Prosocial response to client-instigated victimization: The roles of forgiveness and workgroup conflict.

Abstract

We investigate forgiveness as a human service employee coping response to client-instigated victimizations and further explore the role of workgroup conflict in (a) facilitating this response, and (b) influencing the relationship between victimization and workplace outcomes. Using the theoretical lens of Conservation of Resources (Hobfoll, 1989), we propose that employees forgive clients—especially in the context of low workgroup conflict. From low to moderate levels of client-instigated victimization, we suggest that victimization and forgiveness are positively related; however, this positive relationship does not prevail when individuals confront egregious levels of victimization (i.e., an inverted-U shape). This curvilinear relationship holds under low but not under high workgroup conflict. Extending this model to workplace outcomes, findings also demonstrate that the indirect effects of victimization on job satisfaction, burnout, and turnover intentions are mediated by forgiveness when workgroup conflict is low. Experiment- and field-based studies provide evidence for the theoretical model.

Moderating Effects of Forgiveness on Relationship Between Empathy and Health-Related Quality of Life in Hemodialysis Patients: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

“…63 Forgiveness, in part, can be viewed as a prosocial change in individuals' thoughts, emotions, or behaviors toward themselves, others, or situations. 64 Such change can include improved awareness, thoughts, and acceptance of strong negative emotions such as anger; development of empathy toward oneself, others, or situations; modification of thoughts and release of previously unsatisfied needs; and starting a new life, all of which lead to improved QOL. 65 Among the demographic and clinical characteristics, age and education were significant predictors of health-related QOL.…”

The Benefits of Forgiveness at Work: A Longitudinal Investigation of the Time-Lagged Relations Between Forgiveness and Work Outcomes

“…Previous research indeed reveals that a lack of forgiveness is associated with lower job satisfaction (Law, 2013;Radulovic et al, 2019), lower work engagement (Little et al, 2007), less commitment to the organization (Basford et al, 2014), more burnout (Booth et al, 2018;Hershcovis et al, 2018) and higher levels of job stress (Cox, 2011). However, almost all evidence regarding the association between forgiveness and work outcomes relies on cross-sectional designs.…”

How Gig Worker Responds to Negative Customer Treatment: The Effects of Work Meaningfulness and Traits of Psychological Resilience

“…First, our research addressed and confirmed an association between negative customer treatment and service sabotage among gig workers, which deepens the negative impact of customer mistreatment. Previous negative customer treatment literature focused on regular employees, and to our knowledge, no studies explored how gig worker response to customer mistreatment ( Booth et al, 2018 ; Amarnani et al, 2019 ; Cheng et al, 2020 ; Lavelle et al, 2021 ). In the context of the platform economy, the relationships between organizations and gig workers are characterized by poor employment relationships, which is cooperative-oriented rather than traditional strong control relationships ( Fleming, 2017 ).…”