An Investigation of Forgiveness-seeking Communication and Relational Outcomes

Abstract

Therapists and theologians claim that the process of forgiveness is essential to the restoration of damaged relationships, but this possibility has received limited empirical attention. Furthermore, the role of an offender's communicative behavior in the forgiveness process remains understudied. This project first analyzed an inductively derived list of communication behaviors to develop a taxonomy of forgiveness-seeking approaches used by 186 romantic partners. These were interpreted with reference to facemanagement, uncertainty reduction, and rule-negotiation approaches to relationship recovery. Associations between the types of forgiveness-seeking communication and several different measures of post-transgression relationship change were examined. Results indicated that relationships recovered significantly when offending partners used behaviors labeled as explicit acknowledgment, nonverbal assurance, and compensation. Significant communicative effects remained after the effects of transgression severity were controlled. Results are interpreted as partially supportive of the assumption that forgiveness-seeking communication facilitates recovery from relational damage.

The role of customer affection and trust in loyalty rebuilding after service failure and recovery

“…Thus, we can predict customer affection is likely to be restored by recovery satisfaction. For example, in the context of service recovery, communication attempts which mostly include acknowledgement and apology are likely to make an emotionally transformative impact, assisting in the restoration of customer affection (Kelley & Walden, 2005;Metts, 1994). Therefore: H4a: Recovery satisfaction will have a positive influence on customer affection_a.…”

“…Xie and Peng (2009) emphasized the effectiveness of affective initiatives in reshaping the corporate image of integrity and benevolence, as well as communication with sufficient information about the firm's competence. Therefore, when designing recovery strategies after a service failure, interactive, communicative, and interpersonal dimensions should be considered as these dimensions may have emotional healing power (Kelley & Walden, 2005). Successful service recovery can be delivered by the emotionally intelligent employees who are encouraged to by the corporate climate pursuing customer orientation (Coelho, Augusto, Coelho, & Sá, 2010;Lin, 2010a;Tsiotsou, 2010).…”

Toward a Further Understanding of Students' Emotional Responses to Classroom Injustice

“…Perceived severity of the unfair instructor behavior was measured using Kelley and Waldron's (2005) severity scale. This instrument was originally designed to assess perceptions of relational transgressions, i.e., relational partners' problematic behaviors that violate expectations (Metts & Cupach, 2007).…”

“Forgiveness Isn't a Simple Process: It's a Vast Undertaking”: Negotiating and Communicating Forgiveness in Nonvoluntary Family Relationships

“…Although close relationships can be rewarding and beneficial, they also have the potential to include relational transgressions (Afifi & Metts, 1998;Kelley & Waldron, 2005;Metts, 1994) and hurtful messages (Vangelisti & Crumley, 1998). These types of hurtful events occur in a variety of relational contexts, including both voluntary and nonvoluntary relationships.…”