Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T10:33:27.720Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Everybody Talks About Organizational Justice, But Nobody Does Anything About It

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2015

Jerald Greenberg
Jerald Greenberg*
Affiliation:
RAND Corporation
*
E-mail: jgreenbe@rand.org, Address: RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401-3208.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Most organizational justice studies focus primarily on theoretical issues and identify implications for practice only in passing. I advocate moving to the next step by testing such implications in theory-based studies that implement and assess the impact of interventions designed to promote organizational justice. Research that promotes organizational justice promises to benefit both organizations and their employees, and may be considered morally appropriate. Although usually not considered in this connection, theory-based application studies also promise to shed light on the theories from which they are derived. Despite these benefits, there are several reasons why such investigations are conducted only rarely. First, because managers tend to be unaware of justice-related problems, they are unlikely to accede to researchers’ requests to address them in research. Second, many researchers erroneously believe that studies assessing ways of improving conditions in organizations lack scientific objectivity. Third, scholarly values favor research that addresses theoretical issues and that eschew practical applications. Finally, the challenges of conducting intervention studies are inclined to be formidable, and these may deter researchers from undertaking such efforts.

Type
Focal Article
Information
Industrial and Organizational Psychology , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , June 2009 , pp. 181 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2009 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, J. S. (1965). Inequity in social exchange. In Berkowitz, L. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 267–299). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
American Psychological Association. (2002). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. American Psychologist, 57, 1060–1073.Google Scholar
Aquino, K., Tripp, T. M., & Bies, R. J. (2006). Getting even or moving on? Power, procedural justice, and types of offense as predictors of revenge, forgiveness, reconciliation, and avoidance in organizations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 653–658.Google Scholar
Baker, D. B., & Benjamin, L. T. Jr. (2000). The affirmation of the scientist-practitioner: A look back at Boulder. American Psychologist, 55, 241–247.Google Scholar
Barsky, A., & Kaplan, S. A. (2007). If you feel bad, it's unfair: A quantitative synthesis of affect and organizational justice perceptions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 286–295.Google Scholar
Bell, B. S., Wiechmann, D., & Ryan, A. M. (2006). Consequences of organizational justice expectations in a selection system. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 455–466.Google Scholar
Bies, R. J. (2001). Interactional (in) justice: The sacred and the profane. In Greenberg, J. & Cropanzano, R. (Eds.), Advances in organizational justice (pp. 89–118). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Bies, R. J. (2005). Are procedural justice and interactional justice conceptually distinct? In Greenberg, J. and Colquitt, J. A. (Eds.), Handbook of organizational justice (pp. 85–112). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bies, R. J., & Moag, J. S. (1986). Interactional justice: Communication criteria of fairness. In Lewicki, R. J., Sheppard, B. H., & Bazerman, M. (Eds.), Research on negotiation in organizations (Vol. 1, pp. 43–55). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Brockner, J. (2006, March). Why it's so hard to be fair. Harvard Business Review, 84, pp. 122–129.Google Scholar
Calder, B. J., Phillips, L. W., & Tybout, A. M. (1981). Designing research for application. Journal of Consumer Research, 8, 197–207.Google Scholar
Colquitt, J. A., Greenberg, J., & Zapata-Phelan, C. P. (2005). What is organizational justice? An historical overview of the field. In Greenberg, J., & Colquitt, J. A. (Eds.), Handbook of organizational justice (pp. 3–56). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Colquitt, J. A., & Zapata-Phelan, C. P. (2007). Trends in theory building and theory testing: A five-decade study of the Academy of Management Journal . Academy of Management Journal, 50, 1281–1303.Google Scholar
Cropanzano, R., Bowen, D. E., & Gilliland, S. W. (2007). The management of organizational justice. Academy of Management Perspectives, 21, 34–48.Google Scholar
Cropanzano, R., Slaughter, J., & Bachiochi, P. (2005). Organizational justice and Black applicants’ reactions to affirmative action. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 1168–1184.Google Scholar
