Analyzing the Effect of Sincere Apology and Willingness to Cooperate on Workplace Conflict: Explaining the Mediating Role of Forgiveness and Moderating Role of Empathy Among Employees

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 faculty

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Management, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of analyzing the sincere apology and willingness to cooperate on conflict at work with the mediating role of forgiveness and moderating role of empathy after conflict. The statistical population of the study consisted of all the employees of companies located in Kerman No. 2 Industrial Park. Using cluster sampling from 172 clusters, 28 clusters were selected from each cluster by proportional method sampling. Totally 280 persons were selected as sample. The partial least squares method was used for data analysis and structural equation modeling was applied to measure the relationships between research variables. Goodness of fit for both parts of the data algorithm showed the utility and acceptability of the questionnaires and latent structure at the level of indicators and questions. The results indicated the effect of sincere apology and willingness to cooperate on workplace conflict both directly and indirectly through the mediating role of forgiveness. The results also confirmed the moderating role of empathy in such a way that empathy among employees reinforces the effect of sincere apology and willingness to cooperate in reducing organizational conflict.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

 
Afsarmanesh, H. & Camarinha-Matos, L.M. (2005). A Framework for Management of Virtual Organization Breeding Environments. In: Camarinha-Matos L.M., Afsarmanesh H., Ortiz A. (eds) Collaborative Networks and Their Breeding Environments. PRO-VE 2005. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing, vol 186. Springer, Boston.
Aquino, K., Grover, S.L., Goldman, B. & Folger, R. (2003). When push doesn’t come to shove: interpersonal forgiveness in the workplace relationships. Journal of Management Inquiry, 12(3), 209-216.
Arieli, S. & Tenne-Gazit, O. (2017). Values and behavior in a work environment: Taking a multi-level perspective. In S. Roccas & L. Sagiv (Eds.), Values and behavior. Taking a cross-cultural perspective, 115-141.
Ayoko, O. B. (2015). Workplace conflict and willingness to cooperate: the importance of apology and forgiveness. International Journal of Conflict Management, 27(2), 1-44.
Bachman, G.F. & Guerrero, L.K. (2006). Forgiveness and forgiving communication in datingrelationships: an expectancy–investment explanation. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27(6), 801-823.
Basford, T. E., Offerman, L. R. & Behrend, T. (2013). Please accept my sincerest apologies: Examining follower reactions to leader apology. Journal of Business Ethics, 112, 1-19.
Bisel, R. S. & Messersmith, A. S. (2012) Organizational and Supervisory Apology Effectiveness: Apology Giving in Work Settings. Business Communication Quarterly, 75(4), 425–448.
Carré, A., Stefaniak, N., Ambrosi, F. D’o., Bensalah, L. & Chrystel, B. R. (2013). The Basic Empathy Scale in Adults (BES-A): Factor Structure of a Revised Form Psychological Assessment. American Psychological Association, 25(3), 679–691.
Cassé-Perrot, C., Fakra, E., Jouve, E. & Blin, O. (2007). Conceptualisation and validation of the Emotional State Questionnaire (ESQ): Evaluation of an emotionalprofile. L’Encéphale, 33(2), 169–178. doi:10.1016/S00137006(07)91547-X.
Chen, H. R. & Tseng, H. F. (2012). "Factors that influence acceptance of web-based e-learning systems for the in-service education of junior high school teachers in Taiwan." Evaluation and program planning, 35(3): 398-406.
Clark, M. A., Robertson, M. M. & Young, S. (2019). I feel your pain”: A critical review of organizational research on Empathy. Organizational Behavior, 40(2), 166–192.
Day, M.V. & Ross, M. (2012). The value of remorse: how drivers’ responses to police predict fines for speeding. Law and Human Behavior, 35(3), 221-234.
Davis, J. R. & Gold, G. J. (2011). An examination of emotional empathy, attributions of stability, and the link between perceived remorse and forgiveness. Journal ofPersonality and Individual Differences, 50(3), 392-397.
Decety, J. & Yoder, K. J. (2016).Empathy and motivation for justice: Cognitive empathy and concern, but not emotional empathy,predict sensitivity to injustice for others. Social Neuroscience, 11(1): 1–14.
De Sosua, A., McDonald, S., Rushby, J., Li, S., Dimoska, A. & James, C. (2010). Understanding dificits in empathy after trumatic brain injury: The role of affective responsivity. Cortex, 47(5), 526-535. DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2010.02.004.
Eisenberg, N., Spinard, T. & Sadovsky, A. (2006). Empathy–related responding in children. In M. Killen, Smetana, J. (Eds.), Handbook of moral development (pp. 17-549). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Erkutlu, H. & Chafra, J. (2013). Effects of Trust and Psychological Contract Violation on Authentic Leadership and Organizational Deviance. Management Research Review, 36(9), 828-848.
Fehr, R. & Gelfand, M. J. (2010). When apologies work: How matching apology components to victims’ self-construals facilitates forgiveness. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 113(1), 37–50. doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2010.04.002.
Fehr, R. & Gelfand, M. J. (2012). The forgiving organization: A multilevel model of forgiveness at work. Academy of Management Review, 37(4), 664–688.
Filimonova, V. (2016). Russian and Spanish Apologies: A Contrastive Pragmalinguistic Study. IULC Working Papers, 15(1), 62-102.
 
