How do judgments of justice form during periods of change: a sensemaking model

In a world where organizational change is part of the everyday life of the organization, research has shown that issues of organizational justice have a great impact on organizational outcomes (e.g. Colquitt et al., 2001) and concern all members of the organization. The uncertainty and ambiguity that characterize situations of change in organizations make questions of organizational justice a particulary touchy subject matter. Members of the organization want to understand and make sense of organizational change. How individuals form their judgment of justice when confronted with an organizational change? Which process of sensemaking does it involve ? We propose here to examine the process through which members of the organization during organizational change form their judgment of justice considering that this process is akin to a process of sensemaking. (Weick, 1995). Our contribution is twofold: first we summarize the contributions of theories and research on justice and emphasize that they do not account for the social processes through which justice judgments are formed in organizations. Building on the works of sensemaking in organisations (Weick, 1995; Balogun & Johnson, 2004; 2005), we propose an exploratory model of formation of justice judgments that emphasizes three fundamental aspects of the life of organizations undergoing change: uncertainty, ambiguity and the role of social interactions.