Chapter 3: Justice
Overview
The core concern of Justice Ethics is the ethical evaluation of fairness in how decisions are made, how outcomes are distributed, and how people are treated, especially when harm occurs. Justice Ethics focuses particularly on respecting individuals through fair treatment, just processes, and proportionate responses. It is grounded in both classical and contemporary moral philosophy, including Aristotle’s notion of distributive equity, John Rawls’s theory of justice as fairness, and Tom Tyler’s empirical work on procedural justice and legitimacy in organizations.
Core Concepts
Justice ethics draws from classical and contemporary philosophy, including Aristotle’s principle of proportional equality, John Rawls’s theory of justice as fairness, and Tom Tyler’s research on procedural justice and legitimacy in organizations. Its key dimensions include:
- Procedural Justice: Fairness, consistency, and transparency in the decision-making process.
- Distributive Justice: Fair allocation of resources, benefits, and burdens.
- Compensatory Justice: Rectifying harm or disadvantage caused by unfair treatment.
- Retributive Justice: Fair and proportionate enforcement of rules and sanctions.
- Interpersonal Justice: Treating individuals with dignity, respect, and compassion.
In Practice
Ethical Lens: Fairness in Cost-Cutting at Tech Solutions
Tech Solutions is deciding whether to remove paid parental leave and flexible work options to save money. A justice approach asks whether the burdens and benefits are being distributed fairly. Since these benefits are often used by caregivers, a group disproportionately made up of women and marginalized employees, eliminating them could unfairly place the cost-cutting burden on a smaller, already disadvantaged group. From a justice perspective, it may be more ethical to spread cost-saving measures evenly across the organization
Watch: This 10-minute video introduces the core principles of justice ethics, exploring fairness in processes, outcomes, and the treatment of individuals in organizational settings (10 minutes).
Quick Check
Foundational Theorists
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Aristotle wrote about the principle of proportional equality, arguing that treating everyone equally was not always appropriate and that unequal treatment could be supported when there are relevant differences between people.
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John Rawls’s theory of justice as fairness, and Rawlsian ethics would suggest that individuals deserve to be treated as free and equal persons, not merely as means to organizational ends.
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Tom Tyler, a psychologist and law professor, is known for his work on procedural justice, or the fairness of processes and not just the outcome. He is well known for his research on why people behave the way they do when it comes to obeying or disobeying the law.
References:
Aristotle. (350 B.C.E.). Nicomachean Ethics.
Gosepath, S. (2021, March). Equality. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/equality/#PropEqua
Rawls, J. (1971). A Theory of Justice. Harvard University Press.
Tyler, T. R. (1990). Why People Obey the Law. Yale University Press.
