Fair Process : Striving for Justice in Family Business

Procedural justice in family businesses and itsimpact on the firm's performance and the commitment of its employees isexamined in this study.For purposes of this analysis, procedural justiceis considered to be the process that is applied to resolving contradictoryclaims from various individuals within the family business. Often in family businesses, the application of justice is made more complexbecause of the deep personal relationships.The five characteristics thatare required for the practice of fair process are: (1) communication and voice;(2) clarity of information, process, and expectations; (3) consistency acrosspeople, over time, and with agreed values and norms; (4) changeability ofdecisions, process, goals, and principles; and (5) commitment tofairness. In an attempt to identify fair process practices in family businesses, fivecases are examined, including: (1) unfair process among shareholders, (2)unfair process in "business family" membership, (3) call for fairprocess in recruitment and career development of family managers, (4) fairprocess in leadership transition, and (5) fair process in familyparticipation.Although the implementation of procedural justice may bedifficult and time consuming, the benefits outweigh the initialcost.These benefits include providing a feeling of self-value toemployees, generating more ideas, and increasing the team performance.(SRD)