Justice in Teams

Justice in teams represents a specific content area within the justice literature that focuses on how fairness operates in collective contexts. The majority of the studies in the justice literature examine how [Page 839]individuals form and react to fairness perceptions. For example, studies explore how individuals judge the fairness of decision outcomes, decision-making procedures, interpersonal treatment, and authority communication and how those judgments influence key attitudes and behaviors. Studies in the area of justice in teams acknowledge that those phenomena occur in collective contexts—that what happens to one employee may depend on (and influence) what happens to others.

The justice in teams literature acknowledges an important trend within organizations: the increased use of team-based structures. Recent estimates suggest that between 50% and 90% of individuals work ...