Communicating forgiveness: how organizational members seek forgiveness to benefit their workplace

Date

2020-08

Authors

Ruggiero, Isabella

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Abstract

Though often challenging, conflict is an inevitable part of organizational life. At some point, organizational members will have to face their interpersonal issues, or risk suffering negative implications in their roles as individuals and professionals. The purpose of the thesis was to understand how and why organizational members seek forgiveness in their workplace, as well as examine the organizational conditions and outcomes that encourage forgiveness. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews via Zoom and Webex with a convenience snowball sample of 10 full-time organizational members. A thematic analysis revealed themes of Maintaining Positive Relationships, Maintaining Personal and Professional Image, Direct ForgivenessSeeking Strategies, Indirect Forgiveness- Seeking Strategies, Leadership Participation, Open Communication Climate, Forgiveness as a Learning Experience, Positive Organizational Climate, and Strengthened Positive Relationships. The theoretical implications of this study suggest that forgiveness-seeking can employ POS to sustain a positive feeling in the workplace. A practical implication is that organizational leaders should play an active role in cultivating forgiveness seeking behaviors and climates by establishing consistent practices for their members to deal with conflict.

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Keywords

forgiveness, leaders, leadership, organizational behavior, organizational members, positive organizational scholarship

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