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Throughout history, there are numerous examples of business and government leaders who have fallen from grace only to rise again, and have a “second act” and a “second chance” as a legitimate social actor or leader—that is, they achieved redemption. We explore “the road to redemption” of leaders—when and why it occurs, and what “bumps” prevent it. In our analysis, we conceptualize redemption as a process with three elements—remorse, rehabilitation, and restoration—and as an outcome (the restoration of legitimacy). We argue that achieving redemption is not a product of chance; rather, it is a social construction process of narrative creation and identity construction involving many parties. Also, the road to redemption is shaped by cultural-specific factors—and it is temporally dependent. From this framework, we identify new directions for the theory and practice of leadership.

Employees facing destructive leader behavior or evidence of unethical or illegal action often remain silent, and such silence has been argued to be problematic. We argue that the management literature has a limited and biased view of silence, and contend that it can have value for employees and the organization. We discuss the functional value of silence in organizations and how it can be a strategic response to destructive and unethical leaders. Indeed, we argue that both voice and silence have functional value. Drawing on the see-judge-act model, we describe why and when employees become silent or choose to “break the silence,” and we explain that both silence and voice have the ability to confront or resist destructive leadership. ispartof: Academy of Management Perspectives vol:33 issue:3 pages:323-333 status: published

Employees engaging in wrongs is an unfortunate workplace reality that can prove costly for organizations. Although research has shown that individuals respond destructively to such behavior, emergi...

This symposium explores a recently intensifying phenomenon of how actors manage their public identities in the #MeToo era – an era that highlights the tensions among those seeking distributive just...

By facilitating cooperation and enhancing stability, trust is an essential yet extremely fragile commodity in organizations. In this chapter, we explore how trust and distrust can play a significant role in shaping forgiveness in the aftermath of workplace offenses. In a review of the literature, we highlight how trust can enable, and distrust can disable, forgiveness processes. Further, we argue that some offenses may create so much distrust that forgiveness is not even a possibility, and thus alternative approaches must be considered. By leveraging conflict management approaches that have been identified in organizational behaviour as well as in other literatures, we outline alternatives to forgiveness that can emerge when people have varying degrees of trust or distrust in the offender (e.g. peaceful coexistence, detente, separation). We also argue that forgiveness can serve as a contextual factor that can shape the restoration of trust. We conclude with a call for new directions in theory and research examining the interplay between trust, distrust, and forgiveness in organizational settings.

Recent societal movements (e.g., #MeToo and #TimesUp initiatives) and high profile misconduct cases have highlighted the importance of effectively addressing interpersonal transgressions, unethical...

The study of employees’ emotions and affective experiences at work has been a burgeoning area of interest, with prior empirical work demonstrating its effects on various work outcomes, ranging from...

The delivery of bad news is at the center of many organizational processes. Despite the variety of organizational processes involving the delivery of bad news, there is no integrative framework that guides its study. Based on a literature review of professionals who deliver bad news as part of their occupations, this article presents a framework that conceptualizes the delivery of bad news as a process involving a variety of activities in three different, but interrelated, phases—preparation, delivery, and transition. This three-phase model is the guiding framework for the literature review. The article identifies the strategic functions served by different bad news management activities and highlights many dilemmas facing managers in the delivery of bad news. The article concludes with identifying new directions for research on the delivery of bad news in organizations.

Over the past two decades, there have been a growing number of corporations, both within and beyond the United States, engaging in activities that promote positive social change. The papers in this special topic forum examine corporate social change agency at the micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis. Through these analyses, the authors of these papers build a richly textured, multidisciplinary conceptual foundation for analysis and research on corporate social change activities.

Once a working relationship is damaged through an act of injustice, how do the victim and offender repair their relationship? What causes the victim to let go of the anger and resentment and then reconcile with the offender? We propose a theory that the likelihood of forgiveness and reconciliation is greatly enhanced, and revenge and avoidance greatly decreased, if justice is first served. That is, forgiveness follows justice; without justice, forgiveness is much less likely. Justice may be served one of three ways: (1) by the victim evening the score; (2) by the organization punishing the offender; or (3) by the offender repenting. We recommend that managers establish a procedurally just climate so that victims of offense seek distributive justice through formal channels rather than seeking it themselves through revenge.

