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This study examines the impact of interpersonal conflict on workplace aggression. Moreover, the moderating role in the association between interpersonal conflict and workplace aggression has been examined.

The research is grounded on the cognitive appraisal theory, which posits that interpersonal conflict contributes to aggression in the workplace. A sample of n = 250 employees from the steel industry in India was selected in two waves. The authors utilized Hayes' PROCESS macro v4.1 for path analysis.

The research reveals that interpersonal conflict is positively and significantly related to workplace aggression. Moreover, organizational climate is negatively associated with workplace aggression. The moderation analysis has revealed that organizational climate negatively moderates the relationship between interpersonal conflict and workplace aggression.

This study suggests that recognizing the significance of the organizational climate, companies can proactively curtail the progression of disputes into hostile behaviors. Nurturing a positive workplace climate becomes paramount, as it acts as a buffer against conflict escalation. Educating both staff and managers about the diverse forms of aggression and implementing appropriate protocols to address such behaviors are crucial steps toward fostering a positive climate.

This study provides new insights into the existing literature on workplace aggression, interpersonal conflict and organizational climate for future research.

Drawing on the social exchange theory, this study aims to examine the association between interpersonal conflict and task performance as well as the mediating and moderating roles of workplace deviance and emotional intelligence, respectively, in this association.

Two studies were designed to test the authors’ hypotheses using multiwave and multisource data collected from 173 (187) subordinates and their immediate supervisors from Pakistan.

An important reason that interpersonal conflict diminishes employees’ task performance is that employees are engaged in workplace deviance. This indirect effect is less salient when employees are more emotionally intelligent.

One way to improve employees’ task performance could be to reduce and manage interpersonal conflicts, especially through interventions aimed at increasing employees’ emotional intelligence levels.

This research contributes to the literature by demonstrating that employees’ emotional intelligence is a boundary condition that alters the association between interpersonal conflict and employee task performance directly and indirectly via workplace deviance.

Based on affective events theory (AET), this study aims to construct a moderated sequential mediation model to explore the pathways of organizational climate on workplace conflict and subsequent counterproductive work behaviour (CWB).

This study collected data from 1,035 respondents in a large state-owned enterprise located in Beijing, China. And this study used Mplus 8.3 to test the model fit, then tested the eight hypotheses using Mplus 8.3 to verify the mediating effects of workplace conflict and psychological well-being and the moderating effect of emotional stability.

Results indicated that: organizational climate is more likely to produce individual-oriented CWB (CWB-I) under the mediating effect of workplace conflict and the chain mediation of workplace conflict and psychological well-being, and emotional stability moderates the relationship between workplace conflict and psychological well-being, workplace conflict and CWB-I, but it has no moderating effect on the relationship between workplace conflict and organizational-oriented CWB (CWB-O).

This study puts forward a relatively complete theoretical framework, expands the application scope of AET and sheds new light on the intervening process that explains how organizational climate influences CWB-I and CWB-O, which enriches the literature in the two fields.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss cultural causes of conflict in the workplace and call for research to address what happens when cultures collide generating workplace conflict. The author assumes that because cultures differ in terms of functional solutions to problems of social interaction that there will be conflict when people from different cultures are interdependent in the workplace. The author discusses types of culture and their conflict management profiles with respect to three characteristics of conflict management: direct vs indirect confrontation; emotional expression, and third party conflict management. The author proposes what happens when cultures collide and calls for research on those collisions.

Application of the cultural literature on self-worth to three elements of workplace conflict: direct vs indirect confrontation of conflict, feelings and expressions of negative emotions associated with conflict and timing and type of third party intervention.

When people from dignity, face, and honor cultures are working together the fundamental differences in the logic of self-worth in these three types of culture may cause conflict. People from dignity and honor cultures are likely to confront conflict directly, while those from face cultures are more likely to confront conflict indirectly. Workplace conflict generates negative emotions, but culture seems to affect whether that emotion is anger, shame or both. The timing of third party intervention into workplace conflict, that is, how managers intervene in workplace conflict has some parallels with how community mediators act in that culture.

There is limited research comparing management of workplace conflict in dignity, face, and honor cultures. The author generates propositions and suggests a research strategy for collecting data to test propositions.

Understanding what is culturally normative in terms of self-worth, confrontation, emotional expression, and managerial intervention can help people involved in workplace conflict understand what they are experiencing. It can also help managers intervene effectively.

How people react to workplace conflict varies with culture as does how managers intervene. Knowing this provides people with the first element of cultural intelligence that may help them manage conflict to facilitate a more creative and effective multicultural work environment.

This paper integrates theory and research from cross-cultural psychology, the psychology of emotion and the literature on third party intervention into community conflict to explain the patterns of cultural conflict and conflict management in the workplace. It also suggests what it may take to manage cultural conflict in the workplace successfully.

