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Distributive Justice, Employment-at-Will and Just-Cause Dismissal

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  • Mark Harcourt
  • Maureen Hannay
  • Helen Lam

Abstract

Dismissal is a major issue for distributive justice at work, because it normally has a drastic impact on an employee’s livelihood, self-esteem and future career. This article examines distributive justice under the US’s employment-at-will (EAW) system and New Zealand’s just-cause dismissal system, focusing on the three main categories of dismissal, namely misconduct, poor performance and redundancy. Under EAW, employees have limited protection from dismissal and remedies are restricted to just a few so-called exceptions. Comparatively, New Zealand’s just-cause system delivers much more just outcomes, both in terms of remedies and punishments. Despite a few shortcomings, it should be considered as a reasonable reference for policy changes in the US. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Mark Harcourt & Maureen Hannay & Helen Lam, 2013. "Distributive Justice, Employment-at-Will and Just-Cause Dismissal," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(2), pages 311-325, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:115:y:2013:i:2:p:311-325
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-012-1400-9
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Lopes, Evandro Luiz & da Silva, Marcos Antonio, 2015. "The effect of justice in the history of loyalty: A study in failure recovery in the retail context," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 110-120.
    3. Samir Shrivastava & Robert Jones & Christopher Selvarajah & Bernadine Gramberg, 2016. "Organisational Justice: A Senian Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 99-116, April.
    4. Warren Cook & Kristine M. Kuhn, 2021. "Off-Duty Deviance in the Eye of the Beholder: Implications of Moral Foundations Theory in the Age of Social Media," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(3), pages 605-620, September.
    5. Tae-Yeol Kim & Jeffrey Edwards & Debra Shapiro, 2015. "Social Comparison and Distributive Justice: East Asia Differences," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 401-414, December.
    6. Marte Bentzen & Göran Kenttä & Pierre-Nicolas Lemyre, 2020. "Elite Football Coaches Experiences and Sensemaking about Being Fired: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-13, July.

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