Fornell, C. & Larcker D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of marketing research, 18(1), 39-50.
Han, A., Pereira L M., Santos, F C. & Lenaerts, T. (2013). Why so hard to say sorry: evolution of apology with commitments in the iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma. IJCAI '13 Proceedings of the Twenty-Third international joint conference on Artificial Intelligence, 177-183.
Hubbard, A. S. E., Hendrickson, B., Fehrenbach, K S. & Sur, J. (2013). Effects of Timing and Sincerity of an Apology on Satisfaction and Changes in Negative Feelings during Conflicts. Western Journal of Communication, 77(3), 305-322,
Innamorati, M., Ebisch, S.J.H., Gallese, V. & Saggino, A. (2019). A bidimensional measure of empathy: Empathic Experience Scale. PLoS ONE, 14(4), e0216164.
Kaitelidou, D., Kontogianni, A., Galanis, P., Siskou, O., Mallidou, A. & Pavlkis, A. (2013). Conflict management and job satisfaction in pediatric hospitals in Greece. Journal of Nursing Management, 20(4), 571-8.
Kanske, P., Bockler, A. & Singer. T. (2017). Models, Mechanisms and Moderators Dissociating Empathy and Theory of Mind. Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences, 30, 193–206.
King, E. B., Hebl, M. R. & Beal, D. J. (2009). Conflict and cooperation in diverse workgroups. Journal of Social Issues, 65(2), 261-285.
Kirsten, A. W., Jimmieson, N. L. & Bordia, P. (2016). Shared perceptions of supervisor conflict management style: A cross-level moderator of relationship conflict and employee outcomes. International Journal of Conflict Management, 27(1), 25-49.
Jehn, K. A. (1995). A multi-method examination of the benefits and detriments of intragroup conflict. Administration Science Quarterly, 40(2), 256-282.
Kanz, J. E. (2000). How do people conceptualize and use forgiveness? The forgiveness attitudes questionnaire. Counseling and Values, 44(3), 174-188.
Manusov, V. & Spitzberg, B. H. (2008). Attributes of attribution theory: Finding good cause in the search for theory. In D. O. Braithwaite & L. A. Baxter (Eds.), Engaging theories in interpersonal communication (pp. 37-49). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
McNulty, J. K. (2010). Forgiveness increases the likelihood of subsequent partner transgressions in marriage. Journal of Family Psychology, 24(6), 787-790.
Miller, K. (2014). Conditional and prospective apologies. The Journal of Value Inquiry, 48(3), 403-417.
Miri, A., Valavi, P. & heikh Azadi, M. (2015). Comparative Study of Conflict Management from the Viewpoint of Islam and Other Scientific Schools. Islam & Management, 23(6): 111- 138.
Mosadeghrad, A. (2015). Essentials of healthcare organization and management, Tehran: Dibagran Tehran.
Nunnally, J. (1978). "Psychometric methods." New York: McGraw.
Okimoto, T. G., Hornsey, M. J. & Wenzel, M. (2019). The power of grassroots expressions of remorse for promoting intergroup forgiveness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 80, 39-51.
Palanski, M.E. (2012). Forgiveness and Reconciliation in the workplace: a multi-level perspective and research agenda. Journal of Business Ethics, 109(3), 275-287.
Purc, E. & Laguna, M. (2018). Personal Values and Innovative Behaviour of Employees. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 865. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00865