This chapter analyzes the Thibaut and Walker paradigm and explains why it has excluded the interpersonal context of formal decision-making procedures. It reviews the empirical research on the interpersonal context of formal decision-making procedures and identifies factors that influence employee's judgments of procedural justice. The chapter proposes a broader concept of procedural justice and explore its implications for theory, research, and application to business settings. In particular, people's judgments of procedural fairness are influenced by the quality of interpersonal treatment they receive from decision makers enacted the formal procedure properly. The broader view of procedural justice suggests four major implications for theory, research, and application, such as decision-maker conduct, or the "missing link" in procedural justice, the attribution and social construction of procedural justice, the "human" side of procedural justice, and conduct, community, and procedural justice.

A field study and an experimental study examined relationships among organizational variables and various responses of victims to perceived wrongdoing. Both studies showed that procedural justice climate moderates the effect of organizational variables on the victim's revenge, forgiveness, reconciliation, or avoidance behaviors. In Study 1, a field study, absolute hierarchical status enhanced forgiveness and reconciliation, but only when perceptions of procedural justice climate were high; relative hierarchical status increased revenge, but only when perceptions of procedural justice climate were low. In Study 2, a laboratory experiment, victims were less likely to endorse vengeance or avoidance depending on the type of wrongdoing, but only when perceptions of procedural justice climate were high.

Consumer privacy is at the center of an ongoing debate among business leaders, privacy activists, and government officials. Although corporations face competitive pressures to collect and use personal information about their customers, many consumers find some methods of collection and use of their personal information unfair. We present a justice theory framework that illustrates how consumer privacy concerns are shaped by the perceived fairness of corporate information practices. We describe a set of global principles, fair information practices, which were developed to balance consumer privacy concerns with an organization's need to use personal information. We conclude by discussing three alternatives for implementing fair information practices with particular attention to the Internet: government regulation, industry self-regulation, and technological solutions.

The growing body of research on workplace revenge has focused on morality-based principles (e.g., organizational justice) that people use to judge acts of revenge. By contrast, in the present research, we report findings from two studies that focus on aesthetics-based principles (e.g., the “beauty” of executing the act of revenge) that people use to judge acts of revenge. In Study 1, a qualitative analysis of revenge incidents, we identify altruism, poetic qualities, and symmetry as aesthetic principles that people use to judge acts of revenge. In Study 2, a quantitative analysis of a policy-capturing experiment, we focused on the symmetry principle. Specifically, we examined the influence of the symmetry of method and symmetry of consequences in revenge. In that study, we found that workplace revenge is judged less harshly when consequences are symmetric than when they are asymmetric. However, symmetry has the opposite effect on judgments when it comes to symmetry of methods: similar methods were judged more harshly than dissimilar methods. We discuss the influence of aesthetic principles on judgments about revenge, and whether such principles legitimate or delegitimate an act of revenge.

This article describes a community service project in which M.B.A. students learn about and experience directly the dynamics of leadership and power. The purposes of this project are to help students better understand the social reality of powerlessness, and how they, through their political activism and influence management skills, can improve the situations and lives of powerless people in the local community. In so doing, students begin to see the connection between political action and moral ends, the fundamental learning objective of this project.

This article reports the results of a longitudinal study of layoff victims and how they cope with job loss. We examine whether the perceived fairness of layoff procedures, corporate and government assistance programs, and individual differences influence the choice of problem-focused and/or symptom-focused coping strategies. Our findings challenge traditionally held assumptions about factors that may be associated with successful coping. Specifically, perceptions of the fairness of layoff procedures and adequacy of government assistance programs were negatively related with problem-focused strategies used by layoff victims, and there was no relationship with corporate assistance programs and the choice of coping strategy. In addition, self-blame for the job loss was positively related to a symptom-focused strategy. Suggestions for future research on victims of layoffs are discussed.

Research on layoff victims reports that interactional justice dimensions influence their reactions to layoffs. We build on this emerging literature, examining the role of organizational support dur...

In a buyer-seller simulation within two negotiation periods, we examined the attitudinal and behavioral consequences of variations in the communication of threats. Specifically, we examined the consequences of receiving no threat or a threat stated with, versus without, a disclaimer. In addition, we examined changes in subjects′ evaluations of their partner and negotiation outcomes after some were led to believe their partner had stated a false threat (a "bluff"). As expected, we found that while negotiators who used threats were perceived as more powerful, they were also perceived as less cooperative and achieved less integrative agreements than those who did not use threats. In addition, when information (allegedly from a constituent) identified the threat as a bluff, we found that the disclaimer lessened the negativity of re-evaluations of the negotiation partner. Taken together, our findings suggest that current theory regarding the effect of threats and bluffs in negotiation needs to be qualified by how these tactics are stated. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

Three studies respectively explored the interactive effects of procedural justice and outcome negativity on the victims of job layoffs, on survivors, and on lame ducks, employees who knew they woul...

