What is The Role of Fairness in Effective Leadership
- Tamar Balkin
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
“We're not gonna take it
No, we ain't gonna take it
We're not gonna take it anymore
Oh, you're so condescending
Your call is never ending”
We’re Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister (Click here for the song)
"The research indicates that many workers feel undervalued, highlighting a gap between employee expectations and current compensation levels. This can be due to stagnant wages despite increased responsibilities or a perception, whether accurate or not, that their compensation lags behind industry standards for similar roles."
Gorton 8th May 2025
What is Workplace Fairness?
Fairness has been described as the “glue” that enables effective work relationships and as central to defining the nature of the employee-employer relationship. Researchers have found that fairness isn’t solely about following rules or complying with legal standards. It’s about how individuals are treated, in terms of equity, honesty, and impartiality. It encompasses how employees perceive the fairness of workplace policies and processes, as well as how appropriate and just they feel the organisation's decisions and actions.
Fairness includes:
Distributive fairness – fairness in outcomes and rewards,
Procedural fairness – fairness in how decisions are made, and
Interactional fairness – fairness in how people are treated interpersonally (Qasim, Rizvi & Irshad, 2020).
“A top law firm is scrambling in the wake of a ‘malicious’ all-staff email leaking the pay of its entire workforce and criticising key executives.”
Natalie Brown
The role of perception:
Employees' attitudes and behaviours are shaped by their perception of fairness. Rather than expecting absolute equality, they evaluate fairness based on the balance between their input and the outcomes received. Leaders, therefore, need to be concerned with both being fair and with being perceived as fair. Because fairness is subjective, a lack of transparency can lead to misjudgements about contributions and rewards. Leaders should foster open dialogue to manage expectations and ensure rewards reflect actual performance, avoiding equal treatment for unequal effort, which can demotivate top performers.
The role of emotions:
When fairness is violated, researchers have found that it doesn’t just frustrate people—it activates anxiety and anger. Anger can lead to counterproductive work behaviours, a strong signal that unfair treatment is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. Anxiety can sometimes initiate problem prevention behaviours focused on addressing the unfair event. Thus, some anxiety may not always be negative for the individual or the organisation.
Research shows that prior experiences also shape how people interpret and experience unfairness. Interestingly, researchers found that unfair events may be experienced as particularly perplexing for individuals who previously felt fairly treated. Continued uncertainty and ambiguity will increase the likelihood of perceptions of unfairness. Researchers have found that while the behaviour of a leader impacts how their subordinates perceive work, it is important to be cognisant of any other aspects of work and working conditions that may influence the subordinates’ perceptions of fairness at work.
The importance of fairness:
Meta-analyses have shown that workplace fairness contributes to favourable psychosocial working conditions and protects the psychological health of employees. Fairness protects against burnout and emotional exhaustion. It meets core psychological needs such as belonging, control, and self-worth, and plays a vital role in shaping workplace relationships and behaviour.
Fair treatment fosters trust, commitment, stronger teamwork, improved performance, reduced conflict and is consistently linked to higher job satisfaction, trust, and engagement. It encourages organisational citizenship behaviours—when employees go beyond their formal roles to support the organisation.
When policies, resource distribution, and interpersonal interactions are perceived as fair, employees feel respected and valued, leading to greater participation, motivation, and commitment at work.
What is The Role of a Leader?
Researchers have identified the critical role of immediate managers in shaping employees’ perceptions of fairness. By modelling equity in procedures and resource distribution, leaders reduce ambiguity, clarify expectations, and minimise role conflict, ensuring employees have the clarity needed to perform effectively.
Transparent task allocation, grounded in team-agreed norms, enhances trust in leadership and reduces emotional exhaustion. Open discussions about what is considered “fair” can prevent social loafing and free-riding, while reinforcing mutual understanding and psychological safety within the team. In managing rewards, leaders must strike a balance between fairness and motivation. Equal distribution can unintentionally demotivate high performers if their extra effort goes unrecognised. Instead, reward systems should be transparent and based on clear, unbiased assessments of individual contributions. Transparency in both task and reward systems helps correct cognitive biases, where employees may overestimate their own efforts while undervaluing others’. When fairness is visible and consistent, it not only fosters trust and engagement but also supports the overall well-being and cohesion of the team.
Final thoughts:
Regular readers would know that unfair events are inevitable; engaging in problem prevention behaviours in the wake of an unfair event can have positive implications for overall fairness judgments. Researchers have found that problem prevention behaviours not only can support efforts to make positive changes and promote creativity but also serve to diminish the negative effects of experiencing unfairness.
References:
Abid, G., Zahra, I., Ahmed, S. and Ahmed, A., 2022. How and when fairness perceptions predict job performance and well-being: Exploring the role of burnout and organizational justice. Frontiers in Psychology, [online] 13, p.1054940. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1054940
Bailey, A., 2023. Three Nonnegotiable Leadership Skills for 2025. MIT Sloan Management Review, [online]. Available at: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/three-nonnegotiable-leadership-skills-for-2025/
Cortina, J.M., Berry, C.M., Williams, D.N., Amelia, B. and Kinicki, A., 2024. Fairness, or perceived organizational justice, is key to a healthy and productive workplace. PLOS ONE, [online] 19(2), e0312951. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0312951
Greenberg, J., 2018. Perceptions of fairness in the workplace: The case of organizational justice. Frontiers in Psychology, [online] 9, p.90. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00090
Hassan, M.M., Wood, B., Raheem, S., Kiani, U.S., and Wei, J., 2019. How leaders shape followers’ justice perceptions: The mediating role of ethical leadership. Frontiers in Psychology, [online] 10, p.2690. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02690
Jones, D.A. and Skarlicki, D.P., 2013. How perceptions of fairness can change: A dynamic model of organizational justice. Organizational Psychology Review, 3(2), pp.138–160. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041386612461665
Wonde, B.Y., Abegaz, M.B. and Jama, A.I. (2024) Research Square, Psychological contract violation and turnover intention among medical professionals: A moderated mediation model. [preprint] https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6554240/v1
Work Psychology Group, n.d. Perception of fairness – why this is crucial in the workplace. [online] Available at: https://www.workpsychologygroup.com/perception-of-fairness-why-this-is-crucial-in-the-workplace/
News.com.au, 2024. ‘Serious consequences’: Staff outrage at Slater & Gordon over email leak of salaries. [online] Available at: https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/serious-consequences-staff-outrage-at-slater-gordon-over-email-leak-of-salaries/news-story/6d0927eb126799884c4c82350122cd75
Williams, S., 2025. Majority of Australian workers would switch jobs for a pay rise. CFOtech Australia, [online] 8 May. Available at: https://cfotech.com.au/story/majority-of-australian-workers-would-switch-jobs-for-a-pay-rise
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