Procedural Justice: Social Science Perspectives

Procedural justice refers to the fairness of the procedures used in decision making. In contrast to distributive justice, which concerns the fair allocation of benefits and burdens (e.g., pay, workload), procedural justice addresses individuals' evaluations of and reactions to the fairness of the procedures used to distribute those outcomes. For example, in a business situation, the concept of procedural justice might be used to analyze the fairness of the process used to make hiring decisions, to evaluate performance, or to decide who will be laid off in a corporate downsizing. This entry examines procedural justice as an element in dispute resolution, allocation of outcomes, and organizational contexts. It also examines the concepts of interactional justice, relational justice, fairness theory, fairness heuristic theory, and uncertainty management ...