Algorithms are used in public management decisions, for instance, to allocate police staff to potential crime scenes. We study how the usage of algorithms for managerial decisions affects procedural justice as reported by public employees. We argue that some public management practices may be more suitable for algorithmic decision-making than others. We hypothesize that employees' perceptions differ depending on the complexity of the practice at hand. We test this through two survey experiments on 109 Dutch public employees and 126 public employees from the UK. Our results show that when a decision is made by an algorithm for practices that are low in complexity, procedural justice increases. Our results also show that, for practices that are high in complexity, decisions involving a public manager are perceived as higher in procedural justice compared to decisions that were made automatically by computers using algorithms. Nevertheless, adding an algorithm to a public manager's decision-making process can increase procedural justice for high complexity practices. We conclude that managers should explore automation opportunities for low complexity practices, but to be cautious when using algorithms to replace public managers' decisions for high complexity practices. In the latter case, transparency about algorithms and open dialogues on perceptions could be beneficial, but this should not be seen as a panacea.

在公共管理决策中使用算法，例如，将警察分配到潜在的犯罪现场。我们研究了管理决策算法的使用如何影响公共雇员报告的程序正义。我们认为，某些公共管理实践可能比其他公共管理实践更适合算法决策。我们假设员工的看法因手头工作的复杂性而异。我们通过对109名荷兰公共雇员和126名英国公共雇员进行的两次调查实验对此进行了测试。我们的结果表明，当算法针对复杂度较低的实践做出决策时，程序正义会增加。我们的结果还表明，对于高度复杂的实践，与由计算机使用算法自动做出的决策相比，涉及公共经理的决策在程序正义方面被认为更高。但是，在公共经理的决策过程中添加算法可以提高高复杂度实践的程序公正性。我们得出的结论是，管理者应该为低复杂度实践探索自动化机会，但是在使用算法代替公共管理者对高复杂度实践的决策时要谨慎。在后一种情况下，关于算法的透明性和关于感知的公开对话可能是有益的，但这不应被视为万能药。决策过程可以提高高复杂度实践的程序公正性。我们得出的结论是，管理者应该为低复杂度实践探索自动化机会，但是在使用算法代替公共管理者对高复杂度实践的决策时要谨慎。在后一种情况下，关于算法的透明性和关于感知的公开对话可能是有益的，但这不应被视为万能药。决策过程可以提高高复杂度实践的程序公正性。我们得出的结论是，管理者应该为低复杂度实践探索自动化机会，但是在使用算法代替公共管理者对高复杂度实践的决策时要谨慎。在后一种情况下，关于算法的透明性和关于感知的公开对话可能是有益的，但这不应被视为万能药。