Voluntary Following Of Ethics Policies Is Better Than Forcing Employees To Be Ethical

Managers used to believe that compliance officers were required to enforce strict fairness and ethics policies. Managers used to spend large amounts of money on surveillance and oversight mechanisms to ensure employee compliance. Today’s best managers know that voluntary employee compliance is a better strategy, and more cost-effective approach. The same processes that managers need to use to obtain voluntary employee compliance also tend to result in higher levels of employee extra-role behaviors and citizenship behaviors, which is good for the company.

Source: Tyler, T., Dienhart, J., & Thomas, T. 2008, Winter. The ethical commitment to compliance: Building values-based cultures. California Management Review, 50, 31-51.

Ways To Make Employee Performance Evaluations More Accurate

Today’s best managers know that there is a weak relationship between actual employee performance and performance evaluation scores. Managers have tried to improve performance ratings by creating better rating scales, helping raters avoid making evaluation errors (such as rating everyone harshly), training raters to be more accurate, and using 360-degree feedback approaches. Today’s best managers know that the best way to help make performance ratings more accurate is by creating an environment where raters are fair, accurate, and neutral evaluators of employee performance.

Source: Murphy, K. R. 2008. Explaining the weak relationship between job performance and ratings of job performance. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1, 148-160

Treat Employees Fairly To Help Improve Their Desirable Extra-Job Behaviors

An employee who is a good organizational citizen is one who does extra things beyond their job description to help the organization succeed. These extra behaviors include being courteous, being a good sportsman, and being conscientious on the job. Today’s best managers know that treating people fairly can increase good citizenship behaviors. Managers can improve feelings of fairness by treating employees with dignity and respect when interacting with them. Also, managers can use fair processes when allocating resources, such as pay decisions, to improve perceptions of fairness, and in turn help increase good organizational citizenship behaviors.

Source: Fassina, N.E., Jones, D. A., & Uggerslev, K. L. 2008, April. Relationship clean-up time: Using meta-analysis and path analysis to clarify relationships among job satisfaction, perceived fairness, and citizenship behaviors. Journal of Management, 34, 161-188.

Employees May Believe That They Are More Objective Than They Actually Are

Organizations should make decisions that affect employees based on data and facts. However, managers know that sometimes employees can make employment decisions, such as hiring and firing, based on personal biases and prejudices, instead of on real information. Today’s best managers know that the problem is even worse than was thought. When employees believe that their biases and prejudices are factual, then those employees are more likely to act on their erroneous beliefs. This means that today’s best managers should help employees rely on facts and figures, and not trust that their own personal views are accurate when making employee decisions.

Source: Uhlmann, E. L., & Cohen, G. L. 2008. “I think it, therefore it’s true: Effects of self-perceived objectivity on hiring discrimination. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 104, 207-223.

Fair Processes and Focus on Others Can Motivate Employees to Take Charge at Work

Taking charge means to go beyond one’s job description and help bring about new and innovative change to an organization. Today’s best managers understand that employees who are more self-centered and strive to achieve tend not to take charge compared to employees who are less self-centered and less interested in striving to achieve. Also, when employees have a high sense of duty to help others, then they are more likely to take charge compared to employees with a low sense of duty. Employees may be more likely to take charge when they believe their organization uses fair processes to make employee decisions.

Source: Moon, H., Kamdar, D., Mayer, D. M., & Takeuchi, R. 2008. Me or we? The role of personality and justice as other-centered antecedents to innovative citizenship behaviors within organizations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 84-94.

Employees Assess Fairness By Looking at Both the Decision Maker and the Overall Organization

Managers would like employees to believe that organizational processes and outcomes are fair. Today’s best managers know that employees assess the fairness of both people making decisions and the fairness of the organization as a whole. Employees can have higher perceptions of fairness when they trust a decision-maker compared to when they don’t trust that person. Employees may have higher levels of commitment to the organization and may be more likely to be a good citizen when they believe that the overall organization is fair. Improving employee fairness perceptions of the organization doesn’t happen quickly, and must be developed over time.

Source: Choi, J. 2008. Event justice perceptions and employees’ reactions: Perceptions of social entity justice as a moderator. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 513-528.