Organizational Justice

In this chapter I investigate the influence of perceived justice in a situation of change and how far this extends to the way change is either accepted or resisted during the stages of planning, implementation, and beyond. An initial overview of justice development as a concept and its application to the workplace is followed by an analysis of the causes and effects of justice within the context of change. Consideration is given toward the three key dimensions of justice, consisting of distributive (outcomes or distributions), procedural (how distributions are determined), and interactional (the communication of decision outcomes) and their subdimensions. Justice perceptions influence positive and negative emotions, although negative emotions are normally experienced from an unfair outcome if both the outcome and procedure are perceived to be unjust. Information-uncertainty is discussed along with its impact on forming perceptions of justice and how this can be mitigated by actions of change agents during periods of uncertainty arising from change. The assumptions of this contrast between rational-cognitive and subjective-affective processes in the formation of justice judgments are that affective processes are steeped in subjectivism, and, therefore, a more stable rational model of cognitive justice should be aimed for. However, this may only be achieved if management secures an environment of trust and information-certainty. Uncertainty in change tends to make a more profound contribution to the causes of stress than the change itself but this can be reduced through communication with authorities (interactional justice) and an increased level of control for the individual in that relationship (process control). Closely aligned, anticipatory injustice (those who have an expectation that they may not be treated fairly in a given situation) is also discussed.