Justice in the Workplace - Series in Applied Psychology

In recent years the administrative sciences have provided a variety of techniques for allocating pay, resolving grievances, evaluating performance, testing for illicit substances, providing feedback, and just about any other activity that an organization must perform. However, what is often missing from these systems is an understanding and appreciation of human consequences. In a very real sense, every one of these techniques is about people. These systems stand or fall largely on how individuals react to them.

Borrowing from the work of social psychologists, sociologists, and legal scholars, this book addresses how people respond to organizational interventions. A diverse set of organizational policies is discussed, including techniques for maintaining customer satisfaction, managing layoffs, providing effective performance feedback, administering compensation systems, conducting drug tests, and resolving conflicts. Psychological and sociological research is applied in an effort to understand the ways in which individuals respond to organizational policies and procedures. The research shows not only that the human side of management is important, but also contains suggestions for more effective organizational interventions. The anticipated result: application of these techniques to make organizations better and more productive places to work.