Fairness sits at the heart of every healthy workplace. It keeps people anchored in a sense of belonging and purpose. And much like the heart itself, you might not always see it, but it remains a vital part of the lifeblood of your organisation.
Yet fairness can be difficult to read because everyone’s motivations, experiences, and expectations differ. What feels reasonable to one person might feel confusing or inconsistent to another. One of your leaders may believe a decision was made transparently, while a team member experiences it as unclear or even dismissive. That disconnect in perception is often where organisational justice begins to slip.
You may have already noticed small signs of this. A side-eye in a meeting. A passive-aggressive comment. A high performer who now nods along without contributing. A “yeah, it’s fine” that feels anything but fine. These little moments often signal that someone’s sense of workplace fairness has been disrupted, leaving them feeling overlooked or undervalued. And when that happens, morale dips, presenteeism rises, and team cohesion starts to fray.
Understanding what fuels these experiences is the first step. Learning how to reduce, repair, and prevent them is the next step. But before you can do either, you need clarity on what organisational justice actually is, how it shows up day to day, and why it matters. So, let’s dive in.
This is part of a series on understanding psychosocial hazards. Other features in the series include:
- Understanding the risk and impact of poor role clarity
- Understanding the risk and impact of imbalanced job demands
- Harmful behaviour in the workplace and how to navigate it
- Navigating traumatic events or material in the workplace
- The risk and impact of isolated or remote work
- How to overcome poor organisational change management
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article and on this website is general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Although all efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy and currency of the information presented, Sonder takes no responsibility for any errors or omissions presented. Please contact a legal representative for individual advice.
What is poor organisational justice?
Poor organisational justice is more than an employee not getting the time off they requested or the shift they hoped for.
Poor organisational justice occurs when fairness is lacking in the way decisions are made and people are treated. It’s what happens when unfairness becomes a pattern, causing it to fester within the workplace culture, often going unseen and unaddressed. It’s also a recognised psychosocial hazard under the model WHS laws.
This can involve:
- Procedural justice: How decisions are made, such as the processes, criteria, and consistency behind them.
- Informational fairness: How well people are kept informed, including how transparently decisions are explained.
- Interpersonal fairness: How respectfully people are treated in day-to-day interactions, including dignity, privacy, and consistency.
This psychosocial hazard becomes a risk when people repeatedly experience unclear processes, inconsistent treatment, or a lack of communication and respect.
Common examples include:
- Policies are applied inconsistently across teams
- Decisions made without consultation or transparency
- Favouritism or perceived bias in promotions, workload allocation, or recognition
- Complaints or misconduct issues are not handled fairly or promptly
- Private information being mishandled or discussed inappropriately
- Leaders communicating in ways that feel dismissive or disrespectful
When these patterns persist, trust starts to erode, and the organisation becomes more vulnerable to broader cultural and workforce challenges.
What contributes to this hazard?
It’s important to note that poor organisational justice is rarely intentional. Even with the best intentions, challenges can emerge in unexpected areas, and prolonged patterns of unfairness can slip through unnoticed by managers.
Where other psychosocial hazards are present, such as high job demands taking up time and energy resources, it can further impact a team leader’s ability to notice and address issues of fairness.
Organisational injustice, therefore, is usually not about malice. So, you can put any blame or guilt you may feel to the side. In most cases, it stems from structural gaps or the pressures that pull leaders away from consistently making decisions focused on fairness.
Key contributing factors include:
| RISK FACTOR: | CONTEXT: |
| Unclear or outdated policies | Ambiguity leaves room for inconsistency and perceived bias |
| Inconsistent application of rules | Even small variations in how policies are enforced can create distrust |
| Limited communication | When decisions aren’t explained, people may fill the gaps with assumptions |
| Lack of consultation | Decisions made without input from affected employees can feel dismissive or unfair |
| Time and workload pressures | Shortcuts in communication or process often occur when leaders are stretched thin |
| Weak feedback or complaint mechanisms | If concerns aren’t handled safely or consistently, injustice goes unchallenged |
Download the Safety Gap Report
How poor organisational justice impacts your people and organisation
The impacts of fairness slipping in the workplace cannot be understated. While some might see it as ‘just the way things are,’ organisational justice doesn’t simply happen on its own. Even if it happens by accident — which is understandable when your people are juggling a lot and might miss the cues — it’s still within your and your team’s control.
Often, poor organisational justice stems from ineffective structures and unclear processes, or a lack of insight into how decisions are made and their impact on individuals. The good news is that because of this, organisational justice is something we can actively improve.
Leaders can influence outcomes to create a fairer, healthier workplace. But first, let’s take a look at the impacts to paint a broader picture of what’s at stake if left unaddressed.
