Chapter 5 The curious relationship between fairness and trust in teams: when unfair treatment begets trust, fair process erodes trust, and unfair restitution restores trust

Abstract

Purpose – Trust and justice are generally considered distinct but closely related constructs. Individual perceptions of procedural justice and trustworthiness have been shown to reciprocally influence one another, each independently promoting trust (Colquitt & Mueller, 2007). We consider instances where these may instead diverge: how intentional efforts to build trust may unintentionally erode justice, and how the use of fair procedures may reduce trust.

Approach – We argue that the anomalous divergences between trust and justice are evident only when simultaneously considering judgments at two levels: the interpersonal level (i.e., within dyads inside the team) and the team level (i.e., shared perceptions of all team members).

Implications for research and practice – The unintended effects described in this chapter describe a “dark side” to a number of taken-for-granted practices in organizational life (favor-paying, punishment processes, and approaches to redress). We expect that this chapter should promote new research using the team context to bridge the trust and justice literatures, and provoke a careful reconsideration among practitioners of these approaches.

Originality – We propose three previously overlooked disjunctures between trust and justice. First, we show how procedurally unfair approaches to allocating favors may be beneficial in building dyadic trust between team members. Next, we describe how fair (open and transparent) group processes for punishing perpetrators may erode trust by skewing group members’ perceptions of the prevalence of trust violations. Finally, we describe how the most effective forms of redress at the interpersonal level may provoke perceptions of injustice at the team level.

Citation

Neville, L. and Brodt, S.E. (2010), "Chapter 5 The curious relationship between fairness and trust in teams: when unfair treatment begets trust, fair process erodes trust, and unfair restitution restores trust", Mannix, E.A., Neale, M.A. and Mullen, E. (Ed.) Fairness and Groups (Research on Managing Groups and Teams, Vol. 13), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 121-155. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1534-0856(2010)0000013008