Bridgewater State University Virtual Commons - Bridgewater State University Honors Program Theses and Projects Undergraduate Honors Program 5-2-2016 Apologies in Higher Education: Students' Perceptions of Professors Who Apologize Rebecca Dunlop Follow this and additional works at:http://vc.bridgew.edu/honors_proj Part of thePsychology Commons Recommended Citation Dunlop, Rebecca. (2016). Apologies in Higher Education: Students' Perceptions of Professors Who Apologize. InBSU Honors Program Theses and Projects.Item 164. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/honors_proj/164 Copyright © 2016 Rebecca Dunlop This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Apologies in Higher Education: Students’ Perceptions of Professors Who Apologize Rebecca Dunlop Submitted in Partial Completion of the Requirements for Departmental Honors in Management Bridgewater State University May 2, 2016 Dr. Krista Hill Cummings, Thesis Director Dr. Deborah Litvin, Committee Member Dr. Todd Harris, Committee Member 1 Apologies in Higher Education: Students’ Perceptions of Professors Who Apologize Rebecca Dunlop 2 Acknowledgment This research was supported by Bridgewater State University’s Office of Undergraduate Research. I thank my advisors and mentors from Bridgewater State University who provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the research. First and foremost, I have to thank my thesis director, Dr. Krista Hill Cummings. Without her assistance and dedicated involvement in every step throughout the process, this paper would have never been accomplished. I would like to thank you very much for your support and expertise that greatly assisted the research. I would also like to show gratitude to my committee, including Dr. Deborah Litvin and Dr. Todd C. Harris. Thank you for providing comments that greatly improved my thesis. I greatly appreciated and acknowledged your time spent with me. To my parents- I am forever grateful for you and your encouragement every step of the way. None of my accomplishments would have happened without your unconditional support. Thank you for everything. 3 Table of Content Abstract Page 4 Introduction Page 5 What are the Components of an Apology? Page 5 Are Apologies Effective? Page 6 Methods Page 8 Overview Page 8 Participants Page 8 Instruments Page 9 Results Page 11 Manipulation Check Page 11 Willingness to Forgive Page 11 Transformational leadership perceptions Page 12 Service quality perceptions Page 12 Competence Page 12 Gender perceptions Page 12 Discussion Page 13 Limitations and directions for future research Page 15 Conclusion Page 16 References Page 18 Table 1 Page 21 Table 2 Page 22 Appendices Page 23 Appendix 1 Page 23 Appendix 2 Page 24 Appendix 3 Page 25 Appendix 4 Page 26 4 ABSTRACT Studies suggest that apologies are beneficial (e.g., Darby & Schlenker, 1982) and lead to positive outcomes such as forgiveness (e.g., Fehr, Gelfand, & Nag, 2010), positive feelings toward the transgressor (e.g., DeCremer, van Dijk, & Pillutla, 2010), and reduced sentencing in legal cases (e.g., Robbennolt, 2003). These findings have been supported within close relationships, business-consumer relationships, and employer- employee relationships, but have not yet been explored within professor-student relationships. The aftermath of a mistake is a critical moment and carries particular weight in students’ overall perceptions of their professors (e.g., Tucker, 2006). The purpose of the current study is to compare students’ perceptions of professors who apologize to those who don’t. Using a vignette methodology, I found that students’ perceptions of the professor differed between a non-apologetic condition and apologetic condition. In addition, results revealed that male, not female, professors were perceived to be better transformational leaders when they gave an apology, while female professors were perceived more negatively in terms of service quality in the apologetic condition. 5 Introduction Research suggests that leader apologies are critical in rebuilding and sustaining long- term relationships (e.g., Kim et al., 2004). An apology consists of the transgressor admitting to the wrongdoing, accepting responsibility, expressing empathy, offering penance, and promising not to repeat the mistake in the future. Sincere apologies occur rather infrequently in organizations. Possibly because organizational leaders believe they will be more vulnerable to criticism if they apologize. However, this assumption is incorrect. Studies suggest that leaders who voluntarily apologize for their mistakes can make a powerful impression on followers who did not expect an apology (e.g., Tucker, 2006). Apologizing positively influences follower perceptions of leaders and helps build relationships rather than destroying them (e.g., Tucker, 2006). Research has been conducted related to leader-follower relations and apology effectiveness, however little research, if any, has examined students’ perceptions of professors who apologize. Most studies include participants of equal role status or in organizational settings. What are the Components of an Apology? An apology acts as a tool used to respond to perceived offenses or misunderstandings. The transgressor has the opportunity to admit the act was