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Pursuing Justice: Organizational Justice

in Traditional Jewish Sources

Dr Avi KayJerusalem College of Technology

Presented at Conference of The American Academy of Religion - Western Region

Arizona State University - Tempe, Arizona

March 11, 2011

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Practical WisdomSchwartz and Sharpe (2010):

Organizations seek to direct behavior

via two methods:The creation of a system of rules and The establishment of means to oversee and enforce above

See need for a third element: “Practical wisdom”:

“the ability to make decisions based on both understanding the aims of a profession and/or organization and how the above fits into the overall goals of society: SKILLS, WILL, MORAL COMPASS

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The Teaching of Judaism is the theology of the common deed. The Bible insists that God is concerned with everydayness, with the trivialities of life. The great challenge does not lie in organizing solemn demonstrations, but in how me manage the commonplace.

Abraham Joshua Heschel, 1963

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Overview

What exactly is Organizational Justice? What expressions of Organizational Justice exist? Why study Organizational Justice?

The place of Justice in Jewish Tradition

Organizational Justice and Jewish tradition

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What exactly is Organizational Justice? Terms

Organizational justice concerns the causes and consequences of employees’ perceptions of how fairly they are treated (Folger and Croprazano, 1998; Greenberg and Colquitt, 2005)

Philosophy: :Justice” vs. “Fairness” as two distinct features (ala Rawls, 1971)

Normative, prescriptive approach - Truths by which to live a proper, moral life

Social Scientists: “Justice” as “Fairness” (in the eyes of the beholder)

Empirical, descriptive: Antecedents, consequences

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What Expressions of Organizational Justice Exist? (1):

Distributional Justice

This was the first type of justice examined Homans (1958) : Social Exchange “Equity theory” (Adams, 1965) – the fairest

allocations are those that award people in proportion to their contributions

Lind: “justice was [once] synonymous with Adams’ equity theory Along side the above-there are distributional rules which are based on other calculi:

Equality: people should be rewarded equally Need/deprivation: rewards should speak to the prior situation

of the individual such that those who need more of a benefit or resource will receive more

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What Expressions of Organizational Justice Exist? (2): Procedural Justice and Interactive

Justice

Complement to the distributional justice literature

Procedural justice is concerned with making and

implementing decisions according to fair processes

individuals responded not only to the outcomes they received but

also to the procedures/practices by which outcomes generated

Initially focused on judicial frameworks: Thibault and Walker (1975)

By 1985 the main focus had moved to organizational frameworks

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What Expressions of Organizational Justice Exist? (3): Procedural Justice and Interactive

Justice

Complement to the distributional justice literature

Interactional justice: Enacting of procedures (Bies &

Moag, 1986): - broken down by Greenberg, 1993 into:

interpersonal justice: sensitivity, politeness and respect

people are shown by authority figures

informational justice: explanation of information given

(candid, thorough, timely)

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Why study Organizational Justice ?

Distributive justice perceptions are strongly related to withdrawal in which an employee leaves the organization due to perceptions of injustice (Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001) while improving justice perceptions improves productivity and

performance (Karriker & Williams, 2009). Procedural/Interactive Justice

perceptions are strongly related to outcome satisfaction, job satisfaction, trust in organization and organizational commitment (Colquitt, 2001)

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The place of Justice in Jewish Tradition (1)

Centrality of Justice Abraham chosen

“For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just” (Genesis: 18:19).

Justice ,Justice shall you pursue (Deuteronomy

צדק, צדק תרדוף)דברים טז:כ( : (16:20 Abraham and Lot: Saving Sodom (from

itself)

The place of Justice in Jewish Tradition (2)

Abraham and Lot: Saving Sodom “Tikun Olam” : repairing the world

Insight 1: Doing justice is an active process. It is not only a matter of doing the right thing when one encounters it – it is a call to be vigilant and seek out opportunities to do justice.

