International Journal of Servant-Leadership
Abstract
In a sense, organizations are communities formed out of relationships between the people working there. As such, leaders are faced with the challenge of creating a culture where people get along and stay on good terms with one another. However, mistakes and faults-sometimes even offenses-are an inevitable part of working together. It is a fact of life that relating to others inevitably exposes people to the risk of being offended or harmed by those other people (McCullough, 2001 ). People are not perfect, which can cause friction. There are different ways in which people can react to potential negative situations caused by the mistakes of others. When harm is the greatest, when injury is most noticeable, or when offense is most intentional and pointed, responses such as retribution and vengeance are more likely than forgiveness (Cameron & Caza, 2002). It shouldn't come as a surprise that when it comes to social relationships, Berry and Worthington (2001) found that the quality of the relationship can be predicted significantly by two dispositional attributes: unforgiveness and forgiveness. Where unforgiveness is a reaction of trait anger, forgiveness is a response with love and empathy. They stated that the more a relationship is characterized by forgiveness, the healthier this relationship will be. For the people involved, physical, mental, emotional, and social health have been associated as longterm benefits of working with forgiveness.
Recommended Citation
Verdoold, Annelies and van Dierendonck, Dirk
(2010)
"Development of a Leadership Forgiveness Measure,"
International Journal of Servant-Leadership: Vol. 6, Article 18.
DOI: 10.33972/ijsl.201
Available at:
https://repository.gonzaga.edu/ijsl/vol6/iss1/18
Copyright Information
Copyright 2010 The Author(s). All rights reserved