A 
man on trial stands in front of two livestock
pens, one full of grass and clover, and one
with just dirt.
The judge of this village is there too, holding
a sheep on a rope.
The judge says the man will be declared guilty
if the sheep walks into the pen with food,
and he’ll be declared innocent if it walks
into the one without.
I think we all can guess what happens next.
The idea of this fable is that, unfortunately,
procedures, decisions, and power structures
in life aren’t always fair.
But if you’re a manager, fairness is the
number one thing that makes a workplace
functional.
It makes people more productive, less likely
to quit, and generally happier.
So it’s super important for all of us
to make an effort to be fair and watch out
for biases that make us act unfairly.
That way, we can be better at business and
better humans in the world.
I’m Evelyn from the Internets.
And this is Crash Course Business: Soft Skills.
[Intro]
Fairness is one of the quickest ways to lose
or gain trust.
A lot of times we assume unfair people are
incompetent or opportunistic.
Neither of which are a good look.
And the workplace is full of important decisions
that could feel unfair, like determining salaries
or settling disagreements.
The idea that people at a company feel like
they’re being treated fairly is called organizational
justice.
But it’s a complicated idea, because fairness
involves subjective stuff like perceptions
and comparisons.
Basically, we get frustrated if what we’re
being given doesn’t match what we think
we deserve compared to what others have.
We like balance… and so do other animals.
The biologist Frans de Waal did an experiment
where one monkey did a task and was rewarded
with cucumber bits.
It was totally cool with that… until it
saw another monkey do the exact same task
and get grapes.
Then, it threw a mini tantrum and chucked
the cucumber back at the researcher.
Seriously.
The video will brighten your day.
But back to humans!
There are three kinds of fairness that are
important on a day-to-day basis.
They’re called outcome fairness, procedural
fairness, and interactional fairness.
Outcome fairness is if we perceive that we’ve
been rewarded with what we deserve.
There are a lot of ways people judge outcome
fairness, but the three most common norms
are need, equality, and merit.
These norms are all very different, and
people may care about one more than another,
which makes outcome fairness pretty tricky.
Like, let’s say you had $3000 to distribute
to three team members as bonuses.
The need norm says that you should give the
most money to the person who needs it the
most.
But need is hard to judge.
It can get a little philosophical.
Like, what counts as a need?
How do we weigh different kinds of needs?
And what needs matter in a professional environment?
The equality norm says that you should distribute
the money equally -- so $1000 per person.
Without some equality, people may feel slighted
and try to cheat the system, like by putting
in fewer hours during the work day.
And equality can be helpful in complicated
situations, like if you’ve got three people
with drastically different skill sets.
But it might not always make sense for a business
to split everything equally.
The merit norm says that you should give the
most money to the person who contributed the
most.
But merit can be hard to judge too because
job performance is hard to measure and define.
At an advertising firm, for example, you could
look at hours, revenue, or client numbers.
And each metric could point to a different
person.
Plus, we generally overestimate our own abilities
and contributions, which is a psychological
phenomenon called the Dunning-Kruger effect.
As you can probably tell, it’s really tricky
to pick what norm to prioritize.
You have to consider how other people will
see your decision and what they personally
value, so you won’t always be able to please
everyone with outcome fairness.
So recognize your own biases.
We all have a bit of self-serving bias, which
means that we tend to use norms that help
us more than other people.
If you’re coming up with a work schedule,
a parent may want to be at the office while
their young kid is at school, but a night
owl might want the whole team to be in from
10 to 6 everyday.
You also need to think about what fits the
culture of the organization the best.
One Seattle entrepreneur decided that his
company would offer a $70,000 minimum wage
to fight against income inequality, which
caused some controversy across the business
world.
Ultimately, trust your judgement.
And know that as long as you’re making an
informed, calculated decision, you’re doing
your best.
Now, the path we take to get to a decision
often matters as much as the outcome.
Procedural fairness is if we perceive that
the decision-making process is fair and unbiased.
There are five features of a fair process.
We’ve all seen at least one episode of
SVU, or some courtroom drama, right?
Think about procedural fairness like you would
a legal proceeding.
First, procedures need to be consistent, which
means the rules should be the same for everyone,
no matter who they are.
Judges, lawyers, and lawmakers do their best
to make sure that laws are applied without
subjectivity or special treatment.
The same goes for business policies, like
overtime pay rates.
They should be enforced the same for interns
and executive staff!
Procedures also need to make sure people have
a voice.
Both plaintiffs and defendants present their
side of the story -- just like both people
in a work disagreement.
The accuracy of information that affects decisions
is important too.
