Employee’s Perception of Fairness of Advancement: Implications for Fair Labour Practices

Advancement and promotions in the workplace are very sensitive and emotional issues. An organisation’s policy and procedures usually stipulate how promotions should be conducted and various roles to be played by those who have the responsibility to commence and finalise promotional processes. The important aspect of the processes is to make sure that there is fairness throughout the processes. Fairness in this sense connotes that the laid down policy and procedures for promotion must be followed and applied by giving all applicants fair and equal opportunities. The perceptions of the applicants become more important and crucial where it is discovered that there was unfair labour practice inherent in the processes that led to advancement. Against this backdrop, fairness or lack of has serious implications on the concept of fair labour practice and the outcome of the selection processes. Consequently, if promotion is perceived by an applicant as unfair, it might trigger agitation, which in turn may lead to quest for redress before the relevant adjudicating authority. Against the backdrop of this problem, this paper seeks to examine applicants ’ perception of the fairness of promotion processes and the consequences of unfairness in selection, promotion and advancemen