Social psychology in Organizations specialization at Leiden University
Lecture 3: Working together
Why is it important for employees to trust their supervisor?
Subordinates who trust their leaders are:
-more satisfied
-more committed
-wanting to leave the workspace less
-show more altruism at work
The repair of trust
Theories of trust repair:
1. Attributions: you did a bad thing, therefore you are a bad person
2. Social Equilibrium
3. Negotiation of trustworthiness
Attributions
What to do?
Apology
-how effective is it?
4 conditions (van Leeuwen, van den Bosch, Castano, & Hopman, 2010):
- deviant exclusion: seems most effective, but team looks very disloyal
- deviant apology: the team is regarded most positively in this condition
- group apology: team is seen as most loyal
- downplay “don’t take it so seriously”
-does apologizing always work?
Not if it’s insincere, not if it insufficient (e.g.: verbal apology but no repair)
Apology implies admitting guilt (e.g.: “saying oh no, I’m sorry, are you ok?” If it isn’t your fault might mean your insurance still has to pay because you said sorry)
Integrity violation: e.g. journalist copies work of someone else --> internal attribution
Competence violation: e.g.: journalist writes with spelling mistakes and clearly done in a rush --> external attribution
Denying: not only violator but also liar, damage to reputation
Social equilibrium
Social equilibrium:dynamic working balence bwteeen its interdependent parts. If one changes, the other has to adjust to maintain equilibrium.
Situation: person loses client due to sharing information about them.
-To restore trust with company: get client back and accept demotion because overcompensation promotes trust more than exact compensation
Negotiations of trustworthiness
Bilateral Model of Trust Repair: Transgressors want to be trusted and consider themselves trustworthy. The other person does not trust the transgressor right away.
Innocent or guilty
-If guilty: situational (external) or dispositional (internal) attribution?
-If internal: fixable shortcoming or fixed shortcoming?
-Fixed shortcoming: trust is NOT repaired
Is trust always positive?
The more people trust eachother the less they monitor eachother’s behavior
Team autonomy:
Low autonomy
Trust -------------------+--------------------------àteam performance
High autonomy
Trust----------------_---------------------------à team performance
The psychological side of helping:
Instrumental gain: seeking help improves your life
Psychological side: receiving help is associated with incompetence and dependency
Help seekers underestimate the likelihood of being given help because:
-they do not take into account the social and psychological costs of refusing a request
-they overestimate the instrumental costs that help givers incur
Costs and benefits
Associated with being warm and caring, but it can simultaneously show competence
Group status and helping (Tauber & van Leeuwen, 2012):
-Low group status condition:
-High status condition:
-Help seeking condition: answer now or ask for help
-Spying condition: answer now or spy from other team
Who spied most? Members of the high status group
-you feel you have to deliver higher performance
Dependency oriented help: Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day…
Autonomy oriented help: Teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime
-People who receive autonomy oriented help report more positive feelings, they feel more respected and competent
Conflict and seeking help
Options:
1 not seek help (preferred option with relationship conflict, still preferred but less strong for task conflict)
2. seek autonomy help
3. seek dependency help (least favorite option)
