Fair Process
“Why It’s so hard to be fair” is an article written by Joel Brockner and was published in the Harvard Business Review March 1, 2006. In this article, Professor Brockner analyzed the benefits of process fairness, when and where company applies it as a performance booster. However, he also made a question that process fairness has many advantages but why everybody doesn’t use it. In the end, he gave advice to companies of how to make process fairness the norm.
Starting with the downsizing problem in two companies, the article comes with showing obviously the effectiveness of process fairness not only in reducing cost but also in increasing employees ' performance. Company A which spent significant amounts of money providing a safety net for its laid off workers but it didn’t handle the process well. On the other hand, company B’s senior managers explained the strategic purpose of the layoffs many times before its implementation and their performance was better than they had been before the layoffs occurred. The reason is that employees in company B felt respected and treated fairly. According to “A Model of Fair Process and Its Limits” (Wu, Y., C.H, Loch and L, Van der Heyden., 2008) some researches of fair process shows that people care not only the outcome but also the process that create these outcomes. In general, employees - themselves decide a decision has been made fairly or not. Besides, if a process wants to be fair, it must have three drivers: how much input employees believe they have in the decision making process; how employees believe decisions are made and implemented and how managers behave. It can be seen that, applying process fairness will help a company to reducing legal costs by cutting down on employee theft and turnover; and still to have more satisfied employees. Furthermore, fair process also increases value, inspires operational managers to carry out a strategy eagerly and embraces an organizational change. Also, this process can be
Starting with the downsizing problem in two companies, the article comes with showing obviously the effectiveness of process fairness not only in reducing cost but also in increasing employees ' performance. Company A which spent significant amounts of money providing a safety net for its laid off workers but it didn’t handle the process well. On the other hand, company B’s senior managers explained the strategic purpose of the layoffs many times before its implementation and their performance was better than they had been before the layoffs occurred. The reason is that employees in company B felt respected and treated fairly. According to “A Model of Fair Process and Its Limits” (Wu, Y., C.H, Loch and L, Van der Heyden., 2008) some researches of fair process shows that people care not only the outcome but also the process that create these outcomes. In general, employees - themselves decide a decision has been made fairly or not. Besides, if a process wants to be fair, it must have three drivers: how much input employees believe they have in the decision making process; how employees believe decisions are made and implemented and how managers behave. It can be seen that, applying process fairness will help a company to reducing legal costs by cutting down on employee theft and turnover; and still to have more satisfied employees. Furthermore, fair process also increases value, inspires operational managers to carry out a strategy eagerly and embraces an organizational change. Also, this process can be
Bibliography: Kim, W.C. and R, Mauborgne (2003): “ Fair process: Managing in the Knowledge Economy” Harvard Business View. L, Van der Heyden. and Q, Huy. (2008): “ Fair process and emotional Intelligence” Family values and Values creation: The fostering of enduring Values within family – owned business: Palgrave Macmillan. McShane Steven L. and Gilnow Von M.A. (2009): “Organizational Behaviour”, 5th edition, McGraw Hill. Nohria, N., Groysberg, B. and Lee, L.E (2008): “Employee Motivation” Harvard Business View Wu, Y., C.H, Loch and L, Van der Heyden (2008): “A Model of Fair Process and Its Limits” Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Articles in Advance, pp. 1–17.