Understanding the Effects of Substantive Responses on Trust Following a Transgression

Four experiments were conducted to investigate the implications of ‘substantive’ responses for the repair of trust following a violation and the cognitive processes that govern how and when they are effective. These studies examined two forms of substantive responses, penance and regulation, that re...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: DIRKS, Kurt T., KIM, Peter H., FERRIN, Don, COOPER, Cecily D.
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/3096
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2010.10.003
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Singapore Management University
Language: English
Description
Summary:Four experiments were conducted to investigate the implications of ‘substantive’ responses for the repair of trust following a violation and the cognitive processes that govern how and when they are effective. These studies examined two forms of substantive responses, penance and regulation, that represent different categories of trust repair attempts. The findings from Studies 1–3 suggest that both can be effective to the extent that they elicit the crucial mediating cognition of perceived repentance. Data from Study 2 revealed that trustors saw signals of repentance as more informative when the transgression was due to a lapse of competence than due to a lapse of integrity. Study 4 compared these substantive responses to apologies (a non-substantive response) and revealed that, despite their surface-level differences, they each repaired trust through ‘perceived repentance.’ The paper offers an integrative framework for understanding the relationships among a range of trustor responses.