Forgiveness in Work Relationships

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic of the early 2020's drastically disrupted working life: employees were forced to work from home as offices closed (Kniffin et al., 2021). Although working from home may lead to benefits for some employees, such as reduced commuting time and larger flexibility in terms of balancing work and life (Ipsen et al., 2021), for many employees it caused at least one important issue: employees had fewer social interactions with their colleagues. Some even felt isolated or lonely (Lewis et al., 2022). Indeed, "I do not get to see my colleagues or other people as much as I would like to" was an often-mentioned response in a survey investigating working life during the COVID-19 pandemic in 29 European countries (Ipsen et al., 2021). Given people's innate and primary drive to form social relationships with others (Baumeister & Leary, 1995;Maslow, 1968), the notion that many employees miss their colleagues when working from home may not be surprising. Also at work, people need good and stable social relationships that are characterized by supportive interactions, a sense of belonging, and effective teamwork (Chiaburu & Harrison, 2008;Dutton & Heaphy, 2003). Evidence shows that the quality of one's relationships at work is the most important determinant of employee job satisfaction, even more so than having an interesting job or a high salary (De Neve et al., 2018). Moreover, good and stable work relationships are strong predictors of employees' performance at work (Banks et al., 2014;Schermuly & Meyer, 2016), and such relationships also protect employees against harmful effects of workplace stress (Olekalns et al., 2020;Viswesvaran et al., 1999). However, it is not so easy to maintain good and stable work relationships. Employees may have different agendas, values, and priorities about the direction and operation of an organization, the work goals that must be achieved, the tasks that must be conducted, or how these tasks must be conducted. The lack of rich face-to-face communication when working from home may have caused even more misunderstanding (Mortensen & Hinds, 2001). It is thus inevitable that every Chapter 2 When work relationships matter: Interpersonal forgiveness