Procedural Justice Climate in New Product Development Teams: Antecedents and Consequences

Abstract

With the increasing interest in the concept of justice in the group behavior literature, the procedural justice (PJ) climate attracts many researchers and practitioners from different fields. Nevertheless, the PJ climate is rarely addressed in the new product development (NPD) project team literature. Specifically, the technology and innovation management (TIM) literature provides little about what the PJ climate is, its nature and benefits, and how it works in NPD project teams. Also, few studies investigate the antecedents and consequences of the PJ climate in NPD teams enhancing the understanding of this concept from a practical perspective. This paper discusses the PJ climate theory in a NPD team context and empirically demonstrates how team members' positive collective perceptions of a PJ climate can be developed and how a PJ climate influences a project's performance in NPD teams. In particular, team culture values including employee orientation, customer orientation, systematic management control, innovativeness, and social responsibility were investigated as antecedents, and team learning, speed to market, and market success of new products were studied as outcomes of PJ climate in this paper. By studying 83 NPD project teams it was found on the basis of using partial least squares (PLS) method that (1) the level of employee, customer and innovativeness orientation as well as systematic management control during the project had a positive impact on developing a PJ climate in an NPD team; (2) a PJ climate positively affects team learning and product development time (i.e., speed to market); and (3) team learning and speed to market mediate the relations between the PJ climate and new product success (NPS). Based on the findings, this paper suggests that managers should enhance the PJ climate and team culture in the project team to enhance team learning and to develop products faster. In particular, managers should (1) open a discussion forum among people and create a dialogue for people who disagree with the other project team members rather than dictating or emposing others ideas to them, (2) facilitate information searching and collecting mechanisms to make decisions effectively and to clarify uncertainties, and (3) allow team members to challange project-related ideas and decisions and modify them with consensus. Also, to enhance the PJ climate during the project, managers should (1) respect and listen to all team members' ideas and try to understand why they are sometimes in opposition, (2) define team members' task boundaries and clarify project norms and project goals, and (3) set knowledge-questioning values by facilitating team members to try out new ideas and seek out new ways to do things.

Factors Affecting Organisational Acceptance of Formal NPD Processes

“…We recommend that management fosters integration and participation of actual NPD process users in the development and implementation of formal NPD processes (Olthuis, 1997). More specifically, our findings indicate that NPD management should create a positive culture that stimulates and appreciates individual NPD actor participation in further developing the formal NPD process (Akgün et al, 2010;De Brentani and Kleinschmidt, 2004). This may be achieved, for example, through regular management support of bottom-up improvement initiatives and through the implementation of NPD communities of practice.…”

Leveraging power of learning capability upon manufacturing operations

“…Recent empirical studies on learning (e.g., Hsu, 2006;Lubit, 2001;Modi and Mabert, 2007), NPD (e.g., Ahire and Dreyfus, 2000;Akgün et al, 2010;Antonio et al, 2007), supplier integration (e.g., Chin et al, 2006;Modi and Mabert, 2007;Ndubisi et al, 2005), and performance evaluation (e.g., Antonio et al, 2007;Hsu, 2006;Maiga and Jacobs, 2007;Panuwatwanich et al, 2008;Yeung, 2007) were examined and evaluated so as to provide basic measurable items for operationalizing LC, ONPDC, OSIC and business performance (BP) constructs. Five-point Likert scales were used to measure the operationally defined variables.…”

A contemporary justice perspective on dual ladders for R&D professionals

“…A crucial aspect that seems to undermine the effectiveness of dual ladders is that R&D professionals often evaluate them as unfair (Hourquet and Roger, ). This is highly problematic, as contemporary justice theory has underlined the importance of perceived fairness for employee behavior (Akgün et al, ; Colquitt, ).…”

“…The article furthermore responds to calls for more research on this topic (Brenton and Levin, ; Butler, ). In particular, the article points to the relevance of R&D professionals' perception of justice when it comes to the dual ladder (Akgün, Keskin, and Byrne, ). Second, the article addresses individual‐ and organizational‐level contingency factors that are likely to affect the relationships of equality and transparency with organizational commitment and career satisfaction.…”