Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the impact of procedural justice on team members’ commitment and the role of task routineness and participatory safety in this relationship. Design/methodology/approach – Survey method was used to collect data from 177 respondents from 33 software development teams. Participatory Safety Scale from Anderson and West’s Team Climate Inventory, Colquitt’s Procedural Justice Scale, a modified version of Mowday et al.’s Organizational Commitment Scale and Daft and Macintosh’s Task Routineness Scale were used to measure the variables studied. Regression analysis was used to test the main, mediating and moderating effects. Findings – Results showed a significant positive impact of procedural justice perception on participatory safety dimensions and team commitment. Task routineness did not show any significant moderation effect. Perception of participatory safety had a partial mediation effect. Research limitations/implications – A relatively smaller sample size, purposive sampling technique and absence of relevant control variables are the key limitations of this study. Practical implications – The findings will provide managers insights on designing the team tasks and procedures to nurture participatory safety and commitment in teams. Originality/value – The study is unique in terms of selection of variables, design (moderation and mediating effects) and the context (software development teams). The study provides a holistic picture of team dynamics by studying variables related to procedures, task and psychological states of the individual. © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.