 Psychology 2012. Vol.3, No.12A, 1100-1103 Published Online December 2012 in SciRes (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/psych) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/psych.2012.312A162 Copyright © 2012 SciRes. 1100 Procedural Justice and Innovation: Does Procedural Justice Foster Innovative Behavior? Bernhard Streicher1, Eva Jonas2, Günter W. Maier3, Dieter Frey1 1Department Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany 2Department Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria 3Department Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany Email: streicher@psy.lmu.de Received September 25th, 2012; revised October 21st, 2012; accepted November 22nd, 2012 The influence of procedural justice on intended innovative behavior was studied in a sample of students and employees. Although earlier studies suggests that procedural justice increases innovation-related be- havior such as spontaneous cooperation, so far systematic research is scarce. Results indicated that the provision of voice increased participants’ intention to show innovative behavior such as task revision, creativity, and persistence in a business simulation task. Furthermore, the effects found were mediated by intrinsic motivation and identification, but not by occupational self-efficacy. These findings suggest that justice in organizations and procedural fair conditions in particular can drive innovations. Keywords: Procedural Justice; Innovation; Task Revision; Creativity; Persistence Introduction In order to be successful, organizations depend heavily on cooperative behavior of their members (Kozlowski & Ilgen, 2006). One important approach to ensure long term cooperative and committed behavior, is to organize a positive environment within an institution. One which fulfills the fundamental needs of its members. In particular, people value just and fair treat- ment. Fair treatment satisfies different human needs such as the need to belong and the need to control (cf. Van den Bos, 2005). Consequently, conditions of organizational justice and proce- dural justice, in particular, have become important situational variables in the psychological examination of both organiza- tions and employees. Procedural justice focuses on the proc- esses that lead to a decision outcome (Leventhal, 1980; Thibaut & Walker, 1975), and provides the opportunity to voice one’s opinion (e.g., Tyler, 2000). It has been found to influence dif- ferent dimensions of work-related attitudes and behaviors such as job performance, spontaneous cooperation, job satisfaction, commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior (for over- views, see: Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001; Colquitt, Conlon, Wesson, Porter, & Ng, 2001; Greenberg & Colquitt, 2005). In this article, we argue that conditions of procedural justice further enhance a specific form of cooperative behavior, which is crucial for all technical, economical, and social progress: the ability to behave innovatively (Amabile, 1988). Although sev- eral definitions of innovative behavior exist, the authors argue that during a process of innovation employees can show three aspects of individual innovative behavior. 1) Task revision: Employees recognize deficits, revise their given task in order to improve it, and feel competent about actually being able to realize the proposed changes. To do so, it may be necessary to voluntarily depart from daily routines and to follow up new ideas (Katz & Kahn, 1978; Staw & Boettger, 1990); 2) Crea- tivity: The development and expression of new, creative ideas (cf Amabile, 1988); 3) Persistence: Persistently work on real- izing and implementing the innovation without being discour- aged by set backs suffered. Despite the lack of systematic research on the effects of pro- cedural justice on innovative behavior, some studies have indi- cated a link between contiguous concepts of procedural justice and innovation-related behavior (e.g., between dignity/respect and cooperative behavior; Tan & Tan, 2000; Tyler & Blader, 2000), or showed a correlation between the two concepts (Gil- son, 2001; Ramamoorthy, Flood, Slattery, & Sardessai, 2005; Schepers & Van den Berg, 2007), or demonstrated combined effects of justice and other constructs (outcome favorability and deception) on creativity (Clark & James, 1999), or revealed a decline of creativity after repeated unfair treatment (Streicher, Jonas, Maier, Frey, & Spiebberger, 2012). Overall, in light of previous studies, it is warranted to assume that procedural jus- tice is associated with higher levels of innovative behavior and vice versa. In addition to demonstrating a link from conditions of pro- cedural justice to intended innovative behavior, this study aims to explore the mediating mechanisms. According to relational models, the fairness of procedure serves as a source of self- relevant information on one’s social status (Tyler, 1999). Fair treatment indicates a high status, and consequently people iden- tify with their group or the authority (Tyler, 2000; Tyler & Degoey, 1995). Moreover, if people identify with a group, they are intrinsically motivated to fulfill the group requirements (Tyler, 1997) such as to behave innovatively. In addition, in- trinsic motivation is known to be an important source of inno- vation (Amabile, 1983, 1996). Regarding instrumental models (e.g. Thibaut & Walker, 1975, 1978), people are motivated to maximize favorable outcomes, which they can obtain by con- trolling the relevant decisions. The fairness of procedure gov- erns the amount of decision control on the outcomes. Decision control is the belief that one is able to influence processes in a preferred direction and corresponds with the concept of self- efficacy (Bandura, 1977, 1997). In accordance with these no-
