Fairness is a concept or rather a word that roots of decisions made. Whatever the decision it will be; if it affects other people, some will term it to be fair and others may think it is unfair. Another outcome may be that all of them may term the decision to be fair. Being fair does not necessarily mean that it satisfies or favors everybody but rather its that those affected by the decision agree with it.
For people to agree with your decisions you therefore have to involve them when making them (decisions). This means that whatever is decided after a discussion will have been agreed on by all and thus termed as fair though not all will have benefitted out of the decision made. For instance company X and Y may have a culture of rewarding its employees at the end of every year. Such rewards are obviously coveted by all employees and they would all want to be rewarded.
In company x, the human resource manager makes a decision on his own on which he thinks is the best employee who deserves to get the reward. Such a decision may be taken to be unfair by the rest of the employees if they dont see a clear and objective reason why the employee was picked to be the best. The manager may have made his choice out of personal interest which obviously makes it hard for one to be fair. For example if the manager wants a favor from a particular employee he will pick that employee as the best.
The manager may also be biased and decide to choose a relative who maybe an employee in that organization. There is a common proverb that says that blood is heavier than water. This means that if you to help only one person but have to choose between two people you will feel obligated to choose one who is a relative or a close friend.
The result of such a decision can adversely affect an organization. It may de-motivate the rest of the employees such that none of them will try to improve productivity or performance in order to be rewarded in the coming year. This is most of them will not be able to see any prospect of them ever receiving the reward.
In company, all the stakeholders are involved in choosing the best employee. They nominate a number of employees whom they think deserve to be rewarded for their contribution to the organization. They then vote for the best employee. Such a system will motivate the rest of the employees to work harder in order to get the reward next time. Since it is hard to please everyone, it easier to make them understand by having them contributes to a decision. Democracy is what most people call out for but is one of the most elusive concepts in the current society. This is because people have different ideologies, beliefs, religions, customs and culture. Basically speaking, it becomes very difficult to make a decision which makes everyone satisfied. Though the decision may be fair and just, still some will term it as unfair and biased. It therefore becomes impossible to please all. There is also the point that, some decision may be made that though arent fair, cant be made in any other way.
Life then becomes saturated with this entire situation which sometimes is termed as unfair by some and others are termed as fair. Either way, one thing remains to be undisputable in most of the lifes aspects, that, life cant be fair to all