Reade, C. & Lee, J. H. (2016). Does ethnic conflict impede or enable employee innovation behavior? The alchemic role of collaborative conflict management. International Journal of Conflict Management, 27 (2), DOI: 10.1108/IJCMA-09-2014-0071.
Rego, A., Ribeiro, N., Cunha, P.M.E. & Jesuino, J.C. (2011). How happiness mediates the organizational virtuousness and affective commitment relationship. Journal of Business Research, 64 (5), 524- 532.
Rieffe, C. Ketelaar, L. & Wiefferink, C. (2010). Assessing empathy in young childrenĜŒConstruction and validation of an empathy questionnaire. Personality and Individual Differences, 49,362-367.
Robbins, S.P. (2010). Organizational Behavior, 13/E. Pearson Education India.
Sagiv, L., Sverdlik, N. & Schwarz, N. (2011). To compete or to cooperate? Values’ impact 24 on perception and action in social dilemma games. European Journal of Social 25 Psychology, 41(1), 64–77.
Schumann, K. (2018). The Psychology of Offering an Apology: Understanding the Barriers to Apologizing and How to Overcome Them. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(12), 1-5.
Scott, D., Bishop, J.W. & Chen, X. (2003). An examination of the relationship of employeeinvolvement with job satisfaction, employee cooperation and intention to quit in US and invested enterprise in China. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 11(1), 3-19.
Sharma, N., Singh, V.K. & Kishore, J. (2015). Demographic Differences, Causes and Impact of Workplace Production Deviance on Organizations: an Empirical Study on Non-Punctuality of Employees in Service Cluster. Reaserch Journal of Social Science & Management, 3(8), 99-106.
Steele, R. R. & Blatz, C. W. (2014). Faith in the just behavior of others: Intergroup apologies and apology elaboration. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 2(1), 268–288.
Tomlinson, E. C. (2012). The impact of apologies and promises on post-violation trust: The mediating role of interactional justice. International Journal of Conflict Management, 23(3), 224-247.
Wang, Q. (2011). A Conceptual and empirical investigation of leader virtues and virtuous leadership. A Thesis for the Degree Doctor of Business Administration, Open Access Dissertation and Theses, McMaster University, 116.
Weilenmann, S., Schnyder, U., Parkinson, B., Corda, C., Von Kanel, R. & Pfaltz, M.C. (2018). Emotion transfer, emotion regulation, and empathy-related processes in physician-patient interactions and their association with physician well-being: a theoretical model. Front Psychiatry, 9, 389. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00389 PMID: 30210371.
 
Wenzel, M., Melissa, F.A. & Bury, S.M. (2017). Collective apology, hope, and forgiveness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 72(1), 75-87.
Wetzels, M., Odekerken-Schröder, G. & Van Oppen, C. (2009). Using PLS path modeling for assessing hierarchical construct models: Guidelines and empirical illustration. MIS quarterly, 33(1), 177-195.
Worthington, E.L. (2006). Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Theory and Application. Routledge, New York, NY.
Xia, L. & Weizheng C. (2013). The concept and realization of organizational virtuousness. Orient academic forum. Chengdu: Management School of Southwest University of Nationalities.
Zhang, X. (2018). Social Functions of Conditional Apologies in Business Communication. International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 7(5), 96-101

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics