Necessary Evils, (In)Justice, and Rapport Management

Abstract

The authors ground the discussion of theory in the analysis of narratives written by subordinates to recount incidents in which they felt angry with their manager. Based on these narratives, propositions about the relationship between a manager's acknowledgement or violation of rapport management norms and employee perceptions of (in)justice are developed. Thus, the authors demonstrate the value of rapport management theory for explicating the relationship maintenance behaviors that are crucial in the effective performance of necessary evils by organizational leaders.

Organizational and Supervisory Apology Effectiveness

“…Additionally, these results resonate with a field experiment of organizational responses to customer complaints conducted by Bolkan and Daly (2009), who reported that "using apologies is also likely to increase consumers' satisfaction with organizational responses and, importantly, intentions to do business with organizations in the future" (p. 37). These findings also offer a best practices approach to apologizing to subordinates, which could aid the enactment of Campbell, White, and Durant's (2007) business communication theory of rapport management. In their theory, supervisors are encouraged to attend to subordinates' face needs by apologizing (see p. 172).…”

Development and Validation of a Measure of Leader Rapport Management: The LRM Scale

“…While some previous research has explored the concept of ego/autonomy within the context of workplace communication (Campbell, White & Durant, 2007;Campbell et al, 2003;Fairhurst & Chandler, 1989;Morand, 2000), there has been no attempt to develop a scale for measuring leader rapport management (LRM). Quinn, Hildebrandt, Rogers, & Thompson (1991) clarify the variety of values demonstrated by (or purposes for) managerial communication.…”

“…Potential items were developed by applying the four aspects of public self-image discussed above (Spencer-Oatey, 2000) to a selection of workplace narratives. The narratives were originally gathered for a study involving anger and justice in which respondents above the age of 30 with at least 5 years of work experience were asked to describe, in their own words, an incident at work that made them angry (Kiewitz, 2002); the narratives were also used in a qualitative research study focused on subordinate perceptions of injustice and the failure of leader to manage rapport (Campbell, White & Durant, 2007).…”

Measuring mediating factors in the use of interpersonal sensitivity in organizations

“…Interpersonally sensitive behavior has been shown to protect the personal welfare of both the target (e.g., Bies & Moag, 1986) and the organization (e.g., Brockner, 1992) and can restore "a sense of humanity and connection to the experiences…at work" (Frost, Dutton, Worline, & Wilson, 2000: 26). Indeed, Campbell, White, and Durant (2007) propose that communication behaviors of the performer of necessary evils may influence target's perception of justice and emotional responses.…”

“…A review of germane literature reveals that virtually no previously published research has attempted to do so. A major reason for the lack of such work is the absence of a scale to measure the M&M model (Campbell et al, 2007;Margolis & Molinsky, 2008;Molinsky & Margolis, 2005).…”