Increasing interpersonal and informational justice when communicating negative news: the role of the manager's empathic concern and moral development

David L. Patient, Daniel P. Skarlicki

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

118 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The authors report two studies exploring the role of a manager's empathy in delivering negative news more fairly. In Study 1, 132 practicing managers completed a scenario task in which a layoff was to be communicated. Trait empathic concern predicted interpersonal and informational justice of written messages. In Study 2, 81 students provided face-to-face feedback to a confederate, which was videotaped. An empathic induction resulted in higher levels of interpersonal and informational justice relative to a control group. Furthermore, the empathic induction had a greater effect on interpersonal and informational justice for communicators who were high (versus low) in moral development.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)555-578
Number of pages24
JournalJournal of Management
Volume36
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2010

Keywords

  • Empathy
  • Managerial communication
  • Moral development
  • Organizational justice

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Increasing interpersonal and informational justice when communicating negative news: the role of the manager's empathic concern and moral development'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this