Increasing Interpersonal and Informational Justice When Communicating Negative News: The Role of the Manager’s Empathic Concern and Moral Development

The authors report two studies exploring the role of a manager’s empathy in delivering negative news more fairly. In Study 1, 132 practicing managers completed a scenario task in which a layoff was to be communicated. Trait empathic concern predicted interpersonal and informational justice of written messages. In Study 2, 81 students provided face-to-face feedback to a confederate, which was videotaped. An empathic induction resulted in higher levels of interpersonal and informational justice relative to a control group. Furthermore, the empathic induction had a greater effect on interpersonal and informational justice for communicators who were high (versus low) in moral development.