Evidence in a courtroom needs to be valid,
relevant, and available to both parties.
So if you’re deciding to fire someone, you
need to make sure you’ve got your facts
straight.
Then, there needs to be bias suppression.
That’s why there’s a whole jury selection
process.
Realistically, we can’t really suppress
all of our biases, because we’re human
beings with personal connections to our coworkers.
But we can try to minimize them.
And finally, the decision needs to be correctable.
There needs to be an appeals system, or a
way for a bad decision to be reversed.
Like the ability to sue for wrongful termination,
or appeal a decision to HR.
Granted, the legal system isn’t perfect,
and neither are corporate policies.
But establishing thoughtful procedures can
make messy situations better.
And that makes people happier... or less angry,
at the very least.
Like, one study published in Administrative
Science Quarterly found that people who are
fired are less likely to sue companies if
they perceived the process was handled fairly.
Whether we feel something is fair all comes
back to personal perception and comparison.
So procedural fairness can sometimes compensate
for less-than-ideal outcome fairness, and
vice-versa.
But if we don’t have interactional fairness,
we definitely don’t feel like we’ve
been treated fairly.
Interactional fairness involves treating people
with dignity and respect.
It’s another one of those business concepts
that boils down to the (slightly modified)
golden rule: treat others as you want to be
treated… or as they want to be treated,
if that’s different.
Don’t be condescending to anyone, and be
as honest as possible with relevant information.
Even though it may feel easier to sidestep
issues, showing a little vulnerability can
be helpful.
Like, patients are less likely to sue hospitals
if the doctors apologize for their mistakes
rather than hide them.
Good apologies are really useful!
To see how any sort of unfairness can lead
to counterproductive work behavior like stealing,
mistreating others, or being unproductive...
let’s go to the Thought Bubble.
You’re a junior member at a public relations
agency.
You spend most of your time designing graphics
for clients’ social media, and you love
a good inspirational quote.
Your office has an open floor plan, so you’ve
noticed your coworker has been spending a
lot of time on recipe blogs instead of work.
Like… at least 5 hours a day.
That’s cyberloafing, and pretty clear counterproductive
work behavior.
It could get them fired.
After talking to them about it, you learn
that they’re upset that they’ve been unfairly
passed over for more challenging projects.
And they haven’t had the opportunity to
pitch new clients.
The clients they have brought in generate
a lot of revenue.
So in a merit-based system, there doesn’t
seem to be outcome fairness.
They tell you that they’re planning to quit
and start their own PR agency in a month.
Because of those non-compete clauses in your
contracts, they can’t take any of her current
clients with them… so they’re scrolling
through BBQ chicken recipes instead of working.
You tell your coworker that they should meet
with the director of the agency and communicate
persuasively and respectfully.
Your coworker shouldn’t storm in complaining
about unfairness.
Instead, they should frame the problem carefully:
they’d like to be challenged.
Then, they should give evidence that they’re
a qualified, hard worker -- like those big
clients they brought in.
The director might not have noticed the discrepancies
in project assignments, so she could be won
over.
But, there’s no guarantee that the director
will completely understand your coworker’s
perspective.
The director could be distributing clients
with a process that seems fair to her, even
though she hasn’t made it clear to employees.
But at least this discussion about unfairness
is a start.
Thanks Thought Bubble.
Ensuring fairness in the workplace isn’t
easy.
It may mean having tough conversations about
the procedures, outcomes of decisions, or
even interactions you have with your coworkers.
Sometimes, there are big organizational justice
problems like discrimination.
We don’t want to minimize how awful those
can be, because systemic change is difficult.
But sometimes, unfair situations are unintentional.
So if you bring the problem to someone’s
attention, they’ll be willing to think about
other perspectives, and you’ll be able to
advocate for yourself using specific, detailed
feedback.
We’ve been learning lots of soft skills
together that can help with fairness, like
having difficult conversations and building
trust.
So you’ve got this.
The key things to keep in mind are:
Knowing what’s fair comes down to considering
other people’s perspectives.
Outcome fairness matters, but because of need,
equality, and merit norms, it can be pretty
subjective.
There are 5 features of a fair process: consistency,
voice, accuracy of information, bias suppression,
and correctability.
Treat others with dignity and respect, because
interactional fairness is key.
Next time, we’re going to show you how to
synthesize all your business skills to empower
others and yourself in your work life.
Thanks for watching Crash Course Business.
If you want to help keep all Crash Course
free for everybody, forever, you can join
our community on Patreon.
And if you want to learn more about philosophical
ideas of fairness and justice, check out this
Crash Course Philosophy video
