How Employees Respond to Personal Offense The Effects of Blame Attribution, Victim Status, and Offender Status on Revenge and Reconciliation in the Workplace

• Published in: Journal of applied psychology Vol. 86; no. 1; pp. 52 - 59
• Main Authors: Aquino, Karl, Tripp, Thomas M, Bies, Robert J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-02-2001
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aggression; Applied psychology; Behavior; Behaviour in groups; Biological and medical sciences; Blame; Conflict Resolution; Crime Victims; Employees; Female; Government agencies; Hostility; Human; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Male; Medical sciences; Occupational Status; Offenders; Personal aggression; Personnel; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reconciliation; Retaliation; Revenge; Social behavior disorders. Criminal behavior. Delinquency; Social Class; Social dynamics; Studies; Surveys and Questionnaires; Victims; Work place; Workplace; Social environment; Human; Occupational environment; Employee; Attitude; Social interaction; Professional relation; Professional status; Victimology; Statistical study; Social behavior disorder; Attribution
• ISSN: 0021-9010; 1939-1854
• DOI: 10.1037/0021-9010.86.1.52

This study investigated the relationships between blame, victim
and offender status, and the pursuit of revenge or reconciliation after a
personal offense. Results from a sample of 141 government agency
employees showed that blame is positively related to revenge and negatively
related to reconciliation. In addition, victim-offender
relative status moderated the relation between blame and revenge such that
victims who blamed sought revenge more often when the offender's status
was lower than their own. The victims' own absolute hierarchical
status also moderated this relation such that lower, not higher,
status employees who blamed sought revenge more often.