Justice in Self-Managing Teams: The Role of Social Networks in the Emergence of Procedural Justice Climates

Abstract

Drawing upon organizational justice and social network theories, we examined the role of social network structure and content in the development of justice climates in self-managing teams, a relatively understudied context in the justice literature. Data from 79 project teams were used to test the hypotheses. Our results indicate that team instrumental network density is positively related to procedural justice climate strength and that this relationship is strengthened by low team functional background diversity. In addition, team expressive network density and team self-monitoring interact to reduce variability in member perceptions of procedural justice and thus strengthen justice climates.