 B. STREICHER ET AL. tions, research has found that individual innovative behavior can be positively correlated with continuance commitment with the organization (Zhou & George, 2001), intrinsic motivation (Andrews & Smith, 1996; Bunce & West, 1995; Judge, Fryxell, & Dooley, 1997; Shin & Zhou, 2003; Tierney, Farmer, & Graen, 1999), and self-efficacy (Axtell et al., 2000; Frese, Teng, & Wijnen, 1999; Tierney & Farmer, 2002). In summary, we predict that procedural justice enhances in- tended innovative behavior, in contrast to conditions of proce- dural injustice, and that this effect is mediated by identification with the group, intrinsic motivation, and occupational self- efficacy. Method Participants and Design A total of 70 people participated in this study, of which 36 were students (27 female, 9 male) and 34 were employees (18 female, 16 male). Students were approached in the university cafeteria, whereas employees were approached in suburban trains. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two con- ditions in a one-factorial (procedural justice: voice vs. no voice) between-subjects design. The design was balanced, with 34 participants in the voice and 36 in the no-voice condition. Procedure The experimenter approached the prospective participants and asked whether they would be prepared to read a business simulation case and to answer some question about it. If they agreed, the experimenter handed them the experimental mate- rial and a pen. No further instruction, cover story or reward was given. The experimental material consisted of a business simu- lation case followed by a questionnaire. The simulation, which was derived from a real case, described the situation of an en- gineer working on research and development in the steering wheels section of a car manufacturer. After consultations with his supervisor and beside his daily work he is free to develop his own ideas. One day he comes up with a new idea for the construction of a steering wheel for off-road vehicles. Accord- ing to the company’s rules he has to find an internal customer who will fund and approve his innovation. When he asks the rally sports division for funding, he learns that the operating devices section has had the same idea, and has already received funding and established a project team. Because the company does not want to support the same idea twice, he is asked to join the existing project team. At the request of the rally sports division he is invited to the next meeting. The manipulation of the independent variable (voice vs no voice) was realized through fair or unfair treatment by the project leader during the project team meeting (e.g. “You [are/are not] given the oppor- tunity to voice your ideas by the project leader”; e.g. Van den Bos, Lind, Vermunt, & Wilke, 1997). Participants were asked to image the case to be real, and to answer the following questions (all ratings on a 5-point scale from 1 = not at all to 5 = very much) based on the feelings and reactions they would have if the situation were real. Potential mediators were measured as follows: intrinsic motivation (3 items adapted from Rheinberg, 1989; e.g. “I’m motivated to work as well as possible in the project team”; Cronbach’s alpha α = .85), occupational self-efficacy (4 items adapted from Schyns & von Collani, 2002; e.g. “I remain calm when facing difficulties in the project team because I can rely on my abili- ties”; α = .78), and identification (5 items borrowed from Mael & Ashforth, 1992; e.g. “I’m proud to be a member of the pro- ject team”; α = .95). Intended innovative behavior as the de- pendent variable was measured by 12 items (α = .92) repre- senting the different aspects of innovative behavior, namely task revision (e.g. “I will reflect on how to further improve the existing idea for a new steering wheel”), creativity (e.g. “In the project team I will try to bring forward as many improvements as possible”), and persistence (e.g. “Even if there is no pro- gress in the project team for some time, I will keep at it”). In accordance with Folger and Konovsky (1989) we used a mood assessment as a check for manipulation (PANAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), which comprised 10 items both for negative affects (α = .87) and for positive affects (α = .87). Participants answered the PANAS concerning their feelings about the project team (“How do you feel regarding the project team?”). Results Gender and Employment There was no effect of gender or status of employment (stu- dents vs. employees) on the dependent variables, all ts < 1.72. Manipulation Check Between-subjects ANOVAs showed main effects for nega- tive affects (NA), F(1, 68) = 11.59, p < .01, 2 = .15, and for positive affects (PA), F(1, 68) = 21.63, p < .001, 2 = .24. Par- ticipants who received voice had less negative affects (M = 1.89, SD = 0.87) and more positive affects (M = 3.36, SD = 0.76) than participants who