New Directions for Research on Forgiveness in Organizations: Barriers and Boundary Conditions

This symposium aims to provide new perspectives and directions on forgiveness in organizations and extend research on forgiveness’ predictors and consequences with four papers focusing on two core questions. First, this symposium seeks to unveil key “upstream” barriers to forgiveness. It features papers on why people are reluctant to apologize in certain cultures and how employees are affected by their own inability to forgive, in particular, in the face of an expressed apology by transgressors at work. The second major goal of this symposium is to advance the limited knowledge of boundary conditions and uncover new factors that moderate the “downstream” effects and effectiveness of forgiveness, including papers on factors such as incongruence between felt and expressed forgiveness that moderate the impact of forgiveness for the forgiving individual and both the bright and dark sides of leader forgiveness in shaping followers’ responses in organizations. Furthermore, these four papers illustrate how a variety of methodological approaches (e.g., field study, experiment, panel data, large-scale language analyses) can be used to answer research questions regarding forgiveness as well as concomitant apology. Lastly, our symposium features a prominent scholar in this field of knowledge, offering theoretical and practical insights through interactive discussion to advance our understanding of forgiveness, spark new research directions, and ultimately move the research on workplace forgiveness forward with synergistic perspectives. Honor and the Reluctance to Apologize Presenter: Ying Lin; Stanford Graduate School of Business Presenter: Michele Gelfand; Stanford Graduate School of Business Presenter: Nava Caluori; U. of Virginia Presenter: Bastian Weitz; Stanford Graduate School of Business When Apologies Make Things Worse: The Interactive Effects of Inability to Forgive and Apology Presenter: Maria Francisca Saldanha; UCP - Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics Presenter: Annika Hillebrandt; Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto Metropolitan U. Presenter: Carlos Ferreira Peralta; U. Católica Portuguesa Presenter: Daniel Brady; Wilfrid Laurier U. The Authenticity of (In)Congruence Between Felt and Expressed Forgiveness Presenter: Seoin Yoon; Texas A&M U. Presenter: Shawn T. McClean; U. of Oklahoma Price College of Business Presenter: Bret Bradley; U. of Oklahoma When Leaders Forgive: Is Forgiveness Always Divine? Presenter: Hsuan-Che Huang; Sauder School of Business, U. of British Columbia Presenter: Jonathan Evans; U. of British Columbia Presenter: Trevor Spoelma; U. of New Mexico