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Justice ,Justice shall you pursue: An Examination of
Organizational Justice Issues in Jewish Tradition
Dr Avi Kay
Presented at Conference on
Practical Wisdom from the Jewish Tradition
Ben - Gurion University
July 4, 2011

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Overview
 The place of Justice in Jewish Tradition
 What exactly is Organizational Justice?
 Why study Organizational Justice?
 What expressions of Organizational Justice exist?
 What Jewish tradition can add to our understanding
of Organizational Justice?
 Contemporary Topics in Organizational Justice and
some thoughts on the what Jewish tradition says

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The place of Justice in Jewish Tradition
 Centrality of Justice
 Abraham chosen

“For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his
household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what
is right and just” (Genesis: 18:19).
 Noahide law applicable to everyone: Jew and
non-Jew alike:

“Just as Israel was commanded to appoint courts of law in every
district and city, so were the sons of Noah commanded to
appoint courts of laws in every district and city” (Sanhedrin 56b).

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The Place of Organizations in
Society

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What exactly is Organizational Justice?
Terms
 Organizational justice is the study of the
concerns about fairness in the workplace.
 Philosophy: Sees “Justice” vs. “Fairness” as
two distinct features (ala Rawls, 1971)

Normative, prescriptive approach
 Truths by which to live a proper, moral life
 Social Scientists: Sees “Justice” as “Fairness”
and vice versa in) in the eyes of the beholder)

Empirical, descriptive
 Antecedents, consequences

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Why study Organizational Justice?
 Distributive justice perceptions are also strongly related to withdrawal in which an
employee leaves the organization due to perceptions of injustice(Cohen-Charash &
Spector, 2001).
 Improving justice perceptions improves productivity and
performance (Karriker & Williams, 2009).

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What Expressions of
Organizational Justice Exist? (1):
Distributional Justice
 This was the first type of justice examined
 “Equity theory” (Adams, 1965) – the fairest allocations
are those that award people in proportion to their
contributions

Lind: “justice was [once] synonymous with Adams’ equity theory
Along side the above-there are distributional rules which are
based on other calculi:
 Equality: people should be rewarded equally
 Need/deprivation: rewards should speak to the prior
situation of the individual such that those who need more
of a benefit or resource will receive more

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What Expressions of
Organizational Justice Exist? (2):
Procedural Justice (a)
 Complement to the distributional justice literature
 Procedural justice is concerned with making and
implementing decisions according to fair processes

individuals responded not only to the outcomes they received but
also to the procedures/practices by which outcomes generated.

Initially focused on judicial frameworks
 Thibault and Walker (1975)
 By 1985 the main focus had moved to organizational frameworks

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What exactly is Organizational Justice? (3):
Procedural Justice (b)
 Interactional justice- Enacting of procedures
(Bies&Moag, 1986):
 - broken down by Greenberg (1993a) into:
 interpersonal justice: sensitivity, politeness and
respect people are shown by authority figures
 and informational justice: explanation of
information given-candid, thorough, timely….

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What exactly is Organizational Justice? (4):
Procedural Justice
 Hiring
 Performance appraisal
 Salary determination
 Disciplinary actions
 Layoff implementation

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Contemporary Topics in Organizational Justice and
some thoughts on the what Jewish tradition says

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What Jewish tradition can add to our
understanding of Organizational Justice:
Centrality of Justice in the Jewish Tradition (2)
 Centrality of justice: Noahide law applicable to
everyone – Jew and non-Jew alike:
 Just as Israel was commanded to appoint courts of law in
every district and city, so were the sons of Noah
commanded to appoint courts of laws in every district and
city (Sanhedrin 56b)

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 Living wage is a term used to describe the
minimum hourly wage necessary for an individual to
meet basic needs, including shelter (housing) and
other incidentals such as clothing and nutrition, for an
extended period of time or a lifetime
http://www.livingwage.geog.psu.edu/

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 Different numbers were found by The Working Poor
Families Project, a national initiative that examines the
conditions of working families both nationally and at the
state level. In 2005, using U.S. Census American
Community Survey data, the project found that 2.8 million
working families are poor (earn less than 100% of poverty)
and that these families constituted 12.2 million people. In
addition, 9.6 million, or more than 1 out 4 working families
in America (29%), are low-income, earning less than 200%
of poverty. The 200% of poverty threshold is considered a
reasonable estimate of the amount of earnings needed to
be economically self-sufficient

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