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Justice, Fairness and EmployeeEngagement

Key Concept

Employees’ perceptions of justice in their organizationcan impact important outcomes and should not beignored. In this Idea, positive changes in distributive,procedural, and interactional justice are linked to jobsatisfaction and organizational commitment. Read onto find how these can be built upon in your workplace.

Idea Summary

Organizational justice has become a major focus ofmanagement research in recent years, due to itsconnection with numerous employee outcomes;satisfaction, commitment, trust and reduced levels ofturnover have all been associated with an employee’sperceived level of justice in their workplace. But howexactly do changes in perceptions of justices—bothand positive or negative—affect employee attitudes?In a 2013 paper, Tae-Yeol Kim from CEIBS explores thisquestion, alongside researchers from the University ofMacau and City University of Hong Kong. Theypropose that changes in outcome allocations,company procedures and interpersonal treatment thatmake employees feel that they are being treated morefairly can go a long way towards improving their jobsatisfaction, employee engagement and commitment.

Kim et al collected survey data from 151 employeesacross a wide variety of organizations in Hong Kong,including participants from the finance, service,information technology, manufacturing, and educationindustries. In particular, they measured fairnessperceptions, job satisfaction and affectiveorganizational commitment. They found that changesin distributive, procedural, and interactional justicesignificantly explained variances in job satisfaction.They describe these types of justice perceptions asfollows:

Distributive justice: employees’ perceived fairness oforganizational outcomes that they receive. In other words, are theygetting back as much as they are putting in?

Procedural justice: employees’ perceived fairness of the processes

ShareAuthors

Kim, Tae-YeolLin, Xiao-Wan LinLeung, Kwok

Institutions

China Europe International Business School(CEIBS)University of MacauCity University of Hong Kong

Source

Journal of Business and Psychology

Idea conceived

December 2013

Idea posted

March 2014

DOI number

Subject

Business EthicsHR ManagementOrganizational Behaviour

10/12/2015 Justice, Fairness and Employee Engagement | Ideas for Leaders

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by which outcomes are allocated.

Interactional justice: employees’ perceived fairness of theinterpersonal treatment they receive from authority figures (suchas dignity, respect, etc.)

Positive changes in these forms of justice were foundto be strongly related to job satisfaction and affectiveorganizational commitment. In particular, proceduraljustice was more strongly related to employeeattitudes than other types of justice.

Previous research in this area has focused primarily onUS workers, and the results have suggested thatnegative changes in fairness perceptions have astronger impact on employee attitudes than positivechanges. This study, however, showed the opposite;positive changes had a stronger affect on the jobattitudes of employees in Hong Kong. This may be dueto cultural differences, but is nevertheless relevant forglobal organizations that may wish to do business inthe region.

Business Application

According to Kim et al’s research, organizations andexecutives that want to build affective commitmentand enhance their employees’ job satisfaction need topromote and highlight these positive changes in orderto leverage their benefits on job attitudes.Undoubtedly, improving employees’ perceptions offairness is very important, and these findings suggestthis can be done by:

establishing fair procedures in allocating rewards;

providing detailed and timely explanations for decision proceduresand outcomes; and

tailoring communication to meet employees’ specific needs.

In addition, training supervisors to help themimplement fair practices in their interactions withsubordinates may also be helpful.

They also found that justice perceptions tended todecrease over time in newcomers to an organization,which might be explained due to the wearing off of a‘honeymoon effect’. This can be prevented byproviding realistic previews of fairness issues in theorganization to reduce unrealistic expectations.

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Justice, Fairness and EmployeeEngagementfrom Ideas for Leaders   PRO

04:37

License Notice

This content is provided free-to-accessfor your own personal research,development and private study.

A license must be acquired for use byorganizations, for employee developmentor as a learning resource. To purchase alicense and learn about other partnerbenefits contact us.

Standard terms and conditions apply.

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How Employees Win ‘Voice’ andInfluence Decisions

How Conducting Appraisals Well BuildsEthical Behaviour

Fostering Diversity and Inclusion withRespectful Leadership

References

A Dynamic Approach to Fairness: Effects ofTemporal Changes of Fairness Perceptions on JobAttitudes. Tae-Yeol Kim, Xiao-Wan Lin & KwokLeung. Journal of Business and Psychology(December 2013).

Further Reading and Relevant Resources

Tae-Yeol Kim’s profile at CEIBS

Xiao-Wan Lin’s profile at the University of Macau

Kwok Leung’s profile at City University of Hong Kong

CEIBS Executive Education profile at IEDP

10/12/2015 Justice, Fairness and Employee Engagement | Ideas for Leaders

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Instilling Morality In Organizations

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