Oops, I did it (again)! The emotional experience, interpersonal responses, and relational consequences of social gaffes in the workplace
Puranik H. Vough H.C. Pathki C.S.
November 2021John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Journal of Organizational Behavior
2021#42Issue 91261 - 1281 pp.
In line with the research on how specific episodes affect relationships, we advance workplace social gaffes—work episodes where employees think either their own or others social behavior unintentionally violated interactional expectations and threatened the actors relational value—as an event that can shape employees workplace exchange relationships. Using a sensemaking lens, we explain when and why employees will believe they committed a social gaffe. In so doing, we advance a new definition of a social gaffe that outlines its necessary attributes. We then integrate sensemaking with the research on self-conscious emotions to theorize that on perceiving their social gaffe, employees can experience embarrassment, or guilt, or shame—based on how they make sense of the social gaffe. These emotions, in turn, are theorized to shape employees subsequent interpersonal response (repair vs. withdrawal). Moving onto colleagues reaction, we posit that whether or not colleagues view the initial employee action as a social gaffe will influence their reaction (benign vs. hostile) to employees interpersonal response. Over time, this employee–colleague interaction pattern is theorized to influence the quality of their exchange relationship. We thus outline how even seemingly minor workplace social gaffes can have complex emotional, interpersonal, and relational consequences.
self-conscious emotions , sensemaking , social gaffes , workplace exchange relationships
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Department of Managerial Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
Management Department, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, United States
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, United States
Department of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources, Graduate School of Business, Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan
Department of Managerial Studies
Management Department
University of Cincinnati
Department of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources
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