The Perceived Fairness of Layoff Practices1

Policy capturing was used to identify layoff practices having the greatest impact on the perceived fairness of layoffs. Full‐time employees (N = 23) rated the fairness of 100 hypothetical layoffs incorporating each of 12 layoff practices reflecting different approaches to organizational justice. Managerial consistency in implementing layoffs, an unbiased layoff policy, and the size of severance packages had the strongest influence on fairness judgments. These results suggest that practices reflecting structural aspects of justice play the greatest role in layoff fairness perceptions, whereas practices consistent with social aspects of justice may be relatively less important.