Drawing upon organizational justice theory, we examine how perceptions of performance management fairness affect burnout and organizational citizenship behaviors among academic employees. Data from 532 academic employees from a university in Flanders (Belgium) were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Academic employees experience less burnout when performance management fairness is perceived as high. Performance management distributive and interactional fairness increase organizational citizenship behaviors by reducing burnout and supporting partial mediation. Higher education institutions should carefully design and implement performance management systems with fair outcomes, procedures and treatment of employees. Our findings stress the importance of fair performance management systems and offer new insights on how these systems affect employee outcomes.