The Impact of Proximity on Trust Restoration from an Organisational Apology

Modern organisations frequently issue public apologies in the aftermath of a perceived transgression as a strategy to restore lost trust. Our paper examines the impact of social proximity on the efficacy of organisational apologies issued to consumers based on questionnaire data from two studies of 193 and 342 participants. It was discovered that the inclusion of language indicating geographic and leadership proximity in an apology led to the restoration of significantly more trust compared to apologies that did not include any references to proximity. By contrast, apologies that included references to relationship and network proximity were significantly less restorative of trust compared to apologies that did not include any proximity references. Our research is the first study to examine the intersection of social proximity and organisational apologies. Based on our findings, we contend that organisations should include references to geographic and leadership proximity in their apologies and exclude references to relationship and network proximity.