An Exploration of the Structure of Effective Apologies

Apologies have parts, and apologies with more of them were rated as more effective.

Lewicki, R. J., Polin, B. & Lount, R. B. (2016). An Exploration of the Structure of Effective Apologies. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, 9(2), 177–196.

Type

Journal article

Find it

doi.org/10.1111/ncmr.12073

Checked

Against the abstract, 15 September 2026

Why it is on the list

Two studies tested six apology components, alone and in combination. Apologies with more components were rated more effective, some components mattered more than others, and apologies for competence failures landed better than apologies for integrity failures. The course checked the abstract, which doesn’t rank the components, so week 5’s apology template lists its parts without claiming which matters most.