Chapter 6: Trust, Justice, and Ethics

1. Chapter 6: Trust, Justice, and Ethics

2. Trust, Justice, and Ethics • Trustis defined as the willingness to be vulnerable to an authority based on positive expectations about the authority’s actions and intentions. • Justicereflects the perceived fairness of an authority’s decision making. • Ethicsreflects the degree to which the behaviors of an authority are in accordance with generally accepted moral norms.

3. Trust • Disposition-based trustmeans that your personality traits include a general propensity to trust others. • Cognition-based trustmeans that trust is rooted in a rational assessment of the authority’s trustworthiness. • Affect-based trustmeans that it depends on feelings toward the authority that go beyond any rational assessment.

4. Disposition-Based Trust • Has less to do with the authority and more to do with the trustor. • Some trustors are high in trust propensity—a general expectation that the words, promises, and statements of individuals and groups can be relied upon. • Shaped from both genetics and environment • Trust propensity levels are actually relatively high in the United States, especially in relation to countries in Europe and South America.

5. Cognition-Based Trust • Our trust begins to be based on cognitions we‘ve developed about the authority, as opposed to our own personality or disposition. • Trustworthinessisdefined as the characteristics or attributes of a trustee that inspire trust. • Driven by the authority’s “track record.” • Ability, integrity, and benevolence

6. The Track Record • Ability isdefined as the skills, abilities, and areas of expertise that enable an authority to be successful in some specific area. • Doctor, lawyer • Integrity is defined as the perception that the authority adheres to a set of values and principles that the trustor finds acceptable. • “Walk the talk” • Benevolenceis defined as the belief that the authority wants to do good for the trustor, apart from any selfish or profit-centered motives. • Mentor-protégé

7. Affect-Based Trust • Often more emotional than rational. • Affect-based trust acts as a leap of faith in the face of uncertainty about trustworthiness. • Affect-based trust sometimes acts as a supplement to the types of trust discussed previously. • An emotional bond develops, and our feelings for the trustee further increase our willingness to accept vulnerability.

8. Justice • Distributive justicereflects the perceived fairness of decision-making outcomes. • Employees gauge distributive justice by asking whether decision outcomes, such as pay, rewards, evaluations, promotions, and work assignments, are allocated using proper norms. • Procedural justicereflects the perceived fairness of decision-making processes. • Fostered when authorities adhere to rules of fair process.

9. Procedural Justice Rules • Voice concerns giving employees a chance to express their opinions and views during the course of decision making. • Improves employees reactions to decisions. • Correctability provides employees with a chance to request an appeal when a procedure seems to have worked ineffectively. • Consistency, bias suppression, representativeness, and accuracy rules help ensure that procedures are neutral and objective, as opposed to biased and discriminatory. • Interview questions, compensation practices

10. Procedural Justice Does procedural justice really matter—don’t people just care about the outcomes that they receive? • Distributive justice and procedural justice combine to influence employee reactions. • When outcomes are bad, procedural justice becomes enormously important. • Procedural justice tends to be a stronger driver of reactions to authorities than distributive justice.

11. Justice, Cont’d • Interpersonal justicereflects the perceived fairness of the treatment received by employees from authorities. • Interpersonal justice is fostered when authorities adhere to two particular rules. • Respect rule pertains to whether authorities treat employees in a dignified and sincere manner. • Propriety rule reflects whether authorities refrain from making improper or offensive remarks. • Interpersonal injusticeoccurs when authorities bad-mouth employees.

12. Justice, Cont’d • Informational justicereflects the perceived fairness of the communications provided to employees from authorities. • Informational justice is fostered when authorities adhere to two particular rules. • The justification rule mandates that authorities explain decision-making procedures and outcomes in a comprehensive and reasonable manner. • The truthfulness rule requires that those communications be honest and candid.

13. Ethics • Research on ethics seeks to explain why people behave in a manner consistent with generally accepted norms of morality, and why they sometimes violate those norms. • Whistle-blowingoccurs when employees expose illegal actions by their employer. • 76 percent of employees have observed illegal or unethical conduct on the job within the past 12 months.

14. The Four Component Model of Ethical Decision Making • Moral awarenessoccurs when an authority recognizes that a moral issue exists in a situation or that an ethical standard or principle is relevant to the circumstance. • Ethical sensitivityreflects the ability to recognize that a particular decision has ethical content. • Moral intensitycaptures the degree to which the issue has ethical urgency.

15. The Four Component Model of Ethical Decision Making, Cont’d • Moral judgmentis when the authority accurately identifies the morally “right” course of action. • Theory of cognitive moral development argues that as people age and mature, they move through several stages of moral development—each more mature and sophisticated than the prior one.

16. The Four Component Model of Ethical Decision Making, Cont’d • Moral intentreflects an authority’s degree of commitment to the moral course of action. • The distinction between awareness, judgment, and intent is important, because many unethical people know and understand that what they do is wrong—they just don’t really care. • One driver of moral intent is moral identity—the degree to which a person sees him- or herself as a “moral person.” • Strong moral identity increases ethical behaviors because failing to act morally will trigger a strong sense of guilt or shame.

17. How Important Is Trust? • Trust is moderately correlated with task performance. • Trust relates to performance because it increases an employees ability to focus, which reflects the degree to which employees can devote their attention to work. • Trust also influences citizenship behavior and counterproductive behavior because the willingness to accept vulnerability changes the nature of the employee-employer relationship. • Trust affects organizational commitment because that trusting an authority increases the likelihood that an emotional bond will develop, particularly if that trust is rooted in positive feelings for the authority.