Fairness in the Change Management Process

I am a big fan of evidence based decision making. And fortunately - there is a group that dedicates itself to answering questions about business management problems by reviewing the literature and publishing an Evidence Summary of what the literature says works.

The website Science for Work recently published an Evidence Summary titled: Why you should consider fairness when designing your change management process see: https://scienceforwork.com/blog/fairness-change-management/

Fairness in the workplace has many different metrics - but it's associated with justice. According to the summary it is indeed beneficial to consider fairness in your decision making. "While the research we reviewed does not support causal conclusions, it does indicate that there is a noticeable relationship between different types of fairness and a variety of organizational outcomes."

Or to put that in plain English, "In addition to moral or ethical reasons for seeking fairness during an organizational change, you may also want to add effectiveness to your argument."

Another key finding is that, "procedural fairness is the strongest predictor of many outcomes, and particularly stands out in relation to work performance." Procedural fairness is whether the decision making process is fair or not.

If you want to help people feel more satisfaction with outcomes, you will want to make sure there is distributive fairness meaning the outcomes of the decision are seen as fair.

Finally - "when unpopular changes are made, a fair process may help — particularly when explained to those who are impacted."

Fairness is a matter of morality. Don't ignore this when making business decisions. It's why humanistic management is good management. 

Correcting Cognitive Bias to make life more fair

We all have a sense of fairness. And when we aren't treated fairly - we get cranky.   Whether people acknowledgement or not - we all have biases. And these biases impact our decision making.

One of the impact of this is that women and minorities - just aren't hired for jobs - they probably should be. And I talk to people who say - well - maybe they just aren't as talented - as the men.  But ... there is plenty of research on eliminating gender and minority markers - has a positive impact on "diversity" hiring.  The process - becomes more fair.

Here is a video about it.  Correcting for cognitive biases - taking affirmative action to correct for bias - yields better results. Not just for diversity - but for the quality of people hired. Because - let's face it - if the best person is a woman of color - and they are being discounted because of their gender and skin tone - then you aren't hiring the objectively best person for the job.

A big part of effective decision making and critical thinking skills - is learning to overcome your biases - so that you can make good decisions - based on what is objectively good - and not what you biasedly think is good.

This impacts - every decision you make!  So please - learn critical thinking skills and please learn about how to uncover and control your hidden biases.

Here is a free online course on cognitive bias - https://humanistlearning.com/controlling-our-unconscious-bias/
And one on reality based decision making - https://humanistlearning.com/realitybaseddecisionmaking/

What is the motivation to treat others fairly?

Treating others well is not an inconvenience, it’s a strategy for success.

The business world can sometimes be brutal.  As the saying goes, it’s a dog eat dog world. Except dogs are pack animals and collaborate and work together. Humans are too.  In fact, if we go totally solo, we tend to not fare to well.  Not only do we need social interactions to thrive, it turns out that surviving alone is hard.

Human societies are collaborative societies. Some people gather and grow food. Some people build houses. Some people write and play music. Some people make and serve food. Some people provide health care to the rest of us. The point is, even if you think you are an island, you probably aren’t.

I write a lot about accepting reality as a strategy for successful planning. Treating people fairly and well is another strategy for success.

In order to succeed at whatever it is you want to do, you probably need other people to help you. Treating those other people fairly will help them want to help you when the going gets tough, and it will get tough.

We have all, at some point, worked with and for people who viewed ethical behavior as an inconvenience. None of us liked it. In fact, people leave jobs all the time to get away from co-workers and bosses that don’t treat them well.

A leader is only as good as their team. Good people don’t like to work for mean selfish people and they certainly won’t go out of their way to solve a problem for a mean person.

Treating people unfairly will drive good people away from you and make your life harder.  Don’t do this to yourself.  If you aren’t naturally compassionate and caring and you don’t really care about fairness, be fair to the people around you anyway. It really will make your life easier.

If you want good people who will support you in your endeavors, treat them fairly. This goes for the people in your personal life and in your professional life.  This isn’t an inconvenience. It’s a strategy for success and happiness.

To learn more – take my living made simpler course which discusses how to better integrate your ethics into your decision making.

Or – if you are more business minded, take – the 7 Sins of Staff Management which will help you understand things NOT to do when working with staff.