Helping individuals recover from interpersonal transgressions: an intervention to promote forgiveness

Interpersonal transgressions are an unfortunate, yet unavoidable, occurrence that can have profound negative consequences for people (e.g., reduced psychological health; BoBe06) and organizations (e.g., decreased productivity; RuShJoLi14), costing billions of dollars each year. While research has examined actions that managers can take to rectify transgressions (e.g., providing apologies; ReGoKrCr06), these actions do not typically address the profound implications that transgressions can havefor employees (e.g., depression). However, scholars have identified forgiveness as a way to promote employees’ recovery (BaSa15). Forgiveness involves the release of negative feelings and an increase in positive feelings towards the transgressor (BiBaTrAq16). Importantly, forgiveness does not condone the offense, but rather reflects working through one’s internal feelings to promote recovery. While forgiveness has extensive benefits (e.g., increased well-being, decreased turnover; BoPaZhBeGuEm18; RaStBoCoRo19), many people struggle to forgive (St02). Accordingly, it is critical to develop strategies to promote forgiveness. We propose a four-stage research program that fosters a deeper understanding of forgiveness and leverages these insights into validating an intervention to help individuals forgive and recover from interpersonal transgressions. The first step in our research program is to validate a new conceptualization and measure of forgiveness. This is critical because the forgiveness literature has suffered from conceptual and measurement challenges that have limited practical application. For example, forgiveness has often been confounded with reconciliation (i.e., overt actions of goodwill towards the offender; AqTrBi06), which may put aggrieved individuals at risk of further victimization (e.g., McRu16). Thus, it is important to develop interventions that can yield benefits without increasing harm. Our project team has developed a new conceptualization of forgiveness that overcomes the existing challenges. Following best practices in scale development (Hi95), we are developing a measure to capture this conceptualization. Preliminarily evidence indicates that the scale has excellent psychometric properties and is significantly more predictive of relevant outcomes than existing measures. However, it is necessary to further validate the scale by conducting an extended investigation of convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. Thus, Studies 1 and 2 focus on further validating the scale using two-wave large-scale field studies. Using the validated measure, Study 3 examines the process of forgiveness in a multi-wave field study. Key objectives include identifying the mechanisms underlying the process of forgiveness as well as temporal aspects of the process. Drawing from established theories and leveraging the insights from Studies 1-3, Studies 4a and 4b (pilot study and full intervention) develop and validate a new intervention protocol that can promote forgiveness. Taken together, this research makes three main contributions. First, we address key conceptual and methodological challenges in the field by providing a new conceptualization and measure of forgiveness. Second, we provide insight into the processes underlying forgiveness, including identifying key mechanisms and examining temporal aspects. Third, we develop and test a theoretically based intervention to provide a cost-effective strategy that can be used by employees and organizations to promote recovery and mitigate the profound detrimental consequences associated with transgressions. To achieve these objectives, the project brings together an internationally recognized team of scholars, with expertise in workplace transgressions, forgiveness, emotions, measurement, and workplace interventions. Beyond their extensive theoretical and methodological expertise, the team has regularly published in top journals in the field, including working together on projects that have been published and/or are under publication consideration at journals on internationally recognized lists (such as the Financial Times Top 50 list and the Chartered Association of Business Schools list). Moreover, the team has a strong track record in translating research into practice to enhance individual and organizational effectiveness. By focusing on how to promote well-being and the development of fair, responsible, and caring organizations, this project is strongly aligned with the UN’s sustainable development goals.