Implications of Organizational Justice Theory in a School Setting - Coursework Example

Project Part 5: Integration and Implication There are several things that we learnt in class, which are applicable in a school setting where I had the interview. In any work setting, whether in an industrial organization or a school setting, there are many conditions that result to employees being dissatisfied with the organization’s management. If the organization does not have proper mechanisms of handling such grievance procedures, the situation always moves from bad to worse (Roche, Teague, and Colvin 118). In a high school setting, if the teachers’ grievances are not effectively handled teachers are usually not happy and the people who suffer are usually the students. Based on what the two staff members in the interview said, the school follows a formal grievance process for both students and teachers, where all academic grievances are handled. We also learnt that satisfied employees have more ideas and opinions that are constructive which promotes the overall organization performance. When employees do not present their grievances and chose not to communicate, their motives towards the organization’s events are not established. There are several implications of organizational justice theory in a school setting such as the one in the interview. One of the implications is that it has a negative influence on the stereotypes which exist and are related to decision-making particularly when it comes to the group that presents the grievances (Roche, Teague, and Colvin 237). In schools, when students present their grievances and the management does not address their grievances, they usually retaliate by having strikes or performing poorly academically. This is a move that only promotes the stereotype that most students are poor in decision-making. The management also ends up believing that students are not capable of making sound decisions when they want their academic problems addressed in a formal grievance process. Organization justice theory proposes that people usually react to information or events in organizations based on their perception of fairness to their relationship during the employment. Fairness perceptions in organizations are crucial because they are the determinants of organization effectiveness (Roche, Teague, and Colvin 177). In this case the outcomes in organizations which are either favorable or unfavorable get determined by an individual’s view of what is fair or not fair. In a high school setting, if a student bullies a student and the one being bullied decided to fight back and causes injuries, this is an outcome which is likely to have different perceptions of fairness among the different types of board members or the team in charge of solving grievances in school. If the student being bullied gets expelled for being in a fight which resulted to severe injuries, there are students who would find such a move as fair. However, there are those who would not be happy with such an outcome and term it as unfair because the student reacted because of being bullied. In another example, if a group of students decides to stop going to class and another group decides to go to class, punishing the whole group would not lead to a greater perception of fairness among the students. The connection between justice theory and the different components of justice is also applicable in such a school setting. The components of justice include distributive justice, procedural justice and interactional justice. In distributive justice, it involves allocating rewards in a fair way. In theory, distributive justice shows that the principle of equity is accepted by the decision makers or the people who are affected by the decisions made. Under the law of equity, the idea is behind this is that those with greater inputs get greater outcomes and the lower the input, the lower the outcomes. To see a situation as fair, evaluation should take place based on the individual ratio of what they view as appropriate. For example, in the mentioned case scenario in a school setting, the situation becomes fair, if the student who bullies and the one who is bullied are both punished. If there are special needs which are taken into consideration and the grievance committee in the organization decides the final outcome, the situation may also be viewed as fair. In the second example, if the students who stopped going to class were punished and the others are not punished, it would still lead to a greater perception for the management. Under procedural justice, there are certain procedures to carry out during decision-making. The perceived fairness of these procedures in organizations is the key to decision-making (Roche, Teague, and Colvin 177). For example, by giving people the choice of voicing their opinions or what is helpful to them while decision-making; people develop a sense of control. In a school setting, students will find the decisions made by the school’s board or the management team fair when they have an opportunity to voice their concerns. These are concerns related to grievance processes at the institution or involving their academic work. Hence, the impact of such a move in a school is that the outcome of fairness becomes a fair process which has an impact among the students or teachers with grievances. In interactional justice, the idea behind this component is that there is a form of interpersonal interaction that takes place between the people making the decisions and those who receive the decisions. In an organization, one of the aspects of justice that people view as fair is social sensitivity. The social sensitivity affects how people believe they get treated when it comes to respect and dignity. In addition, provision of explanations for decisions made also gives people the idea that there is fairness at work. In a school setting, if students or teachers who have grievances are not treated with the respect and dignity that they deserve, the perception of fairness seizes to exist among them. In another example, if the students’ grievances which are sensitive are not addressed privately, the perception of fairness among those students with similar problems reduces. The perception of fairness would increase if such sensitive problems that students present as grievances were addressed as a private matter. In addition, informing students who present their grievances with proper explanations on how the decision-making process occurs is necessary. As we learnt in class, those decisions that the management team of any organization makes with respect are known to produce positive results for all the people who are affected by grievances. The three articles that I reviewed in the literature review are also applicable in the school setting. In the first article by Linn Dyne, Soon Ang, and Isabel Botero, we learnt that employees tend to express their grievances in two different ways. The first way is through voicing their opinions and the second way is by being silent and not talking to each other or the management. Voicing opinions and being silent are opposites of each other but as we learnt in the article, they are multi-dimensional in nature (Dyne, Ang and Botero 1361). This is also applicable in a school setting because students or teachers with grievances may chose to express their concerns by being silent or voicing their views to the grievance committee. The second article by Daud, Zulkiflee, Khulida Yahya, Muhammed Isa, and Shakizah Noor focuses on employee dissatisfaction and how employees react when they are aggrieved. In the article, it was evident that grievance procedures in organizations are seen as fair if they are carried out many times until the two aggrieved parties come to a mutual understanding. How to handle grievances also matters because if the wrong style if used, it only results to parties who are more frustrated (Daud, Yahya, Isa, and Noor 242). The article has ideas that are also applicable in a school setting. If the grievances of students are not handled using the right procedure in school, they are likely to become more frustrated. Parties that are aggrieved in school should also be allowed to come to a mutual understanding before the school management comes to a conclusion. In the last article, by Brian Bemmels, Graham Brown, and Michael Read, I learnt that justice is only attained when there are effective grievance processes in businesses or organizations. It was also evident that the establishment of employee perception of justice is possible in an organization with effective grievance processes (Bemmels, Brown, and Read 25). Additionally, it means that changing negative perceptions at the organization becomes easier. In the school setting, students may only believe their grievances are adequately addressed if the grievance process exists. Promoting positive receptions among students and teachers is also possible with the availability of an effective grievance process. In conclusion, for change to take place at this school, there are three main things which would be necessary for the management team to do to make an improvement on the grievance processes. One, it would be recommended that all students get educated or informed on how to follow the grievance processes or steps to use while presenting their grievances. This would be possible by including the grievance processes in their syllabus. The other way would be to implement new grievance policies on an annual basis to accommodate any changes that are new to the management. Lastly, it would be good to have school drills or shows that teach students how to act or behave when aggrieved or having problems. Works Cited Bemmels, Brian, Graham Brown, and Michael Read. "A restorative justice perspective of grievance procedures." International Industrial Relations Association. (2009): 24-27. Daud, Zulkiflee, Khulida Yahya, Muhammed Isa, and Shakizah Noor. "The influence of heads of department personalities on the selection of grievance handling styles." International Journal of Humanities and Social Science. 1.7 (2011): 241-252. Dyne, Linn, Soon Ang, and Isabel Botero. "Conceptualizing Employee Silence and Employee Voice as Multidimensional Constructs." Journal of Management Studies. 40.6 (2003): 1360-1388. Roche, Wiliam, Paul Teague, and Alexander Colvin. The Oxford Handbook of Conflict Management in Organizations. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2014 Read More