Perspective-getting, -taking and -integrating: cultivating procedural justice turn-by-turn to manage heated conflicts

Abstract

Organisational authorities must sometimes manage heated multiparty conflicts in uncontrolled settings. In these dynamic conflicts, satisfying all parties is rarely achievable, and thus fostering experiences of procedural justice, or fair process, is crucial. However, few studies have examined how organisational authorities’ situated communicative activities create such experiences. Previous research has identified perspective-getting (eliciting perspectives), perspective-taking (understanding perspectives), and, to a lesser degree, perspective-integrating (coordinating perspectives) as potentially important. Still, we do not know how these activities are done, whether they are associated with perceived procedural justice, nor their underlying mechanisms. We propose the PGTI model of perspective-getting, -taking, and -integrating to conceptualise how organisational authorities’ communicative activities can create procedural justice interactionally turn-by-turn. This model was explored in a field study of 58 police trainees attempting to resolve a heated conflict in a public park. Combining observational measures (body-worn video) with self-report surveys, we used a test-explore design to (1) test the statistical associations between perspective-getting, -taking, and -integrating with stakeholder experiences of procedural justice and (2) explore qualitatively how these communicative activities might lead to perceived procedural justice. We found that perspective-getting, -taking, and -integrating had discriminant validity and were associated with perceptions of procedural justice. We argue that the mechanisms that lead from these communicative processes to procedural justice are the core components of procedural justice, namely voice, respect, neutrality, and benevolence. This novel model has high ecological validity because it is directly observable in the interactions, and it is useful because the communicative activities can be trained and supported. The theoretical contribution is a grounded model of the mechanisms through which perspective-getting, -taking, and -integrating can lead to perceptions of procedural justice turn-by-turn, within heated conflicts.