Treat us fairly and we won’t complain: Multilevel effects of procedural justice on complaining behavior in team meetings

Meetings often suffer from counterproductive behaviors such as complaining, which impairs creativity and team productivity. This study takes first steps to identify antecedents of complaining. Taking a social exchange perspective, we examine the role of individual justice perceptions, team-level justice climate, and employees’ satisfaction with their supervisor for understanding complaining behavior in team meetings. We surveyed 305 employees nested in 54 teams and videotaped their regular team meetings. Our multilevel results show that team-level procedural justice climate – but not individual justice perceptions – inhibits complaining behavior. This relationship is mediated by team-level satisfaction with the supervisor. We discuss research implications for understanding and preventing specific counterproductive work behaviors in the team context and practical implications for managing effective meetings.