Why are fairness and integrity important?

The National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (the Standard) requires leaders to be competent to manage, lead and supervise workers in a way that is psychologically safe. One of the core aspects of psychologically safe leadership relates to ensuring fairness and integrity in terms of how workplace interactions and decisions are approached.

What are fairness and integrity?

Fairness and integrity are core components of psychologically safe leadership1. Communication and decision making must take into account diversity of worker needs, yet be consistently unbiased and respectful.

Why are fairness and integrity important?

There are many benefits to having people leaders effectively trained in fairness and integrity:

  • Enhances all workers’ trust in leadership.
  • Reduces and eliminates discrimination.
  • Problematic worker issues are addressed proactively.
  • Workers are much more likely to want to do their best work.
  • Enhances the likelihood that teams are high functioning.

So, how do leaders show their integrity and improve fairness in the workplace through their leadership?

  1. Place a high value on honesty, equity and fair treatment in the workplace.
  2. Ensure all workers are treated with respect and dignity.
  3. Ensure a safe and welcoming working environment by not tolerating discrimination and stigma. Understand that everyone holds their own biases, so allow for humility and openness that encourages honest discussions about stigma and how it can be prevented/eliminated from the workplace.
  4. Build trust with team members.
  5. Prioritize workers’ well-being at work, and foster an environment where they not only feel supported by the leaders, but are encouraged to support one another.
  6. Support individual limitations by working as a cohesive group that works toward objectives with a united focus. Denigrating limitations will not foster motivation at work.

Consider your individual and organizational strengths with respect to fairness and integrity – and steps that can be taken to enhance it.

[1] Strategies relevant to fairness and integrity were drawn from the other domains: communication and collaboration; social intelligence; security and safety; problem solving and conflict management. This is intended to highlight fairness and integrity as a critical component of psychologically safe leadership.

Fairness and integrity is a key aspect of psychologically safe leadership from the Psychologically Safe Leadership Assessment (PSLA), an assessment tool developed by Dr. Joti Samra, MyWorkplaceHealth’s CEO & Founder, made for leaders to self-assess how they fare across five key domains of leadership, which align with the requirements of the CSA National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace. These five domains are: communication and collaboration; social intelligence; problem solving and conflict management; security and safety; and fairness and integrity.