Verbal reprimand in Chinese organization: Construct development and validation

Verbal reprimand is a common phenomenon in the workplace. However, leaders may not intend to harm subordinates when reprimanding them. In Chinese context, strict reprimand, which aims to constraint and regulate individual behavior by triggering the feeling of shame, is regarded as a method to urge or spur subordinates. Nevertheless, many studies regard the verbal reprimand as a concept with an intent to harm. These studies ignore the positive meaning of reprimand, which could include profound expectation and well-intentioned. To fill this gap, I suppose that verbal reprimand include teaching and education implications. To be more specific, leaders would apply “regulating (gui-guo)” to subordinates who are unqualified and “persuading (quan-shan)” to subordinates who are not good enough. In other words, leaders hope to urge subordinates to perform better as reprimanding them. First, I collect critical incidents and take content analysis to develop construct dimensions of verbal reprimand. I also examine the relationship of verbal reprimand between the cause and dimensions. In addition, I check the incidence of each dimension in the actual work fields from the point of subordinates view. Next, I develop a verbal reprimand scale, and then conduct series of procedure to establish reliability and validity. Finally, I adopt shaming mechanism as a theory framework to develop the relationship among regulating misconduct, persuading beneficence, and shame actions. Moderating effects of subordinates’ face orientation and authority orientation of traditionality are taking into consideration as well. Results supported that verbal reprimand is a prevalent organizational phenomenon. It consists of two higher level constructs, regulating misconduct and persuading beneficence. Subordinates inclined to interpret the intention of verbal reprimand as helpful. Additionally, verbal reprimand, persuading beneficence in particular, could improve task performance and interpersonal facilitate. Face orientation and traditionality could both buffer the relationship between regulating misconduct and task performance. In the relationship between persuading beneficence and task performance, face orientation has substitution effect. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, and limitations and future research directions offered.