Should Organizations Be Forgiving or Unforgiving? A Two-Study Replication of How Forgiveness Climate in Hospitality Organizations Drives Employee Attitudes and Behaviors

Abstract

An organization’s forgiveness climate is pivotal in reducing negative and promoting positive consequences of errors, mistakes, or offenses in the workplace. This study examines the influence of a perceived forgiveness climate on learning behavior, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intention to leave. Using quantitative cross-sectional data collected from 128 hotel and lodging managers, Study 1 revealed that a perceived forgiveness climate was significantly positively related to learning behavior and job satisfaction. Furthermore, the results demonstrated the mediating effect of learning behavior between a perceived forgiveness climate and job satisfaction and intention to leave. Study 2 confirmed this finding using 187 hospitality management students who work as frontline employees in various hospitality organizations. A perceived forgiveness climate was again found to significantly influence learning behavior and intention to leave, as well as organizational commitment. The results also confirmed the mediating effect of learning behavior. The findings suggest that organizations should promote a climate of forgiveness to influence employee attitudes and behaviors.

The Antecedents and Consequences of Psychological Safety in Airline Firms: Focusing on High-Quality Interpersonal Relationships

“…This result is consistent with previously identified associations between autonomy (i.e., the freedom to decide how to perform one's work safely) and creative efforts at work [35]. This finding is also line with a previous study [34], positing that employees who work in hospitality firms should not be blamed for their service failures, errors, and mistakes; this provides supports the observed link between psychological safety (i.e., interpersonal forgiveness and reconciliation in workplace relationships) and the creative self-efficacy of airline employees. Accordingly, the finding implies that psychological safety (i.e., interpersonal forgiveness and reconciliation) should be used as an indicator of the creative self-efficacy (i.e., confidence, ability, and efficiency) of airline employees.…”

“…Despite the significant role that psychological safety plays in airline firms, few studies have examined if psychological safety predicts psychological experiences, such as learning from failures, which are linked to the creative performance of airline employees. In general, traditional service firms (e.g., banks) primarily focus on educating their employees to offer standardized services to all customers so that they can minimize the frequency of service failures, which might be supported by the nature of safety climate (i.e., organizations' safety-supportive managerial practices) [34]. On the other hand, airline firms have been urged to make their workplaces psychologically safe, particularly when employees experienced service errors and mistakes; this will allow them to speak up about their service errors and mistakes without feeling embarrassed, and consequently achieve successful performance of team-based activities in effective interpersonal relations and communication [9,35].…”

The Moderating Role of Forgiveness in the Relationship between Work Engagement and Job Satisfaction

“…This helps not only to maintain a stable workplace environment but also to increase employee job satisfaction. Organizational aspects such as a forgiveness climate and forgiving style promoted by the leaders are proved to be positively related to a rewarding job (Cox, 2011;van Dierendonck & Nuijten, 2011;Guchait et al, 2016). They might also be helpful in improving individual's tendency to forgive.…”

“…Another understanding of an organizational climate of forgiveness is specifically related to workplace errors, and it integrates the concepts of error management and forgiveness (Guchait, Madera, & Dawson, 2016). It includes forgiveness of mistakes, errors, or offences in the workplace, early detection and quick error correction and prevention similar errors in the future.…”

“…It includes forgiveness of mistakes, errors, or offences in the workplace, early detection and quick error correction and prevention similar errors in the future. The study conducted in service-based organizations by Guchait, Madera and Dawson (2016) revealed that such perceived forgiveness climate translates into employee attitudes, i.e. job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intention to leave.…”