What Principles Are Used to Judge the Fairness of Retrenchment Actions?

The present study identified the bipolar principles that workers use for evaluating the fairness of a broad range of negative organizational events. Two hundred forty-eight respondents were asked to describe recent negative events that occurred in their organizations, and explain the reasons for their fairness perceptions of the events. The responses were coded to yield 5 principles associated with outcome fairness and 8 principles associated with process fairness; this set included principles not found in earlier taxonomies. Support for previous justice models and needed areas of research are discussed.