had no voice (NA: M = 2.52, SD = 0.70; PA: M = 2.53, SD = 0.74). These results indicate that we suc- cessfully manipulated procedural fairness. Innovative Behavior As predicted, a t-test revealed a significant difference be- tween voice (M = 3.67, SD = 0.69) and no voice (M = 3.11, SD = 0.67), t(68) = 3.46, p < .01, d = 0.69, for intended innovative behavior. This result provides evidence supporting the hy- pothesis that procedural just treatment enhances innovative behavior compared to unfairness. Mediators: Identification, Intrinsic Motivation, Occupation al S el f-E f fi c acy In accordance with Baron and Kenny (1986) we checked first, (a) whether procedural fairness significantly accounted for the presumed mediators and the dependent variable. Separate re- gressions revealed that the procedural justice manipulation was predictive of inferences of identification, = .63, t(68) = 6.64, p < .001, as well as of intrinsic motivation, = .51, t(68) = 4.92, p < .001, occupational self-efficacy, = .34, t(68) = 2.97, p < .01, and intended innovative behavior, = .39, t(68) = 3.46, p < .01. Next (b) we controlled whether the potential mediators significantly accounted for the dependent variable. When ex- amined simultaneously identification, = .73, t(68) = 8.87, p < .001, as well as intrinsic motivation, = .71, t(68) = 8.39, p < .001, and occupational self-efficacy, = .47, t(68) = 4.42, p < .001, were predictive of inferences of intended innovative Copyright © 2012 SciRes. 1101
 B. STREICHER ET AL. behavior. Last (c) we tested whether the relation between the independent and the dependent variable is reduced to non-sig- nificance when controlled by the mediators. When procedural justice, identification, intrinsic motivation, and occupational self-efficacy were examined simultaneously as predictors of intended innovative behavior the effects of both procedural justice, = .11, t(65) = 1.10, p > .27, and occupational self- efficacy, = .08, t(65) = 0.70, p > .48, were reduced to non- significance whereas the effects of both identification, = .48, t(65) = 2.24, p < .05, and intrinsic motivation, = .40, t(65) = 2.69, p < .01, remained significant. The results provide evi- dence that the procedural justice effect on intended innovative behavior was mediated by identification and intrinsic motive- tion, but not by occupational self-efficacy. Furthermore, to test whether both identification and intrinsic motivation carry the influence of procedural justice to intended innovative behavior we conducted Sobel tests (Sobel, 1982). The results confirmed the mediation and showed that the indirect effects of procedural justice on intended innovative behavior via identification, z = 5.00, p < .001, as well as via intrinsic motivation, z = 4.04, p < .001, were significantly different from zero. Discussion As predicted, conditions of procedural justice resulted in more intended innovative behavior than procedural unjust con- ditions. This result supports the notion that a positive, appreci- ating, and participating organizational practice fosters coopera- tive, voluntary, and constructive employee behavior. Further- more, the findings provide evidence for relational model’s line of reasoning concerning the nature of the mediation of proce- dural justice effects. Whereas intrinsic motivation and identifi- cation are both potent mediators, occupational self-efficacy is not. The underlying reason could be (a) that procedural just treatment, as self-relevant information, increases identification with the group and/or supervisor as well as intrinsic motivation to meet group and/or organizational goals such as innovative behavior. This argument provides support for relational models of procedural justice but not for instrumental models. Our result that self-efficacy did not serve as a mediator is in accordance with earlier research which also found no or only a partial me- diating effect of process control (Earley & Lind, 1987; Lind, Kanfer, & Earley, 1990; Shapiro & Brett, 1993). However, an- other reason (b) for our findings might stem from the more general belief in personal competence: Occupational self-effi- cacy may be a more stable trait, which is unlikely to be influ- enced by a single scenario. On the other hand, this explanation seems improbable considering that Lind and colleagues (1990) have found participants’ belief in having decision control to be affected by conditions of procedural justice, even when partici- pants only received voice after the decision and were told that their opinion would not influence the decision. The findings in this study are subject to at least three limita- tions. First, one weakness is that suggested treatment within a business simulation might be of lower personal importance to participants than real treatment by a supervisor at the workplace would be. Therefore, so far the external validity of our findings is not warranted. Second, the results are reactions of individuals, but in organizational practice innovative behavior occurs within a social context (cf. Amabile, Conti, Coon, Lazenby, & Herron, 1996). Therefore, future investigations on this topic should consider additional context variables such as organizational climate or quality of leader-member-relation. Third, cognitive and motivational variables were measured as potential media- tors, but research suggests that experiences of justice