Age Differences in Visual Attention and Responses to Intergenerational and Non-intergenerational Workplace Conflicts.

Dannii Y Yeung,Derek M Isaacowitz,Cyrus L K Leung,Winnie W Y Lam,Jiawen Ye

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.604717

Dannii Y Yeung, Derek M Isaacowitz + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.604717

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Abstract

Intergenerational conflict occurs commonly in the workplace because of age-related differences in work attitudes and values. This study aimed to advance the current literature on aging and work by examining whether younger and older workers differ in their visual attention, emotional responses, and conflict strategies when observing hypothetical conflict vignettes involving a coworker from a similar or dissimilar age group. The indirect effect of age group on emotional responses and conflict strategies through visual fixation on conflict scenes was also examined. Utilizing eye tracking, the visual attention of younger and older workers while watching two hypothetical workplace task conflict videos was recorded and compared. The participants were also asked to imagine how they would respond if they were the main actor in the vignettes. A total of 94 working adults, including 48 younger workers and 46 older workers, participated in the eye tracking experiment. Older workers reported fewer negative and more positive emotions than their younger counterparts after watching the conflict videos, particularly those on the non-intergenerational conflict. Younger workers used more dominating in the intergenerational conflict than in the non-intergenerational conflict; such discrepancy between conflict types was relatively small in older workers. Compared with younger workers, older workers fixated significantly less on the coworker during the intergenerational conflict scenes. A significant indirect effect of age group through visual fixation on the coworker was observed for positive emotions and avoiding. Results revealed that older workers may regulate their emotional reactions and conflict strategies to workplace conflicts by reducing their attention to negative stimuli.

Highlights

Intergenerational and non-intergenerational workplace conflicts refer to work situations in which employees from dissimilar and similar age/generational groups, respectively, have disputes and disagreements about how work tasks are accomplished (Dencker et al, 2007)
On the basis of the process model of emotion regulation (Gross, 2015) and the framework of linking positive looking to mood regulation by Isaacowitz (2012), which posits that an individual’s attention precedes his/her emotional and behavioral responses to an event, this study further investigates whether visual attention to workplace conflict scenes relates to age-related differences in emotional responses and conflict strategies
The original Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory-II (ROCI-II) measures five types of conflict responses, namely, integrating (“I try to work with the coworker to find solution to a problem that satisfies our expectations”), compromising (“I usually propose a middle ground for breaking deadlocks”), dominating (“I am generally firm in pursuing my side of the issue”), avoiding (“I try to keep my disagreement with the coworker to myself in order to avoid hard feelings”), and obliging (“I usually accommodate the wishes of the coworker”)

Summary

Introduction

Intergenerational and non-intergenerational workplace conflicts refer to work situations in which employees from dissimilar and similar age/generational groups, respectively, have disputes and disagreements about how work tasks are accomplished (Dencker et al, 2007). Advancing the current literature on workplace conflict management, which often focuses on the impacts of conflicts on employees and workrelated outcomes (such as types of conflict strategies for handling conflict incidents and consequences of conflict management on team performance and satisfaction with team members; see De Dreu and Weingart (2003) for a meta-analytic review), this study’s assessment of visual attention will permit an investigation into the cognitive processes of YW and OW when observing a conflict incident involving a coworker from a similar or dissimilar age group. Understanding these cognitive processes is essential as they may play an important role in predicting subsequent interactions between two conflicting parties (DeChurch et al, 2013), such as their conflict management strategies in dealing with conflict incidents

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