Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management U., United States
Based on Dahl’s (2018) definition of awkwardness—self-consciousness tinged with uncertainty, in moments both trivial and serious—a measure for dimensions of individual, interpersonal, and situational awkwardness, were developed and validated. This is critical to understanding relationships for marginalized individuals in organizations as measures like relational conflict are too severe while measures like affect (positive/negative) are too generalized to adequately describe relations. A total of nine items, three items for each dimension are used. Using four studies, I establish the content adequacy and reliability of the measures. Moreover, I show that the measures are distinct from relational conflict, positive affect, and negative affect. I also demonstrate that awkwardness and its dimensions are predicted by inclusive language use for marginalized individuals. Finally, I show that results may not hold for both variables. Thus, this research provides a comprehensive, validated, multidimensional measure of awkwardness, and offers a unique explanation of relational attitudes for marginalized indidvuals. Future theoretical, research and practical implications are discussed.
