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The purpose of this study is to test how individuals’ emotion reactions (fear vs anger) to expressed anger influence their intended conflict management styles. It investigates two interventions for managing their reactions: hot vs cold processing and enhancing conflict self-efficacy.

Hypotheses were tested in two experiments using an online simulation. After receiving an angry or a neutral message from a coworker, participants either completed a cognitive processing task (E1) or a conflict self-efficacy task (E2), and then self-reported their emotions, behavioral activation/inhibition and intended conflict management styles.

Fear is associated with enhanced behavioral inhibition, which results in greater intentions to avoid and oblige and lower intentions to dominate. Anger is associated with enhanced behavioral activation, which results in greater intentions to integrate and dominate, as well as lower intentions to avoid and oblige. Cold (vs hot) processing does not reduce fear or reciprocal anger but increasing individuals’ conflict self-efficacy does.

The studies measured intended reactions rather than behavior. The hot/cold manipulation effect was small, potentially limiting its ability to diminish emotional responses.

These results suggest that increasing employees’ conflict self-efficacy can be an effective intervention for helping them manage the natural fear and reciprocal anger responses when confronted by others expressing anger.

Enhancing self-efficacy beliefs is more effective than cold processing (stepping back) for managing others’ anger expressions. By reducing fear, enhanced self-efficacy diminishes unproductive responses (avoiding, obliging) to a conflict.

Reciprocal abuse inside care practices remain under-studied due to their invisibility and further research is required. The purpose of this paper is to explore different levels of conflicts inside organisations.

The paper is based on a self-administered questionnaire filled out by care workers (n = 150), in 16 Portuguese care homes.

Results indicated that, overall, 54.7% of care workers had observed abuse, in their daily practice, in the preceding 12 months: 48.7% psychological; 36.0% neglectful care practices; 14.0% physical and 3.3% financial abuse. The figures decreased significantly as regards abuse committed themselves, with 16.7% of those admitting to having committed at least one of these behaviours. The highest figures were also recorded for psychological abuse (13.3%) and neglect (6.7%). However, there is a statistically significant relationship between abuse committed by care workers and abuse committed by residents. Overall, 52.0% of care workers reported having been the target of at least one such behaviour by residents.

This paper has its limitations as the sample consisted of only 16 nursing homes (12 not-for-profit and 4 for-profit nursing homes). The fact that only 4 of the 16 LTC homes were for-profit is a potential limitation both in general and in particular because research has shown that lower quality of care and elder abuse and neglect are more common in for-profit nursing homes at least in Portugal. The results were also based on self-reported measures.

A reactive behaviour, the risk of retaliation, after a complaint, the difficulty in dealing with dementia and the residents' aggressive behaviour, an absence of a training and support policy in an environment where difficult working conditions prevail, are factors enhancing a reciprocal process of abuse. The analysis followed by a discussion of potential implications to prevent institutional elder abuse and neglect, based on communication and social recognition, including better working conditions and training, and a cooperative work environment.

Conflict is much more than reducing an interpersonal relationship problem between residents and staff (care workers, professional staff, managers) and extending to the whole organisation. Therefore, there are still uncertainties on how organisations, staff and residents interact between themselves, and affect care practises.

Reciprocal abuse in nursing homes is an important area of research and this paper enabled a discussion of potential implications concerning the quality of care, which required the identification of levels of conflict, in an organisational system, including interactions, the context where care is provided, difficult working conditions, lack of training and levels of support. All these factors are important when considering elder abuse and neglect and this calls for special attention by policymakers and researchers.

This study aims to understand factors that explain the use of revenge and forgiveness by Hindu and Muslim group members in reaction to the rival group’s negative reciprocal behaviour based on norms of negative reciprocity.

