Respect in Organizations: Feeling Valued as “We” and “Me”

Abstract

Research suggests that organizational members highly prize respect but rarely report adequately receiving it. However, there is a lack of theory in organizational behavior regarding what respect actually is and why members prize it. We argue that there are two distinct types of respect: generalized respect is the sense that "we" are all valued in this organization, and particularized respect is the sense that the organization values "me" for particular attributes, behaviors, and achievements. We build a theoretical model of respect, positing antecedents of generalized respect from the sender's perspective (prestige of social category, climate for generalized respect) and proposed criteria for the evaluation of particularized respect (role, organizational member, and character prototypicality), which is then enacted by the sender and perceived by the receiver. We also articulate how these two types of respect fulfill the receiver's needs for belonging and status, which facilitates the self-related outcomes of organizationbased self-esteem, organizational and role identification, and psychological safety. Finally, we consider generalized and personalized respect jointly and present four combinations of the two types of respect. We argue that the discrepancy between organizational members' desired and received respect is partially attributable to the challenge of simultaneously enacting or receiving respect for both the "we" and the "me."

Respect in Buyer/Seller Relationships

“…These findings suggest that, in addition to recognition and appraisal as sources of respect (Darwall, 1977;Rogers & Ashforth, 2014), a whole person perspective may act as another source of respect. This perspective means that relationship partners view each other not in a fragmented fashion but as full, complete, and autonomous persons, and that they seek to understand all aspects of the person and appreciate their goals, rights, and points of view.…”

“…Nonetheless, research to understand the meaning and the full impact of respect is not plentiful. Within the social psychology and organizational behaviour fields, research on respect is just starting to emerge (Clarke, 2011;Rogers & Ashforth, 2014;Van Quaquebeke & Eckloff, 2009), and within workplace contexts it is limited (Singh & Winkel, 2011). Even a shared definition of respect is lacking (Grover, 2013)-a fact that remains "one of the essential conceptual challenges facing this emerging field" (Huo & Binning, 2008, p. 1571.…”

“…As alluded to in our introduction, respect is neither welldefined (Grover, 2013) nor well-understood (Rogers & Ashforth, 2014) across a number of fields. Overall, there is pervasive recognition that respect is multifaceted, complicated, and misunderstood (Frei & Shaver, 2002;Langdon, 2007;Montgomery, Kane, & Vance, 2004;Sennett, 2003).…”

“…Sources of respect. Across the literature, there are two generally accepted and distinct antecedents of respect: (i) recognition of the person, and (ii) acknowledgement of the meritorious characteristics of the person (Butler & Drake, 2007;Clarke, 2011;Darwall, 1977;Grover, 2013;Rogers & Ashforth, 2014;Van Quaquebeke & Eckloff, 2009). The first antecedent, "recognition respect," is about recognizing a person as having inherent value (Darwall, 1977) and rights (Spelman, 1978).…”

“…In a leadership context, the terms recognition and appraisal respect have been adopted (Clarke, ; Grover, ; Van Quaquebeke & Eckloff, . In studying respect in a prison context, Butler and Drake () distinguish between “respect‐as‐consideration” and “respect‐as‐esteem.” Rogers and Ashforth () refer to this dichotomy as “generalized” and “particularized” respect.…”