Liberty and Justice

1
Liberty and Justice

• Weeks 4 and 5
• Objective - to put concepts into our workplace

2
Limits to Liberty

• Buchanan
• Read for perspective on modern theories of
  economic justice

3
From the Internet

• A cloistered religious community is forced, over
  time, to negotiate with society at large, for
  exemptions on family allowance, taxation and
  health care.

4
From the Internet

• Parents who want to send their children to a
  religious school want to support a candidate for
  provincial government who will support tax
  credits and vouchers for children who wish
  alternate schooling. This candidate is also a
  strong proponent of capital punishment, to which
  they are adamantly opposed.

5
From the Internet

• A mother has a problem when she applies to coach
  a little league team but can't take the job
  unless she first agrees to do something she
  considers an invasion of her privacy submit to
  fingerprinting to prove she has no criminal
  record.
• Striking compromises

6
From the Internet

• A political candidate has a problem when she
  finds that running a campaign, holding office,
  and effecting change demand compromises she would
  rather not make, with people with whom she would
  rather not ally herself.
• Striking compromises

7
Objectivism

• Ayn Rand the Virtue of Selfishness
• Her philosophy of Objectivism rejects the ethics
  of self-sacrifice and renunciation. She urged men
  to hold themselves and their lives as their
  highest values, and to live by the code of the
  free individual self-reliance, integrity,
  rationality, productive effort.

8
American Dream...

• Thomas Jefferson
• "We must have continually present in our minds
  the difference between independence and liberty.
  Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws
  permit, and if a citizen could do what they
  forbid he would be no longer possessed of
  liberty, because all his fellow citizens would
  have the same power."

9
But...

• Who makes the laws?
• Why?
• Example of harm reduction in drug injection
  sites
• Example of prohibition in North America
• Example of smoking patterns

10
Limits to Liberty

• Usually we are presented with a natural human
  emotion to improve in the face of calm and
  maintain in the face of adversity
• improve what
• maintain what
• prevent what
• what are the meanings of conservative,
  liberal, socialist, left, right?

11
Plans, policies, actions

• Plans are specific to projects to obtain
  objectives
• They involve specific actions

12
Plans, policies, actions

• Policies are meta-plans
• They involve developing criteria for actions
  given certain pre-conditions
• objective is know, pre-conditions are supposed
• laws and regulations are enactments of policies,
  specific constraints

13
Making Decisions

• The word "teleology" is derived from the Greek
  word "telos" that means "ends." In this theory,
  you would consider the ends, or the outcomes of
  decisions. Since this theory is concerned about
  the consequences of the decision, it is also
  referred to as consequentialist. One of the most
  common branches of this theory is utilitarianism,
  which was discussed by Jeremy Bentham and John
  Stuart Mill in the 19th century. A utilitarian
  considers an act right if it is useful in
  bringing about the best consequences overall.
  This theory can be utilized in decision-making by
  first identifying alternative choices. Next you
  would predict which alternative would bring about
  the best possible consequence for the situation
  and choose that one. Remember, in this theory
  "the means justify the ends."

14
Decisions, continued

• The word "deonto" means "duty" in Greek. A person
  using a deontological theory would consider the
  basic duties and rights of individuals or groups
  and act in accordance with those guidelines. You
  would make a decision based on what you consider
  your moral obligations or duties. Your action
  will be guided by a set of moral principles or
  rules. The work of the philosopher Immanuel Kant
  who lived in the 18th century is used in
  reference to deontology because he believed that
  every person has an inherent dignity and is
  entitled to respect. In one of his categorical
  imperatives, Kant says that we must not treat
  others exclusively as a means to our ends.

15
Ethical Theories

• Ethical Relativism
• Ethical Egoism
• Utilitarian theories
• Deontological theories
• Virtue ethics
• Communitarianism

16
Think of being unfairly treated at work

• Suppose you were treated rudely or
  disrespectfully?
• Suppose you are up for a promotion / raise / job,
  and dont get it when you thought you should
  have?
• Why is it unfair? How would you know?
• How would you react? Would you take action? Why
  or why not?

17
Justice

• You should be able to
• State why managing perceptions of justice is
  important to organizations
• Distinguish between three different elements of
  justice perceptions
• List factors that influence perceptions of justice

18
Justice Perceptions are important

• Justice Perceptions employee judgments about
  whether their work situation is fair
• Justice Perceptions in organizations have been
  found to be related to
• Job Satisfaction
• Organizational Commitment
• Job Performance
• Withdrawal Behaviors
• Counterproductive behaviors
• Self-perceptions

19
Types of Justice Perceptions

• Distributive Justice perceptions of the fairness
  of a particular outcome
• Procedural Justice perceptions of whether the
  process used to make the decision was fair
• Interactional Justice perceptions of whether
  organizational agents implement procedures
  fairly, by treating people respectfully and
  explaining decisions adequately

