Sergio Marchionne Profile

Fairness in the Workplace

"I remember when I came here in 2009. It was terrible," Marchionne said. "There's nothing worse than to look in people's eyes, and see fear, fear that they would lose everything. It's been a long, rocky road, but fear is gone." Sergio Marchionne not only resurrected Chrysler, but he did it from the ground up, starting with the employees. Fairness in the workplace was a huge issue to Sergio, and he started the company transformation by hiring on 26 young, hardworking employees as upper-level executives that would report directly to him. In a recent interview, Marchionne noted that these 26 people would have never been noticed in the last regime as they were "buried under an incredibly poor hierarchy." Marchionne went on to say “This place was run solely by the chairman's office." He realized that fairness was, in his eyes, upper management's job to make sure everyone feel that they worked in a fair and just workplace. Before Marchionne, employees who could have made a difference in the company were not recognized for their achievements. Now, Marchionne has shown that hard work pays off. The hiring of those 26 employees who would have never been noticed is a sign of fairness shown by Marchionne in saying that hard work and ingenuity does not go unnoticed. Recognizing that Chrysler needed change, Marchionne left the top floor of the executive company, and relocated his office on the floor full of engineers. "This is where I need to be. We can design every model of vehicle in the Chrysler Company on this floor alone." This type of interactional justice was paramount in digging Chrysler out of the hole it was in. Moving his office from the top floor of the executive building to the engineering floor, Marchionne showed interactional justice by demonstrating interpersonal justice. In the Cropanzano article in the beginning of the semester, we learned that interpersonal justice refers to the respect and dignity with which one treats another. By...