Using the Risk Negotiation Framework to Explore the Taboo Aspects of Forgiveness Among Organizational Members

Introduction

Conflict is an inevitable part of organizational life because organizational members confront and negotiate their individual and professional values, engage in collaborative activities, and assess and manage the pressure and strain placed on them by their organizations (Jameson, 2020). On an individual level, the amount of time and activities organizational members perform in close proximity with their coworkers make the organizational context ripe for the emergence of conflict (Garner & Poole, 2013). Conflict, especially destructive conflict, is costly to organizations’ time and productivity. According to the CCP Inc.’s Global Human Capital Report (2008), when organizations experience destructive conflict, they lose up to $359 billion dollars in productivity or an average of 2.8 hours per week attempting to resolve conflict. Similarly, Menon and Thompson (2016) found that $8,000 dollars are wasted per day when organizational members avoid addressing workplace conflict.

Though researchers have discovered that constructively managing conflict by acknowledging the presence of conflict, seeking mutually agreeable solutions to their disagreements, and building new ideas from their disagreements offer the best chance for individual and organizational success (Jameson, 2020; Rahim, 2002), these strategies might fall short of the full potential of restoration to their workplace relationships (Fehr & Gelfand, 2020; Jameson, 2020; Paul & Putnam, 2016). Though conflict can be difficult to resolve (Miller et al., 2007), in recent years, researchers have positioned the expression of forgiveness and restorative justice among organizational members as a vital and transformative communication strategy for acknowledging, soothing, and managing these inevitable conflicts (Kelley et al., 2019; Madsen et al., 2009; Paul & Putnam, 2017).

What happens, then, to organizational members when expressing forgiveness is off-limits, awkward, or considered taboo? What happens when people experience hurt feelings or loss of face due to a hurtful act from their coworkers and they lack the wherewithal, opportunity, or means to receive forgiveness that might restore their relationship? What happens when organizational members engage in offensive behaviors but are unable to acknowledge it or lack the incentive from their organizations to seek forgiveness from their coworkers? What happens when members experience barriers to forgiveness? In situations like these, seeking or granting forgiveness might be taboo and difficult or impossible to grant (Roloff & Ifert, 2000; Waldron & Kassing, 2011, 2018). Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to explore how forgiveness expressed among organizational members might be thwarted, stifled, or considered too risky because it is a taboo topic. Prior to our discussion of the taboo nature of forgiveness among organizational members, we will synthesize existing literature about forgiveness and restorative justice that organizational members express to one another, apply the Risk Negotiation Framework to explore the risks inherent in communicating forgiveness, and organizational and individual strategies for encouraging forgiveness.