Procedural and interactional justice perceptions and teamwork quality

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to understand the role of organizational justice (procedural and interactional justice) as a precursor to new product development teamwork quality and team performance; to study the moderating impact of environmental turbulence on these relationships.Design/methodology/approachThis is a survey‐based empirical study of 117 product/project managers based in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey. A series of multiple regression analyses were used to obtain results.FindingsOnly two of the six facets of teamwork quality (coordination and balance of member contribution) are significantly associated with interactional justice; all six facets (coordination, balance of member contribution, communication, mutual support, effort and cohesion) are associated with procedural justice. Teamwork quality is significantly related to team learning and speed to market; environmental turbulence partially moderates these relationships.Research limitations/implicationsPerceived organizational justice is an important precursor to NPD teamwork quality and team performance. The components of organizational justice (procedural and interactional justice) have different effects on the facets of teamwork quality. The relationships between these precursors and team performance are moderated by environmental turbulence.Practical implicationsTo generate new products, NPD managers rely on teams that function well together and show good performance (good team learning and speedy time to market). The findings suggest that NPD managers can significantly improve NPD team performance by increasing team members' perceived level of organizational justice.Originality/valueWhile organizational justice has been previously shown to influence team performance, this relationship has not yet been examined in an NPD setting. This is valuable because of the overriding importance of well‐functioning teams in NPD.