Introduction
The globalization of business, as well as the rise in the movement of the workforce across the geographical borders and nations, have significantly increased the diversity in the workplaces. The contemporary organizations come in all shapes and sizes. Most of them now have employees from diverse cultural backgrounds. With the increased workforce diversity, especially within the multicultural organizations, the concept of organizational justice has increasingly become vital. Notably, many researchers continue having an interest in this concept (Colquitt et al., 2001). The HR is required to ensure that organizational justice prevails so as to prevent conflicts in the workplace. The paper critically assesses the role of organizational justice in the development of an ethical culture within a multicultural organization. It ends with an elucidation of the way the HR function might promote organizational justice in a multicultural organization.
Baldwin (2006) describes organizational justice as the degree to which the workers see the procedures, outcome, and interactions within the workplace to be fair. Organizational justice is, thus, significantly related to the notion of impartiality/fairness. There are three components of organizational justice according to Cropanzana et al. (2007). They include the procedural justice, distributive justice, and interactional justice. The authors describe procedural justice as the justice of formal sharing processes, distributive justice as the justice of outcomes, and interactional justice as the justice of relational transactions that employees encounters with others. Some researchers claim that the fourth component of organizational justice is informational justice while others maintain that it falls under the interactional component. Srivastava (2015) describes informational justice as the justification and truthfulness of information that is provided to the employees.
Justice is a vital concern for the organizations operating in the informal as well as formal economies in that its perception among the workers can affect their workplace attitudes and behaviors (Raja et al., 2014). Notably, the perceptions of fairness within the place of work by the employees are classified into these three categories. The decisions that are made within the organizations ought to be impartial in that the employees judge them with an extremely critical eye. In fact, Colquitt (2001) insists that one of the questions, which the employees ask when decisions are made is whether they are fair. Their perceptions of fairness significantly determine their behavior as well as attitudes and, as a result, have an impact on their efficiency and the performance of the organization.
Schein (2010) describes culture as a pattern of collective basic assumptions, which a group learned as it solved its internal integration as well as external integration problems, that has functioned well sufficient to be regarded valid and, thus, to be imparted to the new members as the right way to think, see, and feel relative to those problems. Shahzad et al. (2012) describe it as acquired beliefs, explanations, behaviors, knowledge, values, and communication of a large group of individuals at a similar place and time. According to Carpenter et al. (2010), organizational culture is a system of common beliefs, values, and systems, which show individuals what is improper and proper behavior. Consequently, organizational culture is primarily a system of collective beliefs, principles, values, ideologies, and assumptions that direct the way the individuals within the organization behave. Schein (2010) emphasize that culture is vital to understanding the intergroup conflicts within the organizations. The culture within a particular organization controls the way the workforces behave amongst themselves and with the individuals outside the organization. Thus, the organizational culture becomes stale if the employees perceive that the organizational justice system is not operating the way it is supposed to function. Apart from the organizational culture becoming stale, fear and distrust increases and results in conflicts within the workplace.
Notably, both the values statements and mission statements are elements of a great organizational culture. Coleman (2013) maintains that a great culture begins with a mission statement. The author also maintains that the core of an organization’s culture is its value. Both values statements and mission statements play significant roles within the organization including informing the stakeholders the purpose of the organization, facilitating strategy development, and developing assessable objectives and goals by which to gauge the triumph of the strategy implemented by the organization. These statements establish a firm basis for shaping the organization’s culture. The espoused values and values-in-action are closely aligned. They are easy for the employees to adopt them. They also form the basis for organizational culture.
The creation of an ethical culture within a multicultural organization is more significant than never. According to Treviño et al. (2003), as cited by Kaptein (2008), ethical culture is usually described as those aspects, which arouse ethical conduct. Huhtala et al. (2011) describe the ethical facet of organizational culture as the principles of wrong and right within an organizational context. Organizational justice plays an imperative role in the development of an ethical culture in a multiethnic organization. The individuals in the organization’s leadership, as well as line management positions, are called upon to live and role-model the values of organizational justice so as to facilitate the development of an ethical culture within any organization. In fact, ensuring the organizational justice ought to be a priority for the leaders and line managers, especially within a multicultural organization where the organizational justice problems have a high probability of occurring due to the employee cultural diversity.
