What causes the feeling of injustice in an organization?
“Before what was right was legality. From now on, under Western influence, what seems right is the notion equity. For example, employees find it unfair that an older colleague is paid more than them if they have the same training, the same skills and the same responsibilities”, explains Laurent Giraud, Associate Professor of Universities at the IAE Savoie Mont Blanc.
Organizational justice, in all its forms
This researcher distinguishes three dimensions in organizational justice:
Distributive organizational justice
It deals with how a company’s resources and social benefits are distributed.
Procedural organizational justice
“It is for example for an employee to know if his colleagues passed the same tests, the same processes… to be promoted. Or, if there were privileges. And in this case, there is a perception of organizational injustice”.
Interpersonal organizational justice
It also includes two aspects
1. Informational justice
Do the employees all have the same information at the same time or not. If not, it is also perceived as an injustice.
2. Interactional justice
This time, it concerns the interactions between managers and members of his team. “ If a manager makes differences in his way of communicating – choice of words, more aggressive tone… – with certain collaborators, the latter will perceive an organizational injustice”, illustrates Laurent Giraud.
What are the benefits of organizational justice?
“Organizational justice contributes to psychological safety and the maintenance of a positive attitude at work. When we perceive organizational injustice, we try by all means to restore the balance. For example by working less, by adopting a negative attitude that undermines individual but also collective performance,” analyzes Laurent Giraud.
Attitudes that can even cause the departure of employees. And with the specter of the great resignation hanging over French companies (especially ESNs), we understand that HRDs have an interest in taking up this project. Do they really?
Organizational justice, what is at stake for HRDs?
“HRDs will give managers tools of justice but very oriented on legal aspects. Subjects on which they can be attacked but less on questions of perception of organizational justice. It’s a shame to underestimate these behaviors because they are essential variables to make a collective work, ”he concludes.
Organizational justice in the hands of managers
By their own means, the managers try, with more or less success, to make reign a certain form of Olympic Games. How ? “A manager who, for example, explains precisely and transparently the criteria for promotion within his team significantly reduces the risk of perceived organizational injustice. Even if the decision is unfavorable to them, unpromoted employees will not develop a negative attitude at work, they will not try to sabotage the collective.simply illustrates Laurent Giraud.
Organizational justice is reduced to telework
Telecommuting can amplify organizational injustice. “The telephone, videoconferences… increase the risk of misunderstanding and misunderstanding. On the phone, we deprive ourselves of all non-verbal communication. In the home office, we no longer benefit from informal times when information essential to the proper functioning of the collective circulates”concludes this associate in management science.
How to create an organization just for employees?
See the explanations of Jean-François Bertholet, teacher at HEC Montréal and researcher on issues of organizational justice:
