Chapter 2: How do I Know That’s Fair?: A Categorization Approach to Fairness Judgments

Procedural justice research has advanced substantially inthe last two decades. This research has identified factors that lead to perceptions of procedural justice (e.g., opportunities for voice, consistency) as well as consequences of justice perceptions (e.g., satisfaction, acceptance of authority).However, little empirical research has directly examined the cognitive processes that come into play when people translate information about objective procedures into subjective justice judgments. In this chapter we use a categorization approach to explore three issues that are as yet unanswered in the procedural justice literature: (1) Are some attributes more important to fairness judgments than others? (2) Do employees rely on the same attributes when they consider the fairness of different kinds of procedures (e.g., selection procedures, performance appraisal procedures, grievance procedures)? And (3) Are there shared expectations about fair procedures that transcend differences between individuals in different membership groups (e.g., sex,race, occupation)? We discuss how a categorization approach provides insight to these questions. We outline a research program based on this approach and discuss the implications of categorization for procedural justice research.