The Moderating Effect of Goal Orientations on the Conflict and Innovative Performance Relationship

Abstract

Research has found both positive and negative effects of interpersonal conflict on performance outcomes such as decision making, individual and group performance, employees’ satisfaction, and individual and team creativity. However, little is known about the relationship between interpersonal conflict and employees’ innovative job performance. Accordingly, in the current study, we investigated the link between task, process and relationship conflicts and employees’ innovative job performance and the moderating effect of employees’ mastery and performance goal orientations. We analyzed the data collected from 448 employees working in different organizations in Pakistan. The results indicated that task, process and relationship conflicts are all negatively related to employees’ innovative job performance. However, employees’ mastery goal orientation weakens while performance goal orientation strengthens this negative relationship. This study contributes to the debates on the outcomes of interpersonal conflict by highlighting the importance of employees’ goal orientation for understanding the interpersonal conflict - innovative job performance relationship.