On Reluctance to Communicate Undesirable Information: The MUM Effect

Rosen, Sidney; Tesser, Abraham

doi:10.2307/2786156

Cited by 242 publications

(169 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Moreover, social psychologists note that people are reluctant to communicate messages that they believe will be unpleasant for the recipients (the so-called MUM effect; Rosen and Tesser 1970).…”

Section: Conceptual Background and Hypotheses Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The trade-off of servicing empowerment on employees’ service performance: examining the underlying motivation and workload mechanisms

Chan

Lam

2011

J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci.

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Literature on empowerment as an internal marketing practice primarily documents positive effects on employees' job performance, though increasing evidence suggests conflicting viewpoints. This study adopts an agency theoretical perspective to propose a workload mechanism, according to which the delegation of power from supervisors (principals) to service employees (agents) (i.e., servicing empowerment) is costly to employees and increases their perceived workload, which hampers their performance to serve customers. Using a laboratory experiment and a survey, this research reveals that the perceived workload and extant motivational mechanisms have conflicting effects on employees' service performance. The

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Section: Conceptual Background and Hypotheses Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The trade-off of servicing empowerment on employees’ service performance: examining the underlying motivation and workload mechanisms

Chan

Lam

2011

J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci.

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“…The emotional reaction may vary depending on the kind of bad-news and the depths of influence on personal life. Rosen & Tesser, 1970;Tesser, Rosen & Batchelor 1972;Tesser & Rosen, 1975 The available literature concentrates on the conversation techniques: 'How to tell badnews'. Practitioner-manuals without empirical reports and without any specification of references dominate the market.…”

Section: Subject Mattermentioning

confidence: 99%

Computer-Based Role-Playing for Interpersonal Skills Training

Holsbrink-Engels

1997

Simulation & Gaming

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This study examines the design and evaluation of computer-based role-playing. For novices, a conventional role-play is a very complex learning situation. Computer-based role-playing is designed to simplify role-playing so that students can more effectively develop interpersonal skills. It is a gradual lead-in to, not a replacement of, conventional role-playing. An experiment is reported in which 41 students participated. The students were randomly distributed over two groups. Two instructional programs were compared, one with and one without computer-based role-playing. One major finding is that computer-based role-playing enhances interpersonal skills development by (a) practicing the use of a conversational model, (b) offering opportunities for reflection, (c) performing four protagonist roles, and (d) capturing individual contribution and learning.

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“…A major barrier is for employees to selectively transmit information that will enhance their standing with their superiors while withholding or minimizing the impact of messages that might damage their standing (Rosen & Tesser, 1970;Rosen & Tesser, 1972;Athanassiades, 1973). Minimizing unpleasant messages, identified as the MUM effect in the research of Rosen and Tesser, refers to the tendency by subordinates to only pass along good news up the chain of command, thus giving superiors a false sense that all is well.…”

Section: My Listeners Understandmentioning

confidence: 99%