Impacts on individuals:
- Increased stress and anxiety
- Lower morale and motivation
- Reduced trust in leaders and processes
- A heightened risk of employee burnout
- Feelings of disconnection, frustration, or helplessness
Impacts on teams:
- Reduced collaboration and cohesion
- Increased conflict or tension
- Lower engagement and psychological safety
Impacts on the organisation:
- Declining productivity and quality of work
- Higher employee turnover and recruitment costs
- Reputational risk, internally and externally
- Compounding psychosocial risk when combined with other hazards
- Increased legal and WHS exposure
When fairness falters, the organisation carries both cultural and operational consequences. This is why poor organisational justice is a key focus area in managing workforce risks and supporting wellbeing at work.
How leaders can reduce the risk and promote organisational justice
Learning to identify and foster organisational justice is like building any skill. The more you practice, the stronger it becomes. And a lot of it has to do with practical steps like having the right processes and structures in place.
Embedding fairness into team structures helps make it part of everyday practice. Clarity is a guiding pillar in this process, ensuring that decisions, expectations, and communication are transparent and contribute to better outcomes for everyone.
Leaders can make meaningful progress by focusing on a few core practices:
| ACTION | DETAILS |
| 1. Strengthen fairness in decision-making | Ensure policies and procedures are clear, accessible, and consistently applied. Transparent frameworks reduce perceptions of bias and uncertainty. |
| 2. Communicate openly and early | Explain decisions, share context, and clarify what employees can expect. Even challenging decisions are received better when people feel informed. |
| 3. Involve people in decisions that affect them | Consultation builds trust. When employees have a voice, they feel respected and included. |
| 4. Train leaders in fair process and respectful communication | Equip managers to navigate bias, confidentiality, communication, and human-centred decision-making. These areas are where skill and awareness directly influence fairness. |
| 5. Establish safe and trusted feedback channels | Provide clear, confidential pathways for employees to raise concerns, seek review, or appeal decisions. Adopt regular informal check-ins to provide low-pressure opportunities for issues to arise. |
| 6. Protect privacy, confidentiality, and dignity | This includes handling performance issues, complaints, and personal information with care. |
| 7. Review fairness regularly | Utilise feedback tools, employee surveys, or external support services to monitor whether your processes feel fair in practice, not just on paper. Assess risk as an ongoing protocol to stay on top of what is working and what is not. |
For many organisations, partnering with workplace mental health specialist programs — such as Sonder and other workplace mental health services — can also help identify gaps, support employees and leaders, and improve overall wellbeing.
Your team doesn’t have to go it alone
Fairness is a powerful driver of both individual wellbeing and organisational performance. When organisational justice is strong, people feel valued and supported, and the organisation benefits from healthier teams, reduced risk, and improved retention. When it falters, the impacts can escalate quickly.
By focusing on transparency, consistency, respectful communication, and safe feedback mechanisms, leaders can create workplaces where fairness is embedded into everyday practice — or quickly picked up and addressed when it slips.
When teams are stretched, however, it can be easy to miss early warning signs, which is why building these principles into the fabric of the organisation is essential. Partnering with an external provider, like Sonder, whose extensive network is available 24/7 with qualified mental health professionals, not only helps mitigate risks but also supports leaders who may be struggling under pressure.
Here’s how Sonder can help:
- 24/7 access to qualified mental health professionals, ensuring employees have immediate, confidential support whenever issues arise.
- Early risk identification to help surface psychological hazards or signs of distress that busy leaders or stretched teams may overlook.
- Support for leaders, providing expert guidance when they are under pressure or navigating complex people challenges.
- Strengthening organisational justice by adding an external, unbiased layer of care that reinforces fairness, safety, and trust across the organisation.
- An extended network of wellbeing support, complementing internal processes and helping create healthier, more resilient teams.
[QUOTE] “Being able to provide our people with a centralised, Australia and New Zealand wide support system for our diverse workforce has been the best part about implementing Sonder. And the fact that I hear so much positive feedback from our people, makes me confident we made the right choice!” – Nicole Everingham, General Manager of Workplace Health and Safety at HOYTS
Being able to provide our people with a centralised, Australia and New Zealand wide support system for our diverse workforce has been the best part about implementing Sonder. And the fact that I hear so much positive feedback from our people, makes me confident we made the right choice!
General Manager of Workplace Health and Safety at HOYTS
This kind of specialist support strengthens the foundation of organisational justice, creating an extended network of care that ripples outward through the organisation and reinforces a culture of fairness and safety.
Looking to support the health of your team and organisation? Request a demo today.
