The discretionary use of electronic media. Four considerations for bad news bearers

Journal of Business Communication

Volumn 42, Issue 4, 2005, Pages 379-389

  Timmerman, Peter D ^a,b   Harrison, Wayne ^a,c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AT OMAHA   (United States)

^b Kenexa Technology Inc   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA   (United States)

Author keywords

Bad news; Electronic media; Explanations; Media richness; Organizational justice

Indexed keywords

EID: 42249106254     PISSN: 00219436     EISSN: 15524582     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0021943605279059     Document Type: Article

References (47)

1. Ball, G. A., Trevino, L. K., & Sims, H. P., Jr. (1993). Justice and organizational punishment: Attitudinal outcomes of disciplinary events. Social Justice Research, 6, 39-67.
2. Bies, R. J. (1987). The predicament of injustice: The management of moral outrage. In L. L. Cummings & B. M. Straw (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 9, pp. 289-319). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
3. Bies, R. J., & Moag, J. S. (1986). Interactional justice: Communication criteria of fairness. In R. J. Lewicki, B. H. Sheppard, & B. H. Bazerman (Eds.), Research on negotiation in organizations (Vol. 1, pp. 43-55). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
4. Bies, R. J., & Shapiro, D. L. (1987). Voice and justification: Their influence on procedural fairness judgments. Academy of Management Journal, 31, 676-685.
5. Bobocel, D. R., & Farrell, A. C. (1996). Sex-based promotion decisions and interactional fairness: Investigating the influence of managerial accounts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 22-35.
6. Bond, C., & Anderson, E. (1987). Reluctance to transmit bad news - Private discomfort or public display. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 23, 176-187.
7. Brockner, J. (1994). Perceived fairness and survivors' reactions to layoffs, or how downsizing organizations can do well by doing good. Social Justice Research, 7, 345-364.
8. Brockner, J., DeWitt, R. L., Grover, S., & Reed, T. (1990). When it is especially important to explain why: Factors affecting the relationship between managers' explanations of a layoff and survivors' reactions to the layoff. Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, 26, 389-407.
9. Chaiken, S., & Eagly, A. H. (1976). Communication modality as a determinant of message persuasiveness and message comprehensibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 605-614.
10. Cohen, A., & Thomas, C. B. (2001, April 16). An up-close look at how one company handles the delicate task of downsizing. Time, 38-40.
11. Colquitt, J. A. (2001). On the dimensionality of organizational justice: A construct validation of a measure. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 386-400.
12. Colquitt, J. A., Conlon, D. E., Wesson, M. J., Porter, C. O., & Ng, K. Y. (2001). Justice at the millennium: A meta-analytic review of 25 years of organizational justice research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 425-445.
13. Cropanzano, R., & Greenberg, J. (1997). Progress in organizational justice: Tunneling through the maze. In C. L. Cooper & I. T. Robertson (Eds.), International review of industrial and organizational psychology 1997 (Vol. 12, pp. 317-372). Chichester, UK: John Wiley.
14. Daft, R. L., & Lengel, R. H. (1984). Information richness: A new approach to managerial behavior and organizational design. Research in Organizational Behavior, 6, 191-233.
15. Darley, J. M., & Pittman, T. S. (2003). The psychology of compensatory and retributive justice. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7, 324-336.
16. DeTienne, K. B. (2002). Guide to electronic communication: Using technology for effective business writing and speaking. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
17. Fisher, C. D. (1979). Transmission of positive and negative feedback to subordinates: A laboratory investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 64, 533-540.
18. Folger, R., & Cropanzano, R. (1998). Organizational justice and human resource management. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
19. Folger, R., & Skarlicki, D. P. (2001). Fairness as a dependent variable: Why tough times can lead to bad management. In R. Copanzano (Ed.), Justice in the workplace: From theory to practice (pp. 97-118). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
