Organizational Cultures of Guilt and Shame

Abstract

This manuscript develops theory on organizational affective cultures of guilt and shame as systems of social control that guide members in how they ought to feel and behave surrounding the violation of norms. Moral emotions such as guilt and shame play an essential role in promoting self-regulation among organizational members. While research has extensively examined guilt and shame as discrete emotions, little work has explored guilt and shame as cultural phenomena that indicate the top-down forces of social regulation in organizations. In Paper 1 of this dissertation, I develop theory for guilt and shame cultures as complementary systems, each inhibiting transgression and encouraging reparative action via differential value systems. In Paper 2, I develop a scale for guilt and shame cultures in order to empirically assess the relative impact of these cultures on deterring deviance in organizations. Finally, in Paper 3, I present a close examination of shaming rituals. In this paper, I develop theory that explains when and how shaming is functional in discouraging deviance from organizational norms.