Dailey, R. C., & Kirk, D. J. (1992). Distributive and procedural justice as antecedents of job dissatisfaction and intent to turnover. Human Relations, 45, 305–316.Google Scholar
Fassina, N. E., Jones, D. A., & Uggerslev, K. L. (2008). Meta-analytic tests of relationships between organizational justice and citizenship behavior: Testing agent-system and shared-variance models. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29, 805–828.Google Scholar
Folger, R. (1998). Fairness as a moral virtue. In Schminke, M. (Ed.), Managerial ethics: Moral management of people and processes (pp. 13–34). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Folger, R., & Cropanzano, R. (1998). Organizational justice and human resource management. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Folger, R., Cropanzano, R., & Goldman, B. (2005). What is the relationship between justice and morality? In Greenberg, J., & Colquitt, J. A. (Eds.), Handbook of organizational justice (pp. 215–245). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Folger, R., & Greenberg, J. (1985). Procedural justice: An interpretive analysis of personnel systems. In Rowland, K., & Ferris, G. (Eds.), Research in personnel and human resources management (Vol. 3, pp. 141–83). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Folger, R., & Konovsky, M. (1989). Effects of procedural and distributive justice on reactions to pay raise decisions. Academy of Management Journal, 32, 115–130.Google Scholar
Fromkin, H. L., & Streufert, S. (1976). Laboratory experimentation. In Dunnette, M. D. (Ed.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 416–465). Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Gasser, M., Butler, A., Waddilove, L., & Tan, R. (2004). Defining the profession of industrial-organizational psychology. The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 42(2), 15–20.Google Scholar
Gillespie, J. Z., & Greenberg, J. (2005). Is organizational justice self-interested? In Greenberg, J., & Colquitt, J. A. (Eds.), Handbook of organizational justice (pp. 179–214). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Gilliland, S. W. (1994). The perceived fairness of selection systems: An organizational justice perspective. Academy of Management Review, 18, 694–734.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. (1982). Approaching equity and avoiding inequity in groups and organizations. In Greenberg, J., & Cohen, R. L. (Eds.), Equity and justice in social behavior (pp. 389–435). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. (1986). Determinants of perceived fairness of performance evaluations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 340–342.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. (1987). A taxonomy of organizational justice theories. Academy of Management Review, 12, 9–22.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. (1988). Cultivating an image of justice: Looking fair on the job. Academy of Management Executive, 2, 155–158.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. (1990a). Employee theft as a reaction to underpayment inequity: The hidden costs of pay cuts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 72, 55–61.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. (1990b). Looking fair vs. being fair: Managing impressions of organizational justice. In Staw, B. M., & Cummings, L. L. (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 12, pp. 111–157). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. (1996). The quest for justice on the job. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. (2000, April). An organizational justice perspective on stigmas in organizations. Paper presented at the 15th Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology, New Orleans, LA.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. (2006). Losing sleep over organizational injustice: Attenuating insomniac reactions to underpayment inequity with supervisory training in interactional justice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 58–69.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. (2007). Ten good reasons why everyone needs to know about and study organizational justice. In Glendon, I., Myors, B., & Thompson, B. (Eds.), Advances in organizational psychology: An Asia-Pacific perspective (pp. 181–297). Bowen Hills, Queensland, AU: Australian Academic Press.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. (in press). Organizational injustice as an occupational health risk. In Walsh, J. F., & Brief, A. P. (Eds.), Academy of management annals (Vol. 4). New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J., & Folger, R. (1988). Controversial issues in social research methods. New York: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J., & Lind, E. A. (2000). The pursuit of organizational justice: From conceptualization to implication to application. In Cooper, C. L., & Locke, E. A. (Eds.), I/O psychology: What we know about theory and practice (pp. 72–105). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hambrick, D. C. (2007). The field of management's devotion to theory: Too much of a good thing? Academy of Management Journal, 50, 1346–1352.Google Scholar
