The art of forgiveness within the workplace

In the workplace, conflicts can arise from various sources, including misunderstandings in which people may unintentionally hurt or offend others, leading to tensions and disputes; conflicts between employees and their supervisors in which leadership decisions, feedback, or performance evaluations may cause friction; and interpersonal issues in which differences in personality, work styles, or values can lead to interpersonal conflicts among team members. These conflicts, if left unresolved, can negatively impact employee morale, productivity, and overall work environment.

Forgiveness can play a crucial role in resolving some of these conflicts. In the specific case of interpersonal conflicts, forgiveness has been shown to have beneficial outcomes:

for employees by enhancing physical and psychological health and decreased burnout;
dyadic relationships through transgressor reintegration and relationship maintenance;
organizations via job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, and decreased turnover intentions.

A team of researchers led by Maria Francisca Saldanha, Professor at CATÓLICA-LISBON, studies how forgiveness can ease interpersonal conflicts in the workplace context.

“The basic idea of the project Helping individuals recover from interpersonal transgressions: An intervention to promote forgiveness [funded by FCT, 2020] was based on the need to develop tools that people can use to help them forgive, if they want to do so. The aim of this project is to provide tools to individuals who wish to engage in the process of forgiveness but are facing challenges and could benefit from support. It is essential that this process is always voluntary, as substantial evidence from social psychology and therapy literatures clearly indicate that when forgiveness is not voluntary, it tends to be less beneficial. Forgiveness research was at a crossroads at the time, with some disagreements about what forgiveness is and how to best assess it. Hence, we proposed a research program that promotes a deeper understanding of the forgiveness concept, providing a new conceptualization and measure while using these insights as the basis for developing and testing a theoretically based intervention.

The idea for the FCT project was something that had been under consideration for a long time, based on extensive team discussions. We recognized the significance of the work, and it built upon our previous interventions and publications related to conflict management and forgiveness and its benefits for people. Another crucial aspect of the project's development was the meetings with CUBE's management team, which provided valuable insights into the technical requirements and how to present information effectively. The project received positive feedback from the jury, who highlighted its well-organized structure and potential to make contributions on both scientific and practical levels.

Securing funding for this project was of utmost importance as it ensures continued and focused investment in this research area. Without funding, the research might become scattered over time and to some extent lose relevance. It would also be more difficult to conduct some more resource-intensive studies; which interventions tend to be. Additionally, the resources provided by the funding ensure the meaningful involvement of the entire research team in the project's success, based on their respective dedications and roles." - Maria Francisca Saldanha

Conceptualizing Forgiveness

Despite the significance of the concept, the question of "what is forgiveness?" lacks a unified definition, resulting in diverse perspectives and measurements across research studies, significantly limiting its practical application. Notably, confusion arises as forgiveness is often mistaken for reconciliation, which can sometimes expose aggrieved individuals to further harm. The origins of various forgiveness conceptualizations can be traced back to inductive studies, where laypeople's understandings have heavily influenced the construct, contributing to considerable confusion among the public regarding the nature of forgiveness.

In the paper Conceptualizing forgiveness: A review and path forward, Maria Francisca and her project members Daniel Brady and Laurie Barclay define forgiveness as emotion regulation that occurs in the context of an interpersonal transgression in which negative emotions toward a transgressor are decreased and/or positive emotions toward a transgressor are increased.

“Focusing on an emotion regulation approach is crucial when defining forgiveness in the workplace context. In organizational behavior, we often study behavior as an outcome, and past definitions of forgiveness incorporating external dimensions such as behavior or behavioral intentions have caused confusion with other well-established constructs, like counterproductive work behaviors or revenge, which are distinct from forgiveness. By defining forgiveness as an internal process, we disentangle it from various other constructs, enabling more accurate predictions.

Moreover, separating negative and positive emotions allows us to explore a range of issues that were previously challenging to study due to mixed conceptualizations. For instance, we can now investigate whether some individuals primarily experience a reduction in negative emotions during the forgiveness process, with minimal increase in positive emotions, and how this approach may be instrumental in moving forward. As another example, early clinical research indicates that experiencing both high positive and negative emotions towards a transgressor, known as ambivalent forgiveness, can pose difficulties for individuals – however, this has been challenging to study under previous conceptualizations.

Our new conceptualization also offers technical advantages, enabling more precise measurements and the study of forgiveness as a dynamic process. Forgiveness is not a one-time event but an ongoing journey that varies based on individuals and situations. Some situations may witness rapid forgiveness, while others may involve years of back-and-forth progress, where negative emotions decrease and sometimes resurge. Such processes are highly individualistic, and only by differentiating these dimensions can we comprehensively study the forgiveness process.”

Implications

Conceptualizing forgiveness as an emotion regulation approach provides theoretical and empirical insights into forgiveness as a process involving both negative and positive emotions, as well as the influence of current emotions and emotion goals. For example, this approach enables self-reflection, helping individuals identify struggles and effective strategies to enhance emotion regulation and facilitate forgiveness. These insights also offer valuable guidance to leaders on effectively supporting their employees during and after conflicts. To cultivate a culture of forgiveness and understanding, organizations can also potentially adopt a servant leadership approach. This leadership style prioritizes the greater good and involves leaders actively assisting employees in addressing concerns and coping with daily challenges.

Within the scope of the project, the research team will use these insights to pinpoint points of intervention, offering practical guidance for fostering forgiveness. Indeed, although forgiveness is often recognized as an effective conflict management strategy that can not only diminish the detrimental impact of interpersonal conflict but can also promote well-being and productivity, many employees struggle with forgiveness.

Leveraging their prior research on expressive writing interventions—a guided writing technique for processing aversive experiences—the project proposes a novel intervention explicitly tailored to foster forgiveness. This intervention targets the emotional underpinnings of anger and compassion that are central to forgiveness while also addressing temporal aspects through the application of emotion regulation strategies via guided writing. The researchers emphasize the intervention's cost-effectiveness and self-applicability, which aligns with their goal of broad accessibility. Critically, the study will collect data, enabling an analysis of the forgiveness process over time and the protocol's long-term effectiveness.

Beyond having self-applied interventions available, incorporating validated protocols into existing training programs, or providing standalone workshops, such as conflict management or forgiveness workshops, can also yield significant advantages for organizations. By integrating these insights into their dispute resolution processes, organizations can enhance the effectiveness of their conflict management efforts and support employees throughout their journey towards resolution, even after formal procedures have been completed.

“Nowadays, businesses often have numerous training opportunities available, allowing them to incorporate sessions focused on emotion regulation skills, such as mindfulness training. Moreover, training programs that direct individuals towards the present or future, rather than dwelling on the past, and that equip them with strategies to achieve their desired emotions, can contribute to a more functional and healthier workplace that enhances employee well-being. Training can also help clarify that forgiveness is voluntary and not tied to specific behaviors toward the transgressor, reducing misconceptions and promoting a better understanding of forgiveness. Such training can dispel misconceptions and open pathways for understanding forgiveness on a deeper level, without negating the necessity of other measures by the company to address serious issues."

Additionally, even though forgiveness primarily occurs within an individual, it can have external consequences. For instance, forgiveness can foster acts of reconciliation, improve communication, enhance collaboration, and promote the restoration of relationships damaged by past transgressions. While not guaranteed, repairing relationships can strengthen teamwork and create a more cohesive work environment, ultimately contributing to increased productivity.

To access the full research article please visit the Journal of Organizational Behavior website here.

Article written by Daniela Guerra, Science Communicator at CUBE 