Does Intragroup Conflict Intensity Matter? The Moderating Effects of Conflict Management on Emotional Exhaustion and Work Engagement.

Zinat Esbati,Christian Korunka

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.614001

Abstract

To elucidate the distinct effects of relationship conflict (RC) and task conflict (TC), we investigated the intensity (low vs. high) of the two types of conflict on emotional exhaustion and work engagement. Furthermore, we examined how cooperative vs. competitive conflict-handling styles moderate the relationship between the two types of conflict and emotional exhaustion and work engagement. We also examined the role of emotion regulation (cognitive reappraisal and distraction) as a covariate to control its effects on the study variables. Utilizing two separate 2 × 2 between-subject experimental designs, we recruited 120 employees from several companies in Austria. The results suggest that higher levels of both RC and TC are positively related to emotional exhaustion and negatively to work engagement. A cooperative conflict management style moderated the effects of both RC and TC on work engagement. The results suggest decoupling RC and TC and examining the interplay between the intensity of intragroup conflict types and conflict management styles provides insights into the connection between the levels of conflict, conflict management, emotional exhaustion, and work engagement. Additionally, it supports the usage of distraction as a viable regulation strategy for managing the effects of high levels of RC on emotional exhaustion.

Highlights

The use of workgroups—two or more people interacting interdependently toward a common goal—in organizations has steadily increased over the past few decades (Kozlowski and Bell, 2013)
We argue that the distinct influences of relationship conflict (RC) and task conflict (TC) on work engagement are contingent on the conflict intensity
The findings indicate that high-RC participants perceived more emotional exhaustion and less work engagement compared with their low-RC counterparts

Summary

Introduction

The use of workgroups—two or more people interacting interdependently toward a common goal—in organizations has steadily increased over the past few decades (Kozlowski and Bell, 2013). Bringing people together in a workgroup can be beneficial, individual differences and interdependencies of workgroup members (the extent to which workgroup members cooperate and work interactively to get tasks done; Stewart and Barrick, 2017) can increase the chances of intragroup conflict (e.g., Korsgaard et al, 2008; De Wit et al, 2012). Intragroup conflict is defined as perceived incompatibilities or differences among workgroup members (Jehn, 1995). This mainly originates from disagreements over task viewpoints, such as how the tasks are being performed called task conflict (TC) or from interpersonal incompatibilities in personality, habits, or style called relationship conflict (RC).

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