Organizational justice is a theory that focuses on how employees perceive fairness in the workplace.
It is broken down into three key components: distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice.
The Three Components of Organizational Justice
- Distributive Justice: This refers to the perceived fairness of the outcomes or resource allocation within an organization. Employees ask themselves: “Are the rewards, promotions, or pay raises distributed fairly?”
- Procedural Justice: This is the perceived fairness of the processes and procedures used to make decisions about resource allocation. Employees are concerned with questions like: “Were the rules applied consistently? Was the process transparent and unbiased?”
- Interactional Justice: This refers to the perceived fairness of the interpersonal treatment employees receive from managers and other people in the workplace. This includes two sub-components:
- Interpersonal Justice: The degree to which people are treated with dignity and respect.
- Informational Justice: The fairness of the communication and explanations provided to employees regarding decisions.
Why it Matters?
When employees perceive high levels of organizational justice, it can lead to a number of positive outcomes for the organization, including increased job satisfaction, greater commitment to the organization, and improved job performance.
Conversely, perceptions of injustice can lead to negative behaviors, such as decreased morale, higher labor turnover, and even counterproductive work behaviors.