ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some of the new insights in order to identify a path forward for future research. It identifies three insights that help account for weak findings regarding the role of guilt in explaining important employee outcomes: the experience of guilt often has more to do with the person than the situation; guilt can be channeled into productive work to the extent that global negative self-evaluation is minimized and heterogeneity in standards of worthy behavior can make it difficult to predict toward whom, or about what, people feel guilty. Early management scholars proposed that guilt could have a useful purpose, at least in the workplace. Guilt and shame relate to separate aspects of agency and control. The chapter shows that drawing attention to these three insights will help researchers fully realize guilt’s potential as a primary construct in organizational behavior theory and research.