Hayek, F. A. V. (1989). The persistence of knowledge—Nobel memorial lecture: December 11, 1974. American Economic Review, 79, 3–7.Google Scholar
Homans, G. C. (1961). Social behavior: Its elementary forms. New York: Harcourt.Google Scholar
Jones, E. E., & Davis, K. E. (1965). From acts to dispositions: The attribution process in social psychology. In Berkowitz, L. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 219–266). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Judge, T. A., & Colquitt, J. A. (2004). Organizational justice and stress: The mediating role of work-family conflict, Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 395–404.Google Scholar
Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. A. (1997, JulyAugust). Fair process: Managing in the knowledge economy. Harvard Business Review, 75, pp. 65–75.Google Scholar
Konovsky, M. A., & Cropanzano, R. (1991). The perceived fairness of employee drug testing as a predictor of employee attitudes and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 698–707.Google Scholar
Lam, S. S. K., Schaubroeck, J., & Aryee, S. (2002). Relationship between organizational justice and employee work outcomes: A cross-national study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23, 1–18.Google Scholar
Lefkowitz, J. (2008). To prosper, organizational psychology should … expand the values of organizational psychology to match the quality of its ethics. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29, 439–453.Google Scholar
Leventhal, G. S. (1980). What should be done with equity theory? In Gergen, K. J., Greenberg, M. S., & Willis, R. H. (Eds.), Social exchanges: Advances in theory and research (pp. 27–55). New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Lind, E. A., & Tyler, T. R. (1988). The social psychology of procedural justice. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Madigan, J., & Dickson, M. W. (2007). Good science-good practice. The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 44(1), 93–96.Google Scholar
Messick, D. M., Bloom, S. Boldizar, J. P., & Samuelson, C. D. (1985). Why we are fairer than others. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 21, 480–500.Google Scholar
Miner, J. B. (1992). Industrial-organizational psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Popper, K. (1963). Conjectures and refutations. London: Routledge and Keagan Paul.Google Scholar
Premack, S. L., & Wanous, J. P. (1985). A meta-analysis of realistic job preview experiments. Journal of Applied Psychology, 70, 706–719.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenblatt, Z., Rogers, K. S., & Nord, W. R. (1993). Toward a political framework for flexible management of decline. Organization Science, 4, 76–91.Google Scholar
Rothwell, W. J., & Sullivan, R. (2005). Practicing organization development: A guide for consultants. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Rupp, D. E., & Beal, D. (2007). Checking in with the scientist–practitioner model: How are we doing? The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 45, 35–40.Google Scholar
Sashkin, M., & Williams, R. L. (1990). Does fairness make a difference? Organizational Dynamics, 19, 56–71.Google Scholar
Scott, B. A., Colquitt, J. A., & Zapata-Phelan, C. P. (2007). Justice as a dependent variable: Subordinate charisma as a predictor of interpersonal and informational justice perceptions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1597–1609.Google Scholar
Simons, T., & Roberson, Q. (2003). Why managers should care about fairness: The effects of aggregate justice perceptions on organizational outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 432–443.Google Scholar
Skarlicki, D. P., & Latham, G. P. (1996). Increasing citizenship behavior within a labor union: A test of organizational justice theory. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 161–169.Google Scholar
Skarlicki, D. P., & Latham, G. P. (2005). How can training be used to foster organizational justice? In Greenberg, J., & Colquitt, J. A. (Eds.), Handbook of organizational justice (pp. 499–522). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Thibaut, J. & Walker, L. (1975). Procederal justice: A Psychological Analysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Tyler, T. R., & Lind, E. A. (1992). A relational model of authority in groups. In Zanna, M. P. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 25, pp. 115–191). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Turrillo, C. J., Folger, R., Lavelle, J. J., Umphress, E. E., & Gee, J. (2002). Is virtue its own reward? Self-sacrificial decisions for the sake of fairness. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 89, 839–865.Google Scholar