The just organization

Victor Haines, researcher at OSMET, is also the principal investigator of the study “The just organization”, financed by a SSHRC Insight Grant (2020-2024).

Research so far has mainly focused on individual perceptions to investigate organizational justice in relation to burnout. Systemic justice, which designates the overall fairness of the organization of work achieved by the structuring of the work context (Greenberg, 1996; Sheppard, Lewicki & Minton, 1992), has been the subject of only a few studies.

With systemic justice, the target of the analysis is not the individual but the organization, which begs the question of what companies can do to structure the work context in order to foster perceptions of fairness and, in turn, reduce burnout. The answer to this question is important for organizations to tackle the complexities of burnout. Our research project aims to answer the above question.

Illustration by Marie-Eve Blanc

Although several factors such as values or organizational culture can promote perceptions of fairness, human resource practices (HRP) are particularly relevant in that they structure the work context (Forray, 2006; Haines, Patient & Marchand, 2018). Performance appraisal, compensation and training practices are visible cues that inform employees about the procedures implemented by an organization (Forray, 2006).

Based on this logic, the specific objectives of our research program are:

  1. Develop a theoretically informed set of HRPs that reflects the overall fairness of work organization;
  2. To test direct and indirect multi-level relationships between justice-focused HRPs and burnout through perceptions of fairness;
  3. Explore how differentiated implementation of such a set of practices strengthens or weakens (moderates) the relationship between HRPs and perceptions of fairness.

It is important to continue this research agenda to advance justice research. With a clear and generalizable conceptualization of justice-focused HRPs and evidence of their relationship to burnout, we will extend justice theory and systemic level research.

This content has been updated on 15 August 2023 at 23h41.