Recent studies by Kahneman et al. (1986a, b) present consistent evidence that the economically rational decision of market exploitation is perceived as unfair by individuals. Further, these fairness judgments are influenced by the sign of the outcome—that is, an outcome coded as a gain is perceived as fairer than an objectively similar outcome coded as a loss, particularly when they occur for the benefit of the exploiter. As an extension of the Kahneman et al. research, we examine the influence of both outcome sign and information about the procedures used to allocate the outcome on individual judgements of market exploitation. Replicating Kahneman et al., we found that market exploitation is judged as unfair, and that such judgements are influences by the subjective coding (as gains or losses) of objectively similar outcomes. In addition, we found that procedural information also influences judgements of market exploitation. The implications of these results are discussed.

The fast-growing category of defamation lawsuits in the United States involves actions by employees against their employers. Over the last decade, the courts have increasingly ruled in favor of the employee plaintiffs, thus creating an employee's right to reputation. This article identifies a variety of responses undertaken by organizations to reduce their legal liability and lessen the likelihood of employee defamation lawsuits. We argue that while organizational actions to reduce their legal liability may appear “rational,” such responses may also be creating situations in which employers, employees, and the public may be the unintended victims of a “law without justice.” The article concludes with a discussion of balancing the freedom necessary for managers to communicate about employees and the fairness of that communication.

There is growing evidence of a “litigation mentality” rampant in organizations, which has created a legalistic mindset in many managers. Increasingly, managerial decisions are becoming dominated by a concern for what is legally defensible at the expense of broader social considerations such as justice and fairness. The papers in this special issue explore how this legalistic mindset has created new organizational and social dilemmas, and situations of “law whithout justice.”

Recent United States Congress legislation (the WARN Act of 1988) mandates that organizations must provide at least 60 days notice before a layoff of 50 or more employees can be instituted. As a consequence, individuals who are notified of their layoff often remain in their jobs for a significant period of time-and managers hope that these people will be good “organizational citizens” during thisremaining time. This article identifies different psychological factors that could explain why individuals would remain good citizens, even after notification of their impending termination. In a survey of 147 skilled employees who received notification of their layoffs, we found that the perceived fairness of the layoff process was the primary factor influencing their citizenship behavior. Additional analyses suggested that the perceived adequacy of the explanation of the layoffs, and whether the layoff victims were treated with respect and dignity, were the primary factors influencing the perceived fairness of the layoff process. The theoretical implications of these results are discussed.

The worse the society, the more law there will be. In Hell, there will be nothing but law, and due process will be meticulously observed. Grant Gilmore (The Ages of American Law 1977, p. 111)

A “litigation mentality” increasingly pervades today's workplace, as an ever wider variety of managerial decisions are the target of employee-initiated lawsuits. In this paper we identify different psychological factors that could explain why employees consider suing their employers. One group of factors suggests that employee consideration of litigation is motivated primarily by self-interest, as employers perceive they have more to gain than lose by going to court. A second group of factors suggests that employees' decision to go to court is influenced largely by the perceived fairness of their dealings with the organization. In a survey of 141 currently employed workers, we found that the perceived fairness of organizational rules and procedures was the primary factor influencing whether employees consider a litigious response. In particular, employees were concerned about how the rules and procedures were implemented and the quality of interpersonal treatment received from managers. Job satisfaction also had an impact on employees considering litigation. We argue that while our findings support organizational efforts to create more formalized policies and procedures that emphasize due process or procedural justice, such efforts, in and of themselves, may undermine the intended goal of ensuring fairness and reducing employee litigation. The solution to this dilemma is not in the creation of formal procedures per se, but in the moral and interpersonal conduct of those implementing the procedures. We conclude by identifying directions for future research on employee litigation.

This paper advances the argument that individual privacy is a procedural justice issue in organizations. A review of the organizational privacy literature supports this argument, and new directions for procedural justice research are suggested. In addition, it is argued that a focus on individual privacy highlights the political and paradoxical implications of procedural justice issues in organizations.

Considerable attention has been given to different behavioral strategies of conflict management (e.g., avoidance, compromise, collaboration). However, conflict theory and research has overlooked a simple, but effective strategy for managing conflict: the use of social accounts or explanations. In this paper, we review the literature on the use of social accounts in conflict situations and find it supports the argument that social accounts can be an effective conflict- management strategy. Based on this analysis, we propose several promising directions for future theory development and research concerning the role of social accounts in conflict situations. In addition, we identify tradeoffs and dilemmas created when social accounts are used to manage conflict.

