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Leader Apologies and Employee and Leader Well-Being

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Abstract

Regardless of leaders’ efforts to do the right thing and meet performance expectations, they make mistakes, with possible ramifications for followers’ and leaders’ well-being. Some leaders will apologize following transgressions, which may have positive implications for their followers’ and their own well-being, contingent upon the nature and severity of the transgressions. We examine these relationships in two separate studies. In Study 1, leader apologies had a positive relationship with followers’ psychological well-being and emotional health, and these relationships were moderated by the severity of the transgression. In Study 2, leader apologies had a positive relationship with their own psychological well-being, positive emotional health and authentic pride. In addition, the nature of transgressions moderated the relationship between leader apologies and leaders’ positive emotions and authentic pride, while the severity of transgressions moderated the relationship between leader apologies and their positive emotions, psychological health, and authentic pride. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

Portions of this research were supported by a grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada to Julian Barling.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queen’s University, 143 Union Street, Kingston, ON, K2L 3N6, Canada

    Alyson Byrne & Julian Barling

  2. Faculty of Business Administration, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, A1B 3X5, Canada

    Kathryne E. Dupré

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  1. Alyson Byrne
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  2. Julian Barling
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  3. Kathryne E. Dupré
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Correspondence to Alyson Byrne.

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Byrne, A., Barling, J. & Dupré, K.E. Leader Apologies and Employee and Leader Well-Being. J Bus Ethics 121, 91–106 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1685-3

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