Employment at-will and employee discharge: A justice perspective on legal action following termination

Abstract

In contrast to statutory constraints on employment-related discrimination, the primary legal context for employee discharge is the common law doctrine of employment at-will. Although some attention has been given to legal issues surrounding employee discharge, there has been little systematic effort to identify the psychological antecedents of the decision to bring suit against organizations for discharge-related reasons. This paper provides an overview of employment at-will and its history in the U.S. and reviews legal developments related to at-will since the late 1980s. We then offer a preliminary model addressing the decision by a discharged employee to bring suit against an organization and the factors influencing the likelihood of liability. We end with a number of practical suggestions that follow from the literature review and model.