Abstract
Prior research on trust repair has focused primarily on investigating verbal responses to breaches of trust. Although consistently implicated in violations, the role of affect in the repair process has been mostly ignored. Using a scenario-based paradigm, we conducted an experimental study to examine the value of mistrusted party’s empathy, specific responses to an integrity-based violation (apology vs. denial), and nature of consequences (personal vs. organizational), as well as their interactive effects, on trust repair. Consequently, we sought to merge work on verbal responses with affect. Major findings indicated that presence of mistrusted party’s empathy functioned to repair trust better than its absence and, when coupled with a denial of culpability, produced markedly increased perceptions of violator’s integrity. These findings contribute to our understanding of how leaders influence followers through affect, informing both emotion and trust theory.
Highlights
Literature is replete with evidence showing that interpersonal trust in organizational settings has direct and indirect effects on key work outcomes such as individual and team performance, organizational commitment, turnover intentions, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviors (Deluga, 1995; Kramer, 1999; Flaherty and Pappas, 2000; Dirks and Ferrin, 2001, 2002; Breuer et al, 2016; De Jong et al, 2016)
We aimed to explore the impacts of a mistrusted party’s empathic display when coupled with two verbal responses on trust repair
We investigated whether the consequences of a trust violation would influence a transgressor’s ability to repair trust
Summary
Literature is replete with evidence showing that interpersonal trust in organizational settings has direct and indirect effects on key work outcomes such as individual and team performance, organizational commitment, turnover intentions, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviors (Deluga, 1995; Kramer, 1999; Flaherty and Pappas, 2000; Dirks and Ferrin, 2001, 2002; Breuer et al, 2016; De Jong et al, 2016). Organizational transgressions damage interpersonal trust (Lewicki and Wiethoff, 2000). This is problematic because organizational misconduct is widespread, with over 50% of employees experiencing a breach of trust within their organizations (Robinson and Rousseau, 1994; Guest and Conway, 2002; Schweitzer et al, 2006). When trust in organizations is violated, customer satisfaction and loyalty are reduced, affecting company profits (Leonidou et al, 2013)
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