20. Fulk, J., & Mani, S. (1986). Distortion of communication in hierarchical relationships. In M. McLaughlin (Ed.), Communication yearbook 9 (pp. 483-510). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
21. Greenberg, J. (1987). A taxonomy of organizational justice theories. Academy of Management Review, 12, 9-22.
22. Greenberg, J. (1990). Employee theft as a reaction to underpayment inequity: The hidden cost of paycuts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 75, 561-568.
23. Konovsky, M. A., & Folger, R. (1991). The effects of procedures, social accounts, and benefits level on victims' layoff reactions. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 21, 630-650.
24. Latané, B. (1981). The psychology of social impact. American Psychologist, 36, 343-356.
25. Latané, B. (1996). Dynamic social impact: The creation of culture by communication. Journal of Communication, 46 (4), 13-25.
26. Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge University Press.
27. Lengel, R. H., & Daft, R. L. (1988). The selection of communication media as an executive skill. The Academy of Management Executive, 2, 225-232.
28. Lewis, P. (1987). Organizational communication: The essence of effective management. New York: John Wiley.
29. Molinsky, A., & Margolis, J. (2005). Necessary evils and interpersonal sensitivity in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 30, 245-268.
30. Munter, M. (2000). Guide to managerial communication: Effective business writing and speaking (5th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
31. Rice, R. E. (1992). Task analyzability, use of new media, and effectiveness: A multi-site exploration of media richness. Organizational Science, 3, 475-500.
32. Rice, R. E. (1993). Media appropriateness: Using social presence theory to compare traditional and new organizational media. Human Communication Research, 19, 451-484.
33. Rosen, S., Grandison, R., & Stewart, J. (1974). Failures in upward communication: Three possible culprits. Academy of Management Journal, 17, 205-215.
34. Sedikides, C., & Jackson, J. M. (1990). Social impact theory: A field test of source strength, source immediacy and number of targets. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 11, 273-281.
35. Shapiro, D. L., Buttner, E. H., & Barry, B. (1994). Explanations: What factors enhance their perceived adequacy? Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 58, 346-368.
36. Shaw, J. C., Wild, E., & Colquitt, J. A. (2003). To justify or excuse? A meta-analytic review of the effects of explanations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 444-458.
37. Sitkin, S. B., Sutcliffe, K. M., & Barrios-Choplin, J. R. (1992). A dual-capacity model of communication media choice in organizations. Human Communication Research, 18, 563-598.
38. Skarlicki, D. P., Ellard, J. H., & Kelln, B.R.C. (1998). Third-party perceptions of a layoff: Procedural, derogation, and retributive aspects of justice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 119-127.
39. Skarlicki, D. P., & Folger, R. (1997). Retaliation in the workplace: The roles of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 434-443.
40. Skarlicki, D. P., Folger, R., & Gee, J. (2004). When social accounts backfire: The exacerbating effects of a polite message or an apology on reactions to an unfair outcome. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 34, 322-341.
41. Tesser, A., & Rosen, S. (1975). The reluctance to transmit bad news. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 8, 193-232.
42. Timmerman, P. D. (2001). The impact of communication medium and outcome severity on the effectiveness of social accounts. Unpublished master's thesis, University of Nebraska at Omaha.
43. Trevino, L. K., Lengel, R. H., & Daft, R. L. (1987). Media symbolism, media richness, and media choice in organizations. Communication Research, 14, 553-574.
44. Tripp, T. M., Bies, R. J., & Aquino, K. (2002). Poetic justice or petty jealousy? The aesthetics of revenge. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 89, 966-984.
45. Tyler, T. R., & Bies, R. J. (1990). Beyond formal procedures: The interpersonal context of procedural justice. In J. S. Carroll (Ed.), Applied social psychology and organizational settings (pp. 77-98). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
46. Wanberg, C. R., Bunce, L. W., & Gavin, M. B. (1999). Perceived fairness of layoffs among individuals who have been laid off: A longitudinal study. Personnel Psychology, 52, 59-84.
47. Williams, K. D., & Williams, K. B. (1989). Impact of source strength on two compliance techniques. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 10, 149-159.