Fairness matters: organisational justice in project contexts

Abstract

Organisational justice is an established construct in the context of permanent organisations and relates to perceptions of fairness in the working environment. Justice judgements are context specific and whilst prior research has shown the positive impact of fair treatment on organisations and employees, less is known about organisational justice in projects and the impacts of fair or unfair treatment of project team members. This paper sets out to explore these shortfalls through a qualitative multi-method study. Combining the diaries of ten project team members, with pre- and post-diary interviews, the paper presents dimensions (distributive, procedural and interactional) of organisational justice experienced in the project context, factors influencing project team members justice judgements (sources, timing, delegation, and reflection) and the impact of in-/justice on individuals (ways of working, health and wellbeing, relationships, feelings), projects (project delivery) and organisations (reputation, effectiveness of processes). Policy and practice recommendations are made.