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The place of Justice in Jewish Tradition (3)

So important it needs to be spread

Noahide law applicable to everyone: Jew and non-Jew alike:

Just as Israel was commanded to appoint courts of law in every district and city, so were the sons of Noah commanded to appoint courts of laws in every district and city (Sanhedrin 56b).

Insight 2: All organizational actors must take responsibility for the pursuit of justice in organizations. Doing justice is everyone’s job.

Insight 3: Justice must be done in all “public spheres: -

Heschel and the commonplace…..15

Distributive Justice in Jewish Sources (1)

Background: Decline in value of minimum wage in US from 1967 onward….now at same value as 1955 Divergence in executive pay and the average wage

in US rose from

7 to 1 in 1989 to 344 to 1 in 2007 From 1993 to 2003: aggregate earnings of U.S.

corporations which went to executive pay doubled, from 5% to 10%.

Heery and Salmon (2000): “Insecurity thesis”16

Distributive Justice in Jewish Sources (2)

Jewish Sources Abraham and Lot go their separate ways

Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go right; or if thou take the right hand, then I will go to the left. (Genesis 13:9)

- John Rawls: Veil of ignorance

Insight 3: Distribution rules should be designed so that all organizational actors have the opportunity to avail themselves of the benefits and risks related to relative organizational performance.

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Distributive Justice in Jewish Sources (3)

Background: Wide divergence in resource distribution and the “occupy”

movement… Living wage: the minimum hourly wage necessary to meet basic needs,

including shelter (housing) and other incidentals such as clothing and nutrition

In 2005, U.S. Census American Community Survey noted that:

2.8 million working families = 12.2 million people, are poor (earn less than

100% of poverty income)

9.6 million, or more than 1 out 4 working families in America (29%), are

low-income, earning less than 200% of poverty.

The 200% of poverty threshold is considered an estimate of amount

of earnings needed to be economically self-sufficient

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Distributive Justice in Jewish Sources (4)

(Employers) may not eat fine bread (employees) eats coarse bread, You may not drink aged wine while he drinks new wine, You may not sleep on soft bedding while he sleeps on straw (Talmud, Kiddushin, 22)

The bookeepers in Jerusalem would take their salaries from money primarily intended for sacrifices. The judges who judged cases of theft in Jerusalem would take their salary from these funds. And how much would they take? Ninety maneh per year; and if this was not enough for them, (those responsible for distributing the money) would increase the amount. Even if (these communal workers) did not want to take more, they (the bookeepers) would increase the amount according to the needs of the workers, their wives and their families (Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Shekalim 4:7)

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Distributive Justice in Jewish Sources (5)

Insight 4: Distribution rules should be designed so that all organizational actors have the opportunity to avail themselves of the benefits and risks related to relative organizational performance.

Insight 5: Organizational decision makers should strive to create compensation systems which allow for a more normative an acceptable distribution of outcomes. Among other things, they must not lose sight of the fact that all organizational actors have a minimum level of needs that should be met (material and others).

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Procedural and Interactional Justice in Jewish Sources

Thou shalt not wrest judgment, thou shalt not respect persons (Deuteronomy 16:19)

Wrest judgement = actual outcome, returning an unfair verdict (in org. not advancing people, not giving them the appropriate wage

Respect persons = procedure and attitude Talmud, Shevuot 30a: The one should not stand and

the other sit, one speak to his heart's content and the other be told, Be brief.

Yitro (Jethro) – The first organizational consultant

Insight 6: Procedural Fairness is a prerequisite to the creation of an efficient –if not optimal-social framework for long term sustainability of the organization.

Insight 7: The demand for interpersonal fairness is related not only to “big decisions” – but also to the everyday interactions among organizational actors.

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Final Word

Justice, Justice shall you pursue (Deut. 16:20)

Three justices exist in the organizational reality Distributional Procedural Interactional

Jewish traditional wisdom places issues of justice at the center of the moral world of the owner, manager, employee – seeking to balance obligations and rights within an understanding of the need to gain a balance among the above in order to not only achieve a just society but an efficient and sustainable organization and economy