How to make your projects fairer

Christine Unterhitzenberger and Kate Lawrence on how to make your projects a fairer environment to work in.

As a project professional, you need to know how to make your projects fairer because the individuals you are working with care about fairness – and here is why you should care about fairness too. If individuals in a project are treated fairly, the project is more likely to be successful; they are more committed to their work and willing to put in extra effort; and they are more likely to help and support others.

You can expect positive outcomes for organisations and individuals if fair treatment, processes and procedures are adopted. This has been shown through a number of studies and the positive outcomes range from extra‑role engagement to improved acceptance of change and enhanced satisfaction with decisions. Below, we outline some starting points on how you can make your projects fairer.

1. Seek to understand what fairness in projects means

Fairness is not an abstract construct. We know what criteria individuals use to evaluate if their treatment is fair or not. They typically perceive fairness along the three dimensions of organisational justice:

Distributive justice, which is concerned with the perception of fairness regarding the distribution of resources and rewards. This relates to the fair and equitable allocation of rewards including benefits packages, pay, professional development and promotion opportunities, as well as to the fair and equitable allocation of resources including workload, contribution, risk, responsibility, tools and equipment.
Procedural justice, which is focused on the fairness of policies, procedures, processes, rules, regulations, standards and systems that are established in an organisation or project. They are perceived as fair if they are accurate, bias free, clear, consistent, correctable, ethical, non‑discriminatory, representative and transparent and provide opportunities for input and influence during decision‑making and enable fair resolution of disputes.
Interactional justice, which relates to interpersonal treatment and informational exchange. Interpersonal treatment perceived as fair is non‑accusatory/without blame, polite, respectful, truthful and leads to individuals feeling appreciated, valued and held in high opinion. Informational exchange that is open and honest, timely and explanatory, that provides justification for decisions from competent, reliable and truthful sources, is perceived as fair.

2. Understand what factors influence justice judgments

Fairness in projects is subjective and context specific. Individuals make fairness judgments based on their own circumstances. A number of factors influence how individuals evaluate their fair or unfair treatment in projects. These factors contribute to justice judgments and influence how acute and relevant the treatment is perceived as being.

First, the source of the treatment matters. Treatment from a source such as the line manager and the employing organisation is generally felt more acutely than treatment from an external source, although treatment from an external source such as a project manager, and the project as the temporary organisation, also plays a role.

Second, the temporality and frequency of the treatment impact fairness judgments. Treatment in the project is regarded as temporary. Individuals appear somewhat more tolerant to treatment in the project, which will likely end once the project comes to an end, compared to treatment received from their employing organisation. Also, frequency plays a role, with an infrequent act of unfairness sometimes regarded as tolerable, while frequent acts of unfairness are not.

Third, an individual’s authority and accountability make a difference. Individuals with authority and accountability experience fewer issues with unfair treatment than individuals who only have accountability, but little authority to change or influence things.

Fourth, reflection influences how justice judgments are made. An individual’s reflection on their own actions, and prior experiences, as well as reflections on the reasons the sources of treatment acted as they did, can provide contextual information or explanation, which impacts on whether, or to what extent, some treatment is perceived as fair/unfair.

3. Be aware of the impacts of fair and unfair treatment in projects

Fair and unfair treatment has an impact on individuals, organisations and projects. All actions from leaders have consequences, and as a project manager you need to be aware of the enabling power fair treatment of your project team members, contractors and consultants has and the damaging impact unfair treatment can have.

At an individual level, fair treatment enhances ways of working such as personal and professional development, career and work opportunities and interpersonal working relationships. An individual’s feelings will be more positive in the sense that they feel appreciated, confident, supported, valued, happy and respected with a sense of enjoyment. Fairness also positively influences their health and wellbeing, although on occasion unfair treatment negatively impacts ways of working, relationships, feelings and wellbeing, on occasion, unfair treatment acts as a stimulus for change.

At an organisational level, fairness has been described as the glue that holds together individuals and their employing organisation. It is the basis for a trusting relationship and influences an organisation’s reputation. Unfair treatment can lead to missed deadlines and unfinished tasks, resulting in the non‑delivery of outputs and outcomes.

At a project level, feelings of fairness develop bonds of trust between project team members, whereas unfairness impacts negatively on the project delivery in terms of cost and viability. Overall, a project is more likely to be completed successfully if project team members are treated fairly.

4. Build skills and capabilities

Organisations need to invest in building the skills and capabilities of project managers and project team members in how organisational justice can be adopted in projects. This requires organisations to train leaders and senior project professionals in the relevance and application of fairness in projects. It also necessitates embedding fair principles and procedures in project team working and enabling individuals to implement fair processes and procedures within their own authority.

Justice in projects requires organisations to have an open and transparent culture that provides a psychologically safe environment for individuals to speak up. This should also be facilitated through the implementation and sustainment of appropriate governance arrangements such as fair project governance and includes considerations of an appropriate balance of authority and accountability across project roles and clarity over roles and responsibilities. Organisations also need to ensure that learning from past organisational injustice is captured, understood and not repeated.

5. Take responsibility

As a project manager, you need to think about and be aware of the impact your actions have on subordinates, contractors, peers and project team members. We know from previous research that perception of fairness often varies between how fairly a source perceives their treatment of others and how fairly the receiving individual perceives the treatment. This means you need to actively seek feedback from individuals if your actions are following justice rules and, hence, if you are improving justice perceptions in projects. These can be simple considerations of how your treatment could add excessive workload/stress to others, or how something that is ‘important’ for one team member is not ‘urgent’ for another team member, or how able team members are to voice their opinions and influence the project.

Overall, each and every individual working in projects can make a difference in creating a fair and equitable working environment for the other project team members. However, this effort should not stop at the individual level and needs to be supported by organisations working on projects, ranging from client to contractor to supply chain organisations, and also requires commitment from thought leaders in the profession.

How to ensure you make your project fairer

Here are some useful questions you can ask yourself to assess if you are making your project a fairer place for everyone involved.

Distributive justice

Are resources and outcomes allocated according to contributions?
Are resources and outcomes allocated equally?
Are resources and outcomes allocated to need?

Procedural justice

Do procedures provide an opportunity for a voice for individuals/organisations involved?
Do procedures provide individuals/organisations involved an influence over outcomes?
Are procedures consistent across persons and time?
Are procedures neutral and unbiased?
Are procedures based on accurate information?
Do procedures offer opportunities for appeals of outcomes?
Do procedures take into account the concerns of subgroups?
Do procedures uphold standards of morality?

Interactional justice

Is the enactment of procedures respectful, sincere and polite?
Does the enactment of procedures refrain from improper remarks?
Are the explanations about procedures honest?
Are the explanations about procedures thorough?

You need to ensure a holistic approach towards these questions. Even if you can answer half of them positively, the absence of the other half will lead to perceptions of unfairness.

Dr Christine Unterhitzenberger ChPP is Associate Professor in Project Management, and Dr Kate Lawrence is a Research Fellow in Project Management, at the University of Leeds. Fairness and Unfairness in Projects can be downloaded here.