Participants from Hindu (n = 175) and Muslim (n = 134) groups in India were presented with two norm-violating situations. Situation 1 involved an intergroup episode and Situation 2 involved an inter-community episode. Their own group members had engaged in the violation of the norms of the other group to which the rival group members had responded negatively. Participants anticipated the likelihood of their group members using revenge or forgiveness in response to the other group’s negative reaction. These reactions were predicted by religious, political and cultural identities, fraternalistic relative deprivation (FRD), relative power, anger and hate, and perception of the appropriateness of their reaction.

Social identities predicted intergroup revenge and forgiveness differently for the two groups in the two situations. The stronger religious identity of Muslims, not of Hindus, reduced the likelihood of their using revenge but increased it for forgiveness in both situations. Political identity associated positively with forgiveness in Situation 2 for both groups. Cultural identity predicted the likelihood of Muslims opting for forgiveness in both situations. FRD was not a significant predictor of revenge or forgiveness for Muslims. In the case of Hindus, it reduced the likelihood of their engaging in forgiveness in Situation 2. Relative power associated positively with the likelihood of Muslims, not Hindus, using revenge in both situations. Anger increased the possibility of Hindus reacting in revenge, as well as, forgiveness in the two situations. Anger did not predict revenge for Muslims but it related negatively with forgiveness in the two situations. Stronger hate was associated with revenge for Muslims. The choice of using revenge or forgiveness by own group members was positively predicted by the norms of negative reciprocity for both Hindus and Muslims.

The study used a convenience sample of young people which reduces the generalizability of the findings.

The findings of this study have implications for designing interventions for resolving intergroup conflicts in various social settings.

The paper adds to the norm violation theory of intergroup relations by focusing on counter-reactions and the understanding of the dynamics of intergroup conflicts.

While classical exchange theorists excluded bargaining from the scope of their theories, most contemporary theorists have done the opposite, concentrating exclusively on negotiated exchanges with binding agreements. This chapter describes the theoretical logic and empirical results of a new program of research comparing the effects of reciprocal and negotiated forms of exchange. As the work shows, fundamental differences between the two forms of exchange affect many of the processes addressed by current theories. Reciprocal exchanges produce weaker power use, greater feelings of trust and affective commitment, and stronger perceptions of the partner’s fairness than equivalent negotiated exchanges. I discuss the implications of this work for theories of exchange and social interaction, and outline future directions for the next phase of the research program.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships between four general coping styles, work and family conflict, and work and family facilitation in a simultaneous equations framework

Data from the MIDUS study were analyzed using two‐staged least squares regression to incorporate the reciprocity between the work and family domains into the model. Hypotheses about direct action, advice seeking, positive thinking, and cognitive reappraisal as they affect work family (W‐F) and family‐work (F‐W) conflict were tested. The impact of the coping styles on work and family facilitation has not been studied before and was also included.

The efficacy of individual coping styles on conflict and the relationships between coping and facilitation were not uniform and varied depending on the source domain. Positive thinking was associated with higher W‐F and F‐W facilitation. Direct‐action was associated with lower F‐W conflict and higher F‐W facilitation. Reappraisal and advice seeking were associated with higher F‐W conflict, but advice‐seeking was related to higher W‐F facilitation. As expected, significant reciprocal effects for conflict were found; both W‐F and F‐W conflict are significant predictors of F‐W and W‐F conflict, respectively. And, an increase in F‐W conflict was predicted to have twice the impact of factors increasing W‐F conflict. W‐F facilitation was significant in predicting levels of F‐W facilitation; F‐W facilitation did not influence levels of W‐F facilitation.

The paper suggests the family domain should be the target for problem‐focused coping strategies, most likely because greater control can be exercised at home. Practical suggestions to help employees identify strategies to lower conflict and raise facilitation, thus promoting balance, are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to gain more insight in how line managers react to power use of superiors and subordinates in conflict situations.

The data was collected from 488 line managers; the majority of these managers worked in business services and non‐profit organizations. To measure the reaction of the line manager, the “Test for handling common organizational conflicts” was used, which incorporates a response factor (conflict style) and a situation factor (a combination of the opponent's behaviour and the organizational position).