wrong, accept responsibility for the offence, express empathy, offer penance, and/or promise not to repeat the untoward behavior in the future (Goffman, 1971; Schmitt et al., 2004). Across disciplines such as marketing, management, psychology, and law, researchers find apologies can consist of a range of components including compensation, expressions of empathy, and an explanation of what happened. Compensation refers to offering the apology recipient a good (e.g., a refund) to restore balance. An example of this could be a 6 form of payment or anything of value to counterbalance the mistake. If the transgressor feels they need to generate forgiveness and enhance their future relationship with the victim, then they may offer empathy. Empathy is the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another person of either the past or present. For example, an empathetic apology would consist of the transgressor acknowledging the full impact of their actions and sincerely saying they are sorry to that other person. An apology can also include non- verbal components such as facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice. Finally, an apologizer could offer an explanation. An example of this would include the apologizer explaining why the mistake or failure happened so the victim understands why the apologizer had behaved in that harmful way. Are Apologies Effective? Research shows that apologies are complex speech acts, which can have a range of positive effects, including triggering forgiveness, restoring trust, reducing aggression, enhancing future relationship closeness, and promoting well-being (e.g., Hodgins and Liebeskind, 2003; Writvliet et al., 2002). Some of these outcomes were found in a recent study that investigated apologies and transformational leadership. Tucker (2006) conducted a vignette study involving all respondents reacting to the same scenario with the supervisor apologizing in one condition or not apologizing in the other. The results revealed leaders who apologized for mistakes are perceived as more transformational than leaders who did not apologize for their mistakes (e.g., Tucker, 2006). This research discussed above has yet to look at apologies in higher education. The purpose of the current work is to examine students’ perceptions of professors who 7 apologize. Given the findings above, I propose: Hypothesis 1: Students will be more forgiving of professors when an apology is provided versus when no apology is given. Hypothesis 2: Professors who apologize (versus those who do not) will be perceived as more transformational than professors who do not apologize for mistakes. Hypothesis 3: Professors who apologize (versus those who do not) will be perceived as more competent than professors who do not apologize for mistakes. Hypothesis 4: Professors who apologize for mistakes will be perceived as more trustworthy and caring (as measured by service quality) than professors who do not apologize for mistakes. These dependent variables were selected because these variables show to be affected by apologies in other types of relationships such as firm-customer relationships (e.g., Hodgins and Liebeskind, 2003; Writvliet et al., 2002). Previous studies examined the general effects of apologies, the examination of leader-follower relations, and apologies involving individuals of equal role status. Some results offer strong support that apologizing after wrongdoing is related to higher perceptions of transformational leadership (e.g., Tucker, 2006). It is possible these results may differ in student-professor relationships. 8 Methods Overview To test these hypotheses, I developed a vignette set in the context of an undergraduate classroom. All participants began the study by reading a vignette in which a professor made a mistake (see Appendix 1 for vignette). Next, participants were randomly assigned to either an apology or no apology condition (see Appendix 2). In the apology condition, the professor was depicted as taking responsibility for the mistake, expressing empathy and asking for forgiveness. This apology includes all of the components found to be effective in the marketing and psychology literatures (e.g., Hausman and Mader, 2004; Hodgins, Liebeskind, & Schwartz, 1996). Each condition had 30 participants. After reading the vignette and subsequent apology or non-apology, participants completed a manipulation check and then rated the professor on forgiveness, transformational leadership, competence, and service quality. Participants also responded to a demographics questionnaire. Participants Sixty Bridgewater State University students participated in this vignette study. There were no limitations related to demographics. Students took the survey by approaching me at a table I set up in Bridgewater State University’s Rondileau Campus Center. I drew in students with signs on the table explaining the research study, how it was only a five- minute time commitment, and that they would be rewarded five dollars after they completed it. I applied for and fortunately received a grant of three hundred dollars from BSU’s Office of Undergraduate Research. This grant easily allowed me to gather sixty participants for my study. I also took advantage of my time by having some students