provoke positive emotions such as pride while injustice comes along with negative emotions like anger, disappointment, fear, or sadness (e.g., Weiss, Suckow, & Cropanzano, 1999). In order to fully understand the nature of the mediating mechanisms it is recommended to conduct longitudinal field studies, which cover the full process of an innovation, and include a broad selection of emotional, motivational, and cognitive mediators. Overall, besides the practical importance of innovations, our findings demonstrate the wide range of positive justice effects on peoples’ attitudes and behavior. People are sensitive to ex- periences of fairness and unfairness, and adjust their behavior to their experiences accordingly. Therefore, in order to increase both the wellbeing of their members and innovativeness as a crucial factor in global competition organizations should be alert to maintain procedural just condition. A positive institu- tion in this sense can be reached by implementing fair proce- dures and decision-making processes, and by training leaders in justice principles. Acknowledgements The German Research Foundation (DFG) financed part of this work (project number FR 472/24-1), but had no involve- ment in the conduct of this research. REFERENCES Amabile, T. M. (1983). The social psychology of creativity. New York: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-5533-8 Amabile, T. M. (1988). A model of creativity and innovation in or- ganizations. In B. M. Staw, & L. L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 10, pp. 123-167). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Amabile, T. M. (1996). Creativity in context. Update to the social psy- chology of creativity. Boulder, CO: Westview. Amabile, T. M., Conti, R., Coon, H., Lazenby, J., & Herron, M. (1996). Assessing the work environment for creativity. Academy of Man- agement Journal, 39, 1154-1184. doi:10.2307/256995 Andrews, J., & Smith, D. C. (1996). In search of the marketing imagi- nation: Factors affecting the creativity of marketing programs for mature products. Journal of Marketing Research, 33, 174-187. doi:10.2307/3152145 Axtell, C. M., Holman, D. J., Unsworth, K. L., Wall, T. D., Waterson, P. E., & Harrington, E. (2000). Shopfloor innovation: Facilitating the suggestion and implementation of ideas. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Ps ycho logy , 73, 265-285. doi:10.1348/096317900167029 Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behav- ioral change. Ps ych ologi cal Review, 84, 191-215. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191 Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman. Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psy- chology, 51, 1173-1182. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 Bunce, D., & West, M. A. (1995). Self perceptions and perceptions of group climate as predictors of individual innovation at work. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 44, 199-215. doi:10.1111/j.1464-0597.1995.tb01076.x Clark, K., & James, K. (1999). Justice and positive and negative crea- tivity. Creativity Research Journal, 1 2, 311-320. doi:10.1207/s15326934crj1204_9 Copyright © 2012 SciRes. 1102
 B. STREICHER ET AL. Copyright © 2012 SciRes. 1103 Cohen-Charash, Y., & Spector, P. E. (2001). The role of justice in organizations: A meta-analysis. Organizational Behavior and Hum an Decision Processes, 86, 278-321. doi:10.1006/obhd.2001.2958 Colquitt, J. A., Conlon, D. E., Wesson, M. J., Porter, C. O. L. H., & Ng, K. Y. (2001). Justice at the Millennium: A meta-analytic review of 25 years of organizational justice research. Journal of Applied Psy- chology, 86, 425-445. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.425 Earley, P. C., & Lind, E. A. (1987). Procedural justice and participation in task selection: The role of control in mediating justice judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5 2, 1148-1160. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.52.6.1148 Folger, R., & Konovsky, M. K. (1989). Effects of procedural and dis- tributive justice on reactions to pay raise decisions. Academy of Management Journal, 32, 115-130. doi:10.2307/256422 Frese, M., Teng, E., & Wijnen, C. J. D. (1999). Helping to improve suggestion systems: Predictors of making suggestions in companies. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 20, 1139-1155. doi:10.1002/1099-1379.20.7 Gilson, L. L. (2001). The role of procedural justice in the relationship between demographic diversity, dissimilarity, work-related affective outcomes, and creative performance. Unpublished Dissertational Thesis, Atlanta, GA: Georgia Institute of Technology. Greenberg, J., & Colquitt, J. (2005). Handbook of organizational jus- tice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Judge, W. Q., Fryxell, G. E., & Dooley, R. S. (1997). The new task of R&D management: Creating goal-directed communities for innova- tion. California Management Review, 39, 72-85. Katz, D., & Kahn, R. L. (1978). The social psychology of organizations. New York: Wiley. Kozlowski, S. W. J., & Ilgen, D. R. (2006). Enhancing the effectiveness of work groups and teams. Psychological Science in the Public In- terest, 7, 77-124. Leventhal, G. S. (1980). What should be done with equity theory? New approaches to the study of fairness in social relationships. In K. J. Gergen, M. S. Greenberg, & R. H. Willis (Eds.), Social exchange: Advances in theory and research (pp. 27-55). New York: Plenum. