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

摘要

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