The results showed, as expected, that managers' dominant or submissive reactions to opponents' dominant or submissive behaviour depend on opponents' power positions. The predicted directions of these relationships were that managers would react more complementarily to their superiors and would react more reciprocally to their subordinates. The hypotheses on the complementary reaction to superiors were supported. Managers submissiveness was more and dominance less with dominant superiors than with submissive superiors, and vice versa. Managers' reciprocal reaction in conflicts with subordinates was found for managers' submissiveness, but not for their dominant behaviour. The results showed complementary interactions, namely, managers dominate more with submissive subordinates than with dominant subordinates.

This study shows the structuring role of the hierarchal relationship in conflict interactions, and the prevailing position of complementary conflict patterns between managers and their superiors. The results supported the theoretical propositions in most cases, and they provide a better understanding of the use of dominance and submissiveness by managers.

Innovative behavior is a microfoundation of an organization’s innovation. Knowledge workers are the main creators of innovations. With the boundaries between work and family becoming increasingly ambiguous, the purpose of this study is to explore how the work–family conflict affects knowledge workers’ innovative behavior and when such a conflict arises.

To test the theoretical model, this study collected data from a time-lagged matched sample of 214 dual-career couples. The data were analyzed with the bias-corrected bootstrapping method.

The results of this study showed that work-to-family conflict had not only a direct negative effect on knowledge workers’ innovative behavior but also an indirect effect through spouses’ within-family emotional exhaustion and knowledge workers’ family-to-work conflict. If wives’ gender role perceptions are traditional, then the indirect serial mediating effect is weakened, but if such perceptions are egalitarian, then the mentioned effect is aggravated.

In terms of organizational implications, managers could alter their approach by reducing detrimental factors such as work–family conflict to improve knowledge workers’ innovative behavior. Emotional assistance programs for both knowledge workers and their spouses can be used to prevent the detrimental effect of work–family conflict on innovative behavior. As to social implications, placing dual-career couples into a community of likeminded individuals and promoting their agreement on gender role identity will greatly reduce the negative effects of work–family conflict.

Starting from the perspective of the behavior outcome of knowledge management, this study advances the existing knowledge management literature by enriching the antecedents of knowledge workers’ innovative behavior, illuminating a spillover–crossover–spillover effect of work–family conflict on knowledge workers’ innovative behavior and identifying the boundary condition of this transmission process.

Taking conflict personally (TCP) is conceptualized as a negative emotional personalization of conflict episodes. Here, individuals' TCP levels were examined in relationship to both their own conflict management styles and their perceptions of supervisors' conflict management styles. Results indicate that one's TCP levels are associated with one's own preferred conflict management style, with supervisor's perceived conflict style, and with satisfaction with supervisor.

This chapter analyzes the ways that individuals develop person-to-group ties. The chapter reviews the development and evidentiary basis of the theory of relational cohesion, the affect theory of social exchange, and the theory of social commitments.

We survey twenty-five years of published literature on these theories, and review unpublished theoretical tests and extensions that are currently in progress.

The research program has grown substantially over the past twenty-five years to encompass more varied and diverse phenomena. The findings indicate that structural interdependencies, repeated exchanges, and a sense of shared responsibility are key conditions for people to develop affective ties to groups, organizations, and even nation-states.

The research implies that if people are engaged in joint tasks, they attribute positive or negative feelings from those tasks to their local groups (teams, departments) and/or to larger organizations (companies, communities). To date, empirical tests have focused on microlevel processes.

Our work has practical implications for how managers or supervisors organize tasks and work routines in a way to maximize group or organizational commitment.

This research helps to understand problems of fragmentation that are faced by decentralized organizations and also how these can be overcome.

The chapter represents the most complete and comprehensive review of the theory of relational cohesion, the affect theory of social exchange, and the theory of social commitments to date.