmer and Christian Kiewitz, "Organizational Justice: A Behavioral Science Concept with Critical Implications for Business Ethics and Stakeholder Theory", Business Ethics Quarterly, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Jan., 2005), pp. 67-91

		1 Munadil Shafat Student (MBA), Bangladesh
	Recent Developments of Organizational Justice @Jaap de Jonge: Yes, I was aware of the consequences of organizational justice on the areas you mentioned. That was also one of the reasons why I got interested in this topic. However, the recent developments from the OJ perspectives I have found in your post are also interesting. Will look forward to this further. Thanks.

		2 Emeka Onuoha Nigeria
	Organizational Justice and Employer Brand This is a rather interesting topic. Before now, I hadn't come across it. Sadly, a lot of executives do not know or understand the concept. Companies have wrongly applied justice around some challenges they faced. You must have noted the #metoo issues in workplaces and how some innocent persons were wrongly accused. The interesting aspect of all of this is the fact that Talent is taking note of how companies/corporations/organizations are deploying OJ during this time. It will significantly shape their employer brand.