It’s ALL personal so don’t kid yourself

Published on Linked In Feb 26th 2016

How often have you heard someone say ‘Don’t take it personally, it’s just business’?, and despite sagely nodding your head in feigned agreeance, how often have you muttered under your breath ‘Yeah right…’ and vowed revenge. If your answer is ‘yes’ then it seems you are not alone and it’s not just the bad people that are making such vows.

Research (Aquino, Tripp & Bies 2006) indicates that there is a relationship between power, perceptions of procedural fairness and the type of offence that causes individuals to respond by either taking revenge, seeking forgiveness and reconciliation or avoiding the issue altogether. You see it is personal and the first trigger is the initial act of wrong doing that violates commonly held norms of justice – note here that this is situational and changes incrementally over time. Think – the treatment of women in the workplace, sexist comments and the implications for norms of fairness and equality.

If an act is seen as unjust then the victim’s response wi…