When saying sorry may not help: transgressor power moderates the effect of an apology on forgiveness in the workplace
When saying sorry may not help: transgressor power moderates the effect of an apology on forgiveness in the workplace
An apology, as an expression of remorse, can be an effective response from a transgressor to obtain forgiveness from a victim. Yet, to be effective, the victim should not construe the transgressor’s actions in a cynical way. Because low-power people tend to interpret the actions of high-power people in a cynical way, we argue that an apology (versus no apology) from high-power transgressors should be relatively ineffective in increasing forgiveness from low-power victims. We find support for this moderated mediation model in a critical incidents study (Study 1), a forced recall study (Study 2) among employees from various organizations and a controlled laboratory experiment among business students (Study 3).
These studies reveal the limited value of expressions of remorse by high-power people in promoting forgiveness.
1387-1418
Zheng, Xue
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Van Dijke, Marius
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Leunissen, Joost M.
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Giurge, Laura M.
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De Cremer, David
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1 June 2016
Zheng, Xue
7892cb08-92fa-4630-b225-fdd992e9612e
Van Dijke, Marius
f0cdd4bd-ee18-4f18-87da-2f1802bad579
Leunissen, Joost M.
7f515e33-ceb7-49c8-95e9-d327a641f965
Giurge, Laura M.
63864283-09fd-4145-8519-3ae03f469028
De Cremer, David
16aeacc7-ae90-4ab7-9d3c-6818e8b1b6d8
Zheng, Xue, Van Dijke, Marius, Leunissen, Joost M., Giurge, Laura M. and De Cremer, David
(2016)
When saying sorry may not help: transgressor power moderates the effect of an apology on forgiveness in the workplace.
Human Relations, 69, .
(doi:10.1177/0018726715611236).
Abstract
An apology, as an expression of remorse, can be an effective response from a transgressor to obtain forgiveness from a victim. Yet, to be effective, the victim should not construe the transgressor’s actions in a cynical way. Because low-power people tend to interpret the actions of high-power people in a cynical way, we argue that an apology (versus no apology) from high-power transgressors should be relatively ineffective in increasing forgiveness from low-power victims. We find support for this moderated mediation model in a critical incidents study (Study 1), a forced recall study (Study 2) among employees from various organizations and a controlled laboratory experiment among business students (Study 3).
These studies reveal the limited value of expressions of remorse by high-power people in promoting forgiveness.
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Zheng et al 2016 When saying sorry may not help.pdf
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e-pub ahead of print date: 2 February 2016
Published date: 1 June 2016
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 381581
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/381581
ISSN: 0018-7267
PURE UUID: 40931935-81ae-4ccc-b6ea-e0130e29082c
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Date deposited: 15 Oct 2015 07:45
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 21:17
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Author:
Xue Zheng
Author:
Marius Van Dijke
Author:
Joost M. Leunissen
Author:
Laura M. Giurge
Author:
David De Cremer
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