Fairness why its important

Arguments about justice or fairness have a long tradition in Western civilization. In fact, no idea in Western civilization has been more consistently linked to ethics and morality than the idea of justice. From the Republic, written by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, to A Theory of Justice, written by the late Harvard philosopher John Rawls, every major work on ethics has held that justice is part of the central core of morality.

Justice means giving each person what he or she deserves or, in more traditional terms, giving each person his or her due. Justice and fairness are closely related terms that are often today used interchangeably. There have, however, also been more distinct understandings of the two terms. While justice usually has been used with reference to a standard of rightness, fairness often has been used with regard to an ability to judge without reference to one's feelings or interests; fairness has also been used to refer to the ability to make judgments that are not overly general but that are concrete and specific to a particular case.

In any case, a notion of being treated as one deserves is crucial to both justice and fairness. When people differ over what they believe should be given, or when decisions have to be made about how benefits and burdens should be distributed among a group of people, questions of justice or fairness inevitably arise.

In fact, most ethicists today hold the view that there would be no point of talking about justice or fairness if it were not for the conflicts of interest that are created when goods and services are scarce and people differ over who should get what. When such conflicts arise in our society, we need principles of justice that we can all accept as reasonable and fair standards for determining what people deserve. But saying that justice is giving each person what he or she deserves does not take us very far.

How do we determine what people deserve? What criteria and what principles should we use to determine what is due to this or that person? Then that perceived unfairness has been noted by your fairness-favoring brain and can potentially unleash a strong negative response. In fact, studies show that we tend not to feel empathy toward those we perceive as unfair and can even experience pleasure when we see unfair people suffer. Unfairness is bad for collaboration and even worse for productivity.

The need for fairness brings home the importance of proactively fostering a working environment where experiences of unfairness are minimized. Being fair-minded helps us develop mutually supportive relationships with those around us.

Why is this important for our well-being? A nearly year longitudinal study from Harvard confirms what personal experience may suggest, that the number one factor that promotes our happiness and well-being is having good relationships. Research has also found that showing fairness and being generous is intrinsically rewarding. As social animals, our happiness is closely tied to the happiness of the people around us.

Being a source of joy for the people around us can also increase our sense of purpose, which is equally important in promoting our well-being Gillham et al. Fairness also supports a positive classroom environment, which predicts personal as well as academic flourishing. Fairness is further important in equal divisions of work in group assignments and performing tasks with others, which Gregory Walton and his colleagues found to be academically motivating.

Recent studies have also highlighted an important form of fairness known as interactional fairness or interactional justice. Informational fairness is about people's expectation that they should receive adequate information on and explanation of the process and its outcomes. Interpersonal fairness is about people's expectation that they should be treated in a respectful, honest and interpersonally sensitive manner. Violations of these informational and interpersonal expectations lead to feelings of outrage and sometimes retaliatory behaviours against the perceived source of the violation e.

Informational and interpersonal fairness are conceptually distinct but empirically highly correlated: both are likely to correlate with each other to affect the quality of social interactions. It is difficult to feel respected if we do not receive adequate information and explanation; conversely, it is difficult to evaluate any information or explanation provided if we feel that we are not being treated sincerely or with honesty.

Interactional fairness has a direct impact on fairness perceptions, but it has also been shown to mitigate the negative effects of outcome unfairness and even process unfairness arising from violations of some of the rules of procedural fairness. Hence, given the positive effects of interactional fairness, as well as the control that we have over the social interaction process — compared with the relative lack of control over outcomes and structural aspects of process — managers and leaders should pay more attention and effort to increasing the favourability of social interactions so as to contribute to overall perceptions of fairness.

Two additional research findings in fairness perception are noteworthy. First, our perceptions of fairness are influenced by how we see or believe our fellow employees or citizens are treated. In practical terms, fairness perceptions are contagious: an individual's fairness perception is likely to have multiplier effects on the fairness perceptions of other individuals.

Given that negative effects are stronger, it is important to bear in mind the potential widespread and lasting negative effects that unfairness perceptions would have in the organisation or society.

Second, research has shown that fairness effects are stronger when the decisions are perceived as discretionary rather than non-discretionary. In other words, people do take into account the context of the fair or unfair treatment that they receive. A fair outcome or process that is achieved only after being made mandatory by a successful appeal or grievance process is likely to reduce the positive effects of the individual's fairness perceptions, because the decision to fairly distribute the outcome or implement the process would be perceived by the individual as based on legal or regulatory obligation i.

Fairness perception is fundamental, be it at the workplace or in society at large, since it affects emotions, attitudes, judgements, decisions and behaviours. The good news is that there exists a robust body of research to help us adopt evidence-based approaches to enhancing fairness perception. We should pay more attention to our choice of words, manner of communication, timing and other elements of engagement as we interact with employees, members of public and other stakeholders regarding decisions and other information relevant to outcomes and processes.

The basic principles of good leadership and management, such as accountability, transparency, objectivity, meritocracy, integrity, trustworthiness and compassion, will help cultivate a climate of fairness. In addition, we should distribute incentives when people are deserving, give people reasonable process control, apply procedures consistently and explain exceptional cases, obtain issue-relevant and accurate information from multiple sources before arriving at decisions to prevent perception of biased decisions, take people's values and concerns into consideration, disclose and explain information accurately as far as possible, and treat people with respect, honesty and sensitivity.

He has served as Editor and member on the boards of several journals, as well as on various councils and international advisory panels. Together with Nobel Laureate in Economics Professor Daniel Kahneman and world-renowned psychologist Professor Ed Diener, Professor Chan served on an international committee — supported by various international associations of psychology, which submitted to the United Nations a report on developing measures of national well-being across countries.

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