Procedural Fairness, Employee Voice, and Justification

Abstract

The Procedural Fairness, Employee Voice, and Justification scale, developed by Daly and Geyer (1994), is a specialized instrument designed to measure employee perceptions of organizational justice during periods of significant organizational change, specifically facility relocation. The measure assesses the degree to which employees believe management utilized procedurally fair methods and incorporated employee input when making decisions that directly affected them.

The instrument is multidimensional, focusing on three key constructs: the fairness of the procedures used, the opportunity granted for employee voice, and the adequacy of management’s justification for the decision. While initially developed in the context of job relocation, its principles are broadly applicable to assessing organizational fairness during large-scale change initiatives.

Keywords

Procedural Fairness, Employee Voice, Justification, Organizational Justice, Organizational Change, Employee Perception, Distributive Fairness, Facility Relocation.

Authors

Daly, J.P., Geyer, P. D.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the scale is to quantitatively assess employee evaluations of organizational process and outcome fairness during the implementation of large-scale structural changes, such as facility relocations. By isolating perceptions of process fairness, the measure helps organizations understand how their decision-making methods impact employee attitudes and subsequent behaviors.

It provides distinct scores for the fairness of the process itself (procedural fairness) and the opportunity afforded to employees to influence or understand the decision (voice and justification), offering actionable insight into areas needing improvement during change management.

Construct

The scale operationalizes three distinct components of organizational justice relevant to large-scale change. The core construct is Procedural Fairness, which concerns the perceived fairness of the rules and processes used to arrive at a decision. This includes consistency, accuracy, and ethicality of the procedures.

The secondary construct is the combined dimension of Employee Voice and Justification. Employee Voice measures the extent to which employees were invited or felt able to express their views and concerns to decision-makers before the final decision. Justification refers to the adequacy and clarity of the explanations provided by management regarding why the change (e.g., relocation) was necessary.

Validity

Empirical analysis supported the construct validity of the scale components. Analysis of structural models indicated that the measured constructs—procedural fairness, distributive fairness, and the combined voice/justification factor—were statistically and empirically distinct from one another. This distinction confirms that employees differentiate between the fairness of the process and the fairness of the outcome.

Furthermore, procedural fairness demonstrated strong positive correlations with key organizational outcomes, including employees’ intention to remain with the organization, as well as positive correlations with both distributive fairness and the voice/justification dimension, supporting its predictive validity in the context of organizational commitment (Daly & Geyer, 1994).

Reliability

The internal consistency of the subscales was assessed using Coefficient Alpha. The procedural fairness subscale exhibited strong reliability, achieving an alpha value of .88. The combined dimension of employee voice and justification demonstrated acceptable reliability, with an alpha value of .77, indicating good internal consistency for both primary measurements (Daley & Geyer, 1994).

Factor Analysis

The original study utilized the analysis of structural models to confirm the distinct nature of the conceptual variables. This method provided evidence that procedural fairness, distributive fairness, and the voice/justification factor were empirically separate constructs, supporting a multi-factor structure for organizational justice perceptions in the context of large-scale change.

The instrument itself is structured around two primary factors derived from the items: the Procedural Fairness factor and the combined Employee Voice and Justification factor, which are intended to be independently assessed.

Instrument

Test Type: Psychometric Self-Report Scale

Format: The instrument uses a 5-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. Items are scored across three subscales: Procedural Fairness, Employee Voice, and Justification.

Language Available: English (Original)

Population Group: Organizational Staff and Employees

Age Group: Adult Working Population

Population Details: The measure was validated using employees facing large-scale organizational change, specifically those involved in facility relocations across multiple organizations (Daly & Geyer, 1994).

Test Methodology: Paper-and-pencil or digital survey administration.

Keywords

Organizational behavior, Employee morale, Process evaluation, Justice perceptions, J.P. Daly, P.D. Geyer, Organizational commitment.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not available in source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not available in source material.

Correspondence Address: Not available in source material.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The scale was published in 1994. Items were taken from the article published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, 15(7), 623-638. Copyright (© 1994) is held by John Wiley & Sons Limited. Users must seek permission from the copyright holder for reproduction or commercial use.

Reference’s

Daly, J.P., & Geyer, P. D. (1994). The role of fairness in implementing large-scale change: Employee evaluations of process and outcome in seven facility relocations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 15(7), 623-638. Items were taken from Table 1, p. 629. Copyright© 1994. Reproduced by permission of John Wiley & Sons Limited.

Items of the Procedural Fairness, Employee Voice, and Justification

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Responses are obtained using a 5-point Likert-type scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree.

Procedural fairness items:

1. The organization went about deciding to move in a way that was not fair to me (R)
2. The way that management made the relocation decision was not fair to me (R)
3. The organization was fair to me in the way that it made the decision to relocate
4. The steps that the company took to make the relocation decision were fair to me

Voice items:

1. People like myself had input into the decision to relocate
2. Management did not give me a chance to express my concerns before they made the decision to move (R)
3. The organization did not listen to my views about relocating before they decided to move (R)
4. Before management decided to move, they asked me what I thought about the idea

Justification items:

1. Management did not explain to me why the move was taking place (R)
2. Management fully explained to me why the company was relocating
3. Management never really explained why the company was moving (R)

Items denoted with (R) are reverse scored.