Chapter 1: Wanting is Believing: Understanding Psychological Processes in Organizational Justice by Examining Perceptions of Fairness

A variety of theories have been proposed to explain the robust empirical relationship between procedural fairness they experience at work and their workplace attitudes and behavior. However, relatively little effort has been made to compare and integrate these theories, and empirical tests of the various theories vary to such an extent that comparison among them is difficult. To address this issue, we propose a framework to empirically compare the validity of the different theories and the circumstances under which each may be most relevant. Our framework is based on the assumption that employee perceptions of justice will be influenced by the reasons they care about justice; therefore, the concerns emphasized by the various theories about why justice matters should influence fairness perceptions. By proposing that justice perceptions may have utility for testing theories about why justice matters, we hope to initiate dialog about the concerns that shape procedural justice judgments and about how those concerns may provide a window into testing why employees react so strongly to their justice judgments.