Certain Uncertainty

22Justice at Work

David Liddle

The atmosphere in the team meeting was tense. Two colleagues, Sarah and Raj, had fundamentally different ideas about how the latest efficiency drive should be implemented. Both were digging their heels in and opposing camps had formed around them. Everyone was frustrated and debate was starting to become angry and disrespectful. Sarah accused Raj of bullying and undermining her, and straight after the meeting (which failed to reach any consensus), she headed to HR to launch a formal grievance.

This is an example of a scenario that is being played out every day in organizations all over the world. Employees fall out at work over how projects are managed, how resources are allocated, and how they relate to each other. Increasingly, they bring their strong views about social, political, and environmental issues into the workplace too.

Concepts of justice and fairness become the yardstick by which we measure the intervention (or lack thereof) of our managers and leaders. When issues remain unresolved, they can become damaging and dysfunctional; they burn hot. Stress and anxiety levels rise, teams become fractured, and the atmosphere quickly becomes toxic. Productivity takes a nosedive and employee engagement dips. Before too long, HR gets involved and the “rule” book gets pulled out. Time‐consuming, adversarial, and often costly disciplinary and grievance procedures are invoked, and punitive performance management processes come into play.

These ...