20
Distributive Justice

• Rules for allocating resources
• Equity resources are distributed to employees
  with respect to their abilities or contributions
• Equality resources are distributed so each
  person gets the same outcome, regardless of their
  contributions
• Need resources are distributed to the person
  who needs them more

21
Distributive Justice Equity Theory

• Employees compute a ratio of how much they
  contribute to the organization and how much they
  get back from the company
• Employees choose a coworker and computes their
  ratio
• Employees then compare ratios, and react on the
  basis of this comparison. Unbalanced ratios
  create equity distress, which lead to a variety
  of responses including changes in work effort or
  quality

22
Procedural Justice

• What are some things that lead to a procedure
  being seen as fair?
• Voice getting a say in things
• Consistency
• Bias Suppression
• Accuracy
• Correctability
• Ethicality

23
When is Procedural Justice Most Important?
Favorable
High Procedural Justice
Reactions to Org.
Low Procedural Justice
Unfavorable
Low
High
Outcome Favorability
24
Interactional Justice

• Interpersonal component treating people with
  dignity and respect refraining from improper
  remarks or comments
• Informational component providing adequate
  explanations for decisions

25
Actual Example

• Two plants in the same company announced 15 pay
  cuts for their workers
• One plant given extensive explanations remorse
  was shown in the announcement
• Second plant given a short explanation, but
  without remorse or apology
• Measured missing inventory ? theft
• Theft increased in both plants, but more so in
  the second plant (inadequate explanation)

26
Improving Fairness Perceptions

• Change how fair the situation actually is
• Improve distributive justice
• Improve procedural justice
• Treat employees with sincerity and respect
• Change how fair the situation is perceived
• How to explain decisions and procedures to
  employees so they understand?

27
Summary

• Employee perceptions of justice can impact
  important organizational outcomes, as well as
  employee feelings and attitudes
• Types of justice include Distributive,
  Procedural, and Interactional
• Justice perceptions can be altered by actually
  changing the justice of a situation, or by
  providing adequate explanations for
  organizational events

28
But is it right?

• Aquinas distinguishes between two types of
  justice -- commutative and distributive. Each
  type involves a distinct measure of equality.
  Commutative justice is the right order between
  two individuals in matters of exchange. Its
  measure is strict or simple equality.
  Distributive justice is the relationship of the
  individual to the community, or part to whole.
  Distributive justice involves a proportionate
  equality. It involves a sense of merit -- those
  who more deserving should receive a greater share
  of benefit, honor, or burden from the community.

29
Rawls Social Justice

• Rawls resurrects contract theory as a basis for
  evaluating states more accurately, for
  evaluating the basic structure of society, i.e.
  its economic as well as legal and political
  structure, and specifically for evaluating it
  from the point of view of the goodness or badness
  of the distribution of benefits and burdens
  between people, i.e. from the point of view of
  what he calls justice.

30
Rawls Social Justice

• He asks us to imagine ourselves as contracting to
  form a social structure from an original
  position (OP). Here we are behind a veil of
  ignorance, i.e. none of us knows what role he or
  she we will end up by occupying in the social
  structure. In fact no-one knows anything about
  him/herself which will enable him to predict what
  role he/she will end up by occupying a persons
  abilities, industriousness, physical healthiness
  and so on are all behind the veil of ignorance. A
  social structure is more just than another one,
  according to Rawls, if in the OP people would
  form a contract to establish and inhabit that
  social structure rather than the other.

31
Rawls Social Justice

• Behind the OP people do not know their own
  conception of the good, their own idea of what
  is worth pursuing in life. So Rawls argues that
  they must use a general theory of the good, an
  account of what is good for people in general.
  His thin theory of the good is that what is
  good is what is useful to any person no matter
  what their particular conception of the good. He
  uses this to generate a list of primary goods
  rights, liberties, opportunities, powers, income,
  wealth, sense of ones own worth.
• The OP could be used directly to generate
  judgments about whether one social structure is
  more just than another (e.g. Canada with or
  without a particular law). But Rawls uses it to
  generate principles which in turn can be used to
  generate such individual judgements.

32
Rawls Social Justice

• These are the principles of justice
• (1) Principle of equal liberty Give each person
  an equal right to the most extensive total system
  of the basic liberties (freedom of speech,
  assembly, right to vote, run for elections etc.)
  compatible with an equal system for all.
• (2) Distribute economic and social advantages
  (income, wealth, status) so that they are
• (2a) attached to positions which are open to all
  under fair equality of opportunity (fair
  equality of opportunity principle)
• (2b) to the greatest advantage of the least
  advantaged (the difference principle)

33
Rawls Social Justice

• Rawls assumes that the parties in the OP will
  adopt a maximin or disaster avoidance form of
  rationality, i.e. if they have to choose between
  several options in each of which there are
  various different chances of different outcomes
  for them, they will not choose the option under
  which the average utility of those outcomes
  (weighted by the chance of each) is highest, but
  the option for which the worst outcome is better
  than for any other
• option. However it has been argued that a
  rational self-interested person would not adopt a
  maximin policy.