The Briar Patch:  Thorny Matters
What? Using Social Justice for Resolving Office Space Conflicts?  
Vic Pantesco, Ph.D.


The Thorn
    Resource management such as offices and space, use of the copier, sharing of clean up responsibilities in the play therapy room, locking doors, replacing the toilet paper (you get the picture), is always a challenge.  But as students in many programs arrive younger and younger we often experience conflicts more redolent of undergrad or high school than graduate school.  Blank stares or defenses such as “I forgot” or “I did it last time” etc., may be detected at team meetings or overheard in the hallway.  
    As a clinic director my patience can stretch quite thin, and it happens faster the longer I have been a director.  Recently I almost bought one of those Cousin Farm wood block carvings which read:  “If idiots could fly, this place would be an airport.”  I of course would have my own jumbo 747 in the array.  Well, that was a product of fatigue and a hard week, but it had some appeal for other times in my life for sure.  I did buy one, however: “I have the flying monkeys and I am not afraid to use them.”  
    Unleashing the monkeys or using other likely unsuccessful measures to correct the behaviors I mentioned is a familiar thorn to us directors I think.  I have used (when more rested and thinking) elements of Colquitt’s description of a social justice model.  Tip of the hat here to one of our dear alums, Brian Lewis, for referring  to this Colquitt model within his own writing on social justice.

Relieving the Pain
     On occasion I have brought a problem, such as solving an office sharing problem, to the group within this social justice model.  It elicits three components with social justice:  Distributive Justice (who gets what); Procedural Justice (how does that get decided); and, not least, Interactional Justice (how does everyone feel they have been treated in the process,- respected, heard….).  
    As you might imagine, offering these at the outset of the problem-solving discussion calibrates brains and hearts in a disposition of pragmatic collaboration.  It allows the fluid address of any dynamics that surface regarding notions or impressions of unfairness or inattentiveness (interactional).  Further, candid and practical mapping of the resources in question can be done within an ambient favorite of mine, “benign matter-of-factness” (distributive).  Finally, cross checks can occur naturally regarding the process we are using to arrive at decisions (procedural).  
    I have found this context helpful in keeping my monkeys in check, while easily affording access to challenges to diversity or justice within the problem-solving endeavor.

"I have the flying
monkeys and I am
not afraid to use
them."