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-3087-5_2 Lind, E. A., Kanfer, R., & Earley, P. C. (1990). Voice, control, and procedural justice: Instrumental and noninstrumental concerns in fairness judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 952-959. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.59.5.952 Mael, F., & Ashforth, B. E. (1992). Alumni and their alma mater: A partial test of the reformulated model of organizational identification. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13, 103-123. doi:10.1002/job.4030130202 Ramamoorthy, N., Flood, P. C., Slattery, T., & Sardessai, R. (2005). Determinants of innovative work behaviour: Development and test of an integrated model. Creativity and Innovation Management, 14, 142-150. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8691.2005.00334.x Rheinberg, F. (1989). Purpose and occupation. In F. Rheinberg (Ed.), Zweck und tätigkeit (pp. 61-161). Göttingen: Hogrefe. Schepers, P., & Van den Berg, P. T. (2007). Social factors of work- environment creativity. Journal of Business and Psychology, 21, 407-428. doi:10.1007/s10869-006-9035-4 Schyns, B., & von Collani, G. (2002). A new occupational self-efficacy scale and its relation to personality constructs and organizational variables. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 11, 219-241. doi:10.1080/13594320244000148 Shapiro, D. L., & Brett, J. M. (1993). Comparing three processes un- derlying judgements of procedural justice: A field study of mediation and arbitration. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 1167-1177. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.65.6.1167 Shin, S. J., & Zhou, J. (2003). Transformational leadership, conserva- tion, and creativity: Evidence from Korea. Academy of Management Journal, 46, 703-714. doi:10.2307/30040662 Sobel, M. E. (1982). Asymptotic intervals for indirect effects in struc- tural equations models. In S. Leinhart (Ed.), Sociological methodol- ogy 1982 (pp. 290-312). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Staw, B. M., & Boettger, R. D. (1990). Task revision: A neglected form of work performance. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 534-559. doi:10.2307/256580 Streicher, B., Jonas, E., Maier, G. W., Frey, D., & Spießberger, A. (2012). Procedural fairness and innovation: Does voice promote people’s creative vein? Creativity Research Journal. doi:10.1080/10400419.2012.730334 Tan, H. H., & Tan, C. S. F. (2000). Toward the differentiation of trust in supervisor and trust in organization. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 126, 241-260. Thibaut, J. W., & Walker, L. (1975). Procedural justice: A psychologi- cal analysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. doi:10.2307/3480099 Thibaut, J. W., & Walker, L. (1978). A theory of procedure. California Law Review, 66, 541-566. doi:10.2307/3480099 Tierney, P., & Farmer, S. M. (2002). Creative self-efficacy: Its potential antecedents and relationship to creative performance. Academy of Management Journal, 45, 1137-1148. doi:10.2307/3069429 Tierney, P., Farmer, S. M., & Graen, G. B. (1999). An examination of leadership and employee creativity: The relevance of traits and rela- tionships. Personnel Psychology, 52, 591-620. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.1999.tb00173.x Tyler, T. R. (1997). The psychology of legitimacy. Personality and Social Psychology Revi ew , 1, 323-345. doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr0104_4 Tyler, T. R. (1999). Why people cooperate with organizations: An identity-based perspective. Research in Organizational Behavior, 21, 201-246. Tyler, T. R. (2000). Social justice: Outcome and procedure. Interna- tional Journal of Psychology, 35, 117-125. doi:10.1080/002075900399411 Tyler, T. R., & Blader, S. L. (2000). Cooperation in groups: Proce- dural justice, social identity, and behavioral engagement. Philadel- phia: Psychology Press. Tyler, T. R., & Degoey, P. (1995). Collective restraint in social dilem- mas: Procedural justice and social identification effects on support for authorities. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 482-497. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.69.3.482 Van den Bos, K. (2005). What is responsible for the fair process effect? In J. Greenberg, & J. Colquitt (Eds.), Handbook of organizational justice (pp. 273-300). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum. Van den Bos, K., Lind, E. A., Vermunt, R., & Wilke, H. A. M. (1997). How do I judge my outcome when I do not know the outcome of others? The psychology of the fair process effect. Journal of Person- ality and Social Psychology, 72, 1034-1046. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.72.5.1034 Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063-1070. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063 Weiss, H. M., Suckow, K., & Cropanzano, R. (1999). Effects of justice conditions on discrete emotions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 786-794. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.84.5.786 Zhou, J., & George, J. M. (2001). When job dissatisfaction leads to creativity: Encouraging the expression of voice. Academy of Man- agement Journal, 44, 682-696. doi:10.2307/3069410
|