The present article attempts to evaluate various tenets of moral philosophy by reviewing empirical data from the field of organizational justice bearing on: (a) people's concerns about fairness in organizations, and (b) the consequences of following or not following rules of justice. With respect to concerns about fairness in organizations, utilitarian claims that people believe that fairness requires distributions of reward based on merit were assessed. Similarly, evidence was reviewed bearing on the claim of psychological egoists that judgments of fairness reflect a self-interested bias. Finally, Kant's view that people should never lie was evaluated in light of evidence describing people's actual attitudes toward lying. In all three cases, the underlying philosophical premises were concluded to be overly simplistic in view of complexities about human nature revealed in empirical research. In addition, evidence was reviewed that shed light on the teleological claims of utilitarians regarding the purported benefits of following two common organizational practices — using merit-based pay, and punishing harmdoers. Here, too, the empirical evidence (findings that these techniques do not consistently yield the greatest good for the greatest number) suggests that the premise underlying utilitarian thought is based on unfounded, overly simplistic assumptions about the effects of following various allegedly moral ideas. It is concluded that our analyses provide a useful first step toward the desired goal of business ethicists of integrating prescriptive and descriptive approaches to justice.

Revenge is part of the social fabric of organizational life. For many, revenge is typically viewed as an irrational, if not evil, response, to events in the workplace. However, there is an emerging scholarly view of revenge that departs from that conventional wisdom. This view is what we refer to as “revenge as justice.” In this chapter, we review a growing body of research across academic disciplines that finds the motivation for revenge is, more often than not, grounded in a perception that one has been the victim of undeserved harm and feelings of injustice. Drawing on empirical findings, we argue that revenge is not motivated by mere anger grounded in frustration, but a righteous anger, an emotional response to correct and prevent injustice. As such, revenge is central to the process of justice in organizations. While righteous anger is core variable in our analysis, we illustrate how cognitive mistakes and biases can shape the emotion of righteous anger and the act of revenge. Finally, we argue that there is a rationality and morality to revenge, which must be understood through emotional lens of righteous anger.

Although impression management in the Feedback-seeking process has emerged as an important research topic, existing research has failed to capture the range and complexity of impression management behaviors. This article provides a theoretical framework for existing and future research. It examines how impression management sometimes discourages and at other times encourages feedback inquiry, and it explains the impact that impression management has on when, from whom, and how individuals ask for feedback. Organizational implications of the impression management motive in feedback seeking are discussed.

Over the years, the management field has had many important contributors to its theoretical development and practical application of its major concepts. As a relatively young academic discipline, w...

This study investigates antecedents of individuals' commitment to the legal-claiming process. Individuals were surveyed as they entered a district office of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to file an employment discrimination claim. Respondents' attributions regarding who they blamed for their grievance, the social guidance received, their organizational tenure, and their commitment to legal claiming were assessed. Results showed that individuals who made strong external attributions had a higher commitment to legal claiming than did those who made weak external attributions. Social guidance and organizational tenure were significant moderators of the attribution-claiming relationship. Specifically, commitment to legal claiming was more strongly related to external attributions when social guidance was low and organizational tenure was high. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

As organizations move to adopt high performance work practices (HPWP), the onus falls on supervisors to do whatever it takes to maximize the productivity of their work teams. This, however, creates...

This study investigated the relationships between blame, victim and offender status, and the pursuit of revenge or reconciliation after a personal offense. Results from a sample of 141 government agency employees showed that blame is positively related to revenge and negatively related to reconciliation. In addition, victim-offender relative status moderated the relation between blame and revenge such that victims who blamed sought revenge more often when the offender's status was lower than their own. The victims' own absolute hierarchical status also moderated this relation such that lower, not higher, status employees who blamed sought revenge more often.

Over the past decade, scholarly interest in forgiveness in the workplace has been rapidly increasing. However, there have been numerous questions raised related to the effects of forgiveness in the...

We propose a new theoretical framework for understanding simultaneous trust and distrust within relationships, grounded in assumptions of multidimensionality and the inherent tensions of relationships, and we separate this research from prior work grounded in assumptions of unidimensionality and balance. Drawing foundational support for this new framework from recent research on simultaneous positive and negative sentiments and ambivalence, we explore the theoretical and practical significance of the framework for future work on trust and distrust relationships within organizations.

The article discusses a study which examines whether voice and justification affect unfavorable decisions in job recruitment and budget decision-making. A discussion is presented about the influenc...