The news is rife with stories of corporations and other organizations breaching contracts, both written and unwritten, with employees. Business leaders may behave unethically but expect absolute honesty and high performance from subordinates. Companies may limit work hours or vacation days and other benefits while increasing workloads. Despite clearly defined ethical codes, guidelines, and mission statements that promote ethical and fair treatment of employees, many organizational leaders commit ethics violations that, in turn, affect employee motivation.

In general, perceptions of fairness and justice can have a powerful impact on employee work motivation. According to Colquitt, Wesson, Porter, Conlon, and Ng (2001), employees’ subjective perceptions of justice in organizational settings are classified into the following four types:

• Distributive justice relates to the fairness of outcome distributions.
• Procedural justice relates to employee perceptions of the fairness behind the processes of distribution.
• Informational justice describes the extent to which decisions that affect employees are accurately communicated.
• Interactional justice relates to whether employees perceive that they have been given a fair voice in decision making.

To prepare:

• Using the Walden Library, the Internet, and other news sources, research and select an organization that has been cited for either an ethics or a justice violation (Wells Fargo– articles attached)

Post by Day 4 a brief description of the (Wells Fargo)organization that you selected and the ethics or justice violation associated with the organization. Then, describe two factors that might have contributed to the ethics or justice violation. Choose which of these you believe the primary factor is and explain why. Then, explain how this primary factor might have influenced employee motivation.