Unraveling respect in organization studies

Organizational scholars have invoked the concept of respect and relegated it as a common sense, under-specified construct. This article analyzes the notion of respect by drawing on philosophy and defines respectful behavior as the manifestation of believing another person has value. Two types of respect are identified: appraisal respect is based on individual characteristics, and recognition respect is based on being human and having rights. In the organizational context, appraisal respect is acknowledgement of work performance and recognition respect is the quality of interpersonal treatment. This article presents a new theoretical framework that juxtaposes these two types of respect to model how they have different effects on self-esteem and therefore affect attitudes and behaviors differently. This model allows future research in the organization sciences to invoke respect more precisely, especially organizational justice and leadership research that explicitly or implicitly use concepts of respect.