When are secrets fair from the perspective of those who are left on the outside? Secrecy plays a critical role in shaping workplace dynamics. Despite the fascination with and pursuit of transparency, secrecy has remained understudied in organisation studies. To address this question, we employ a configurational perspective that allows us to examine the impact of multiple combinations of conditions on employees’ justice perceptions of secrecy. Specifically, we focus on interpersonal fairness and procedural fairness, which represent the structural and social aspects of organisational justice. Guided by construal level theory, we examined the following conditions: the self-interest relevance of secrecy to employees kept in the dark, the gender of those who conceal information, and the relationships involved. Using data from a survey study in the U.S. and applying a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, we identify multiple equifinal combinations of conditions associated with high and low levels of interpersonal fairness and procedural fairness. Our findings reveal a “female penalty” concerning workplace secrecy. Regardless of the relationship (whether superior or not) between those who conceal information and those who are excluded from information, secrets held by women are perceived as less fair compared to those held by men. Secrets held by female superiors are only perceived as fair when they are less relevant to the outsiders’ self-interest.