The organization’s leaders and line managers act as models for the individuals who are under them in the organizational chart. They are required to be aware that the employees watch them very closely and judge their day-to-day decisions with a very critical eye. Notably, leadership and line management play a substantial role in living as well as role modeling the values of organizational justice when the leaders and line managers continue to be fair as well as when they make ethics their main concern and walk the talk. In particular, the employees follow their lead, and this creates an enabling environment in which organizational justice blossoms. Ideally, this facilitates the creation of an ethical culture within the organization as the employees from the diverse backgrounds coexist and work in harmony to attain the organizational goals.
Stakeholders are the parties that are impacted by or impact the actions of the organization. Lawrence et al. (2011) point out that a significant part of the role of management is to detect the organization’s stakeholders and comprehend the nature of their power, interests, and associations with one another. According to Harrison et al. (2013), the stakeholder theory recommends that cooperation, instead of conflict, ought to be the main managerial mindset. Consequently, taking into consideration possibly different stakeholder objectives is essential to the creation of an ethical culture within a multicultural organization. In particular, the importance of considering possibly different stakeholder objectives is that it minimizes the possible conflicts and, as a result, creates a conducive environment for the development of an ethical culture within a multiethnic organization. In other words, taking into account possibly various stakeholder objectives ensures that there is fairness, which, in turn, reduces the conflicts, thus, creating a favorable environment in which all the involved stakeholders including the employees and organizational leaders succeed in developing an ethical culture within a multiethnic organization.
The correctly designed business practices including the human resource management policies and practices and the links to the organizational justice substantially help the individuals within the multicultural organization develop an ethical culture. Specifically, these practices facilitate the establishment of an environment where the looked-for ethical norms within a multicultural organization materialize and flourish. The appropriately designed business processes, particularly the human resource management policies as well as practices, ensure that there are competent individuals in a multicultural organization’s human resource department who successfully decrease the possibility of conflicts among the employees. It also ensures that the organization gets and retains top talents. In fact, Demo et al. (2012) assert that human resource management policies assume special connotation in the talents’ formation, appreciation, and retention. As a result, this facilitates the creation of an ethical culture. The links to the organizational justice also decrease the possibility of conflicts within the organization and contribute to an ethical culture development.
The cultural and institutional differences are important in a multicultural organization. Cultural differences arise from the diverse backgrounds of every culture (Kawar, 2012). Ideally, these differences contribute to the creation of a sense of cultural awareness among the employees within the organization. Consequently, this eases the development of an ethical culture. Besides, both cultural and institutional differences improve the multicultural organization’s service range and adaptability. Singh (2012) affirms that having a labor force, which is diverse from a country and cultural perspective can help the organizations establish roots and develop business in the overseas markets. Thus, institutional and cultural differences facilitate the success of a multinational corporation.
There is need to balance the short-term objectives with the longer-term sustainability when developing an ethical culture within a multicultural organization. It is vital to note that a concentration on longer-term sustainability ought to be an integral part of the organization’s mission, vision, and culture (Simon et al. 2013). Balancing the short-term objectives with the longer-term sustainability facilitate the development of an ethical culture within a multinational corporation. There is also need to balance the compliance and regulation of the workplace behavior with the promotion of organizational justice awareness in the place of work. Ideally, doing this ensures that the employees understand organizational justice and at the same time know how they are required to behave.
The HR function might promote the organizational justice in a multicultural organization through the different roles it plays. Weaver et al. (2001) assert that the HR function plays a crucial role in nurturing fairness within the organization. Particularly, this function might develop formalized codes and policies, which increase fairness within the organization, thus, promoting organizational justice. It might also promote the organizational justice through offering applicable organizational justice training as well as ethics-based leadership/management development. Ideally, this would help the employees within a multicultural organization understand the subject of organizational justice well. Moreover, the HR function might facilitate whistleblowing on alleged injustices within the organization, therefore, promoting organizational justice.
Furthermore, the HR function might guarantee the availability of advice on the circumstances in which the organizational justice might be particularly relevant, thus, encouraging it. Additionally, the HR function might develop the processes to investigate as well as discipline the wrongdoing and, as a result, promote the organizational justice within the multicultural organization. What is more, this function might guarantee the consideration of organizational justice in all the human resource management practices including performance and reward, resourcing, employee relations, and employee development. Fischer (2004) suggests that organizations could employ human resource management practices to raise and sustain high commitment and loyalty levels. Consequently, this would significantly promote the organizational justice within the multinational corporation.
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