Apology, Restitution, and Forgiveness After Psychological Contract Breach

Nicholas DiFonzo (), Anthony Alongi and Paul Wiele
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Nicholas DiFonzo: Rochester Institute of Technology
Anthony Alongi: Rochester Institute of Technology
Paul Wiele: Rochester Institute of Technology

Journal of Business Ethics, 2020, vol. 161, issue 1, No 5, 53-69

Abstract: Abstract Using forgiveness theory, we investigated the effects of organizational apology and restitution on eliciting forgiveness of a transgressing organization after transactional psychological contract breach. Forgiveness theory proposes that victims are more likely to forgive offenders when victims’ positive offender-oriented emotions replace negative ones. Three pre-post laboratory experiments, using vignettes about a broken promise of financial aid, found that while apology-alone and restitution-alone each increased likelihood of forgiving, restitution-alone was the more effective of the two responses. When combined with an apology, restitution boosted the effect of apology-alone. However, restitution was unnecessary if positive emotions replaced negative ones; third-party blame accomplished this negative-to-positive emotion replacement. Consistent with forgiveness theory, offender-oriented negative-to-positive emotion replacement partially mediated all effects, and negative emotion reductions were strongly correlated with positive emotion gains. We discuss implications for the repair of damaged norms and relationships within an organizational community. These include reparative effects of apology and restitution, dual-process conceptions of violation and repair, repair after psychological contract breach, and emotion replacement models of forgiveness.

Keywords: Apology; Emotion replacement; Forgiveness; Psychological contract breach; Reparation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-018-3984-1

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