Management of Shame and Pride in the Workplace [MOSS-SASD / MOPS]

Description

The Management of Shame State – Shame Acknowledgment and Shame Displacement (MOSS-SASD) and the Management of Pride State (MOPS) are assessment tools designed to examine how individuals experience and regulate shame and pride in workplace situations. The available instrument attributes this framework to Braithwaite and Ahmed (2011).

Both measures use hypothetical workplace scenarios and ask respondents to indicate how likely they would be to experience specific emotional reactions or behavioral tendencies in those situations.

MOSS-SASD: Shame Acknowledgment and Shame Displacement

In the MOSS-SASD scenario, respondents are asked to imagine that they have criticized a co-worker’s work and undervalued that person’s efforts in front of other staff members, including the co-worker’s subordinates. They then indicate how likely they would be to experience a series of emotional responses.

The measure includes two main dimensions:

Shame Acknowledgment: assesses the extent to which the individual recognizes and accepts feelings of shame following an inappropriate interpersonal action. The items include feeling ashamed, regretting what was said, believing that colleagues were let down, wishing to repair the situation, worrying about professional reputation, and feeling hesitant about returning to the workplace. The six-item subscale showed an internal consistency coefficient of α = .80 in the reported data.

Shame Displacement: reflects a tendency to redirect or externalize shame rather than acknowledge personal responsibility. It includes reactions such as anger toward colleagues, uncertainty about whether one acted wrongly, shifting blame elsewhere, and wanting to retaliate against another person. The four-item subscale demonstrated an internal consistency coefficient of α = .86.

MOPS: Management of Pride State

The MOPS presents a different workplace scenario. Respondents are asked to imagine that they were required to solve an old and difficult workplace problem and succeeded in doing so. They then report how likely they would be to experience specific pride-related reactions.

The measure distinguishes between two forms of pride:

Narcissistic Pride: refers to self-enhancing reactions characterized by feelings of superiority, dominance, authority, admiration, and greater personal importance relative to co-workers. The subscale contains nine items and showed high internal consistency, with α = .91.

Humble Pride: reflects the ability to acknowledge personal achievement while remaining modest and respectful toward others. It includes recognizing colleagues’ contributions, respecting co-workers regardless of status, accepting feedback, and experiencing a sense of achievement without arrogance. The seven-item subscale demonstrated an internal consistency coefficient of α = .86.

Purpose

The primary purpose of these instruments is to examine how employees manage self-conscious emotions following important workplace experiences, particularly interpersonal mistakes, criticism, success, and achievement.

The distinction between acknowledged versus displaced shame and narcissistic versus humble pride can provide valuable information about interpersonal functioning, conflict management, workplace relationships, and responses to professional success or failure.

Scoring

Responses are rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale:

1 = Definitely not
2 = Unlikely
3 = Unsure
4 = Probably
5 = Definitely.

Higher scores on each subscale indicate a stronger tendency toward the corresponding emotional response pattern. Interpretation is therefore conducted separately for Shame Acknowledgment, Shame Displacement, Narcissistic Pride, and Humble Pride.

Research Applications

The MOSS-SASD and MOPS can be particularly useful in organizational psychology, occupational health, workplace behavior, and bullying research. They allow researchers to investigate how the regulation of shame and pride may be associated with workplace conflict, interpersonal relationships, organizational climate, bullying, victimization, and professional behavior.

The source material specifically places these measures within research examining the relationship between organizational context, workplace bullying, victimization, shame, and pride.

References

Ahmed, E. (2011). Shame, pride and workplace bullying. In S. Karstedt, I. Loader, & H. Strang (Eds.), Emotions, Crime and Justice. Hart Publishing, Oxford.

Braithwaite, V., Ahmed, E., & Braithwaite, J. Workplace Bullying and Victimization: The Influence of Organizational Context, Shame and Pride.