This chapter discusses the adoption by Brazilian companies of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods for individual workplace conflicts. Brazil is an interesting case to study ADR due to its high level of institutionalized individual workplace conflicts and its extensive workplace statutory regulation. Investigating the case of three Brazilian private companies of different sectors and sizes, I found that Brazilian companies are developing their own ADR practices, focusing on ombudsman offices (OOs), instead of using the mediation and arbitration methods that are predominant in the United States. I argue that the adoption of the ombudsman can be explained by institutional and workplace level factors, which include the characteristics of Brazilian industrial relations system, each company’s human resources (HRs) strategy, and the relationship between companies and unions. Furthermore, I discuss how the usage rate of the OOs might vary according to the OO’s internal structure and its functioning rules. The cases provide important insights for scholars interested in ADR in general and in Brazilian industrial relations system, as well as union leaders, HR managers, and other practitioners dealing with workplace conflicts globally.

The aim of this chapter is to investigate the context dependence of the implications of telework for work–family conflict. It examines whether and how the implications of telework for strain-based and time-based work–family conflict depend on work–family-supportive and high-demand workplace cultures. Based on a sample of 4,898 employees derived from a unique linked employer–employee study involving large organizations in different industries in Germany, multilevel fixed-effects regressions were estimated.

The results show that telework is associated with perceived higher levels of both time-based and strain-based work–family conflict, and that this is partly related to overtime work involved in telework. However, teleworkers experience higher levels of work–family conflict if they perceive their workplace culture to be highly demanding, and lower levels if supervisor work–family support is readily available.

Future research is required to investigate how the conclusions from this research vary between heterogonous employees and how work–family-supportive and high-demand workplace cultures interrelate in their implications on the use of telework for work–family conflict.

The findings show how important it is to implement telework in a way that not only accommodates employers’ interest in flexibilization, but that it also makes it possible to reconcile work with a family life that involves high levels of responsibility.

This is the first study which examines whether telework is either a resource that reduces or a demand that promotes work–family conflict by focusing on whether this depends on perceived workplace culture.

This research aims to examine how two management strategies (symmetrical communication and inclusive management) work in handling workplace conflicts (interpersonal/organizational levels), especially with regard to employee advocacy and job turnover intentions.

A total of three employee survey datasets were used to test hypotheses and research questions. Two secondary datasets were obtained in South Korea (N = 600 and N = 285), and one dataset was collected in the USA (N = 381). A series of hierarchical multiple regressions were performed for each dataset.

All three studies showed that interpersonal workplace conflict increased not only job turnover but also advocacy. In addition, in South Korean employees, both symmetrical communication and inclusive management increased employee advocacy and decreased job turnover intentions. However, in the US data, only symmetrical communication had such effects, enhancing employee advocacy and lowering job turnover intentions.

The study provides insights for practitioners into how to handle workplace conflicts from the perspective of communication (symmetrical communication) and/or behavioral strategies (inclusive management). Also, as an index to examine the effectiveness of management strategies, this study suggests advocacy behavior of employees given its effect of “rallying the troops.”

Guided by the job demands-resources model, this study aims to investigate the underlying mediation mechanisms through which vertical relationship conflict between employees and their supervisors and horizontal relationship conflict between employees and their colleagues escalate into work disengagement. It proposes exhaustion and workplace social isolation as the mediators and explores the relative importance of vertical and horizontal relationship conflicts in influencing work disengagement through the distinct impacts of the mediators.

Data collected from a three-wave study of 181 online-questionnaire respondents are used to test the research model using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Vertical relationship conflict has an indirect effect on work disengagement via exhaustion, whereas horizontal relationship conflict has an indirect effect on work disengagement via workplace social isolation. Compared with horizontal relationship conflict, vertical relationship conflict exerts a stronger effect on work disengagement.

This study addresses a void in the literature on relationship conflict by investigating work disengagement from the perspective of both vertical and horizontal relationship conflict as well as from the perspective of both strain- and resource-centric mediators (i.e. exhaustion and workplace social isolation, respectively), providing a comparatively detailed analysis.

This paper aims to examine the occurrence and management of conflict in Chinese organizations, from an emic perspective. The authors provide an in-depth understanding of Chinese working adults’ lived experiences regarding workplace conflicts.

The study is a qualitative one, consisting of open-ended questionnaires administered to 55 Chinese nationals who worked in governmental, public or international organizations in China. A thematic analysis of the answers was conducted.

Chinese participants adopted a normative mental model that defined their preferred “way of doing” things. A skillful balance was expected in conflict management that incorporated integrated open communication and strategic silence. Chinese working adults emphasized maturity in the workplace and the recognition of shared goals.

The online questionnaire format may have constrained participants’ responses. Also, the data were collected from various organizational contexts, but there were not enough participants from each type of organization so that comparisons between institutions could be made.

The results could help expatriate populations better prepare their lives abroad in China. Also, the findings could aid organizational or management consultants who work closely with Chinese partners.

The findings enhance our understanding of how Chinese working adults deal with workplace conflicts and the circumstances in which conflicts arise in the workplace, which also reflected the social and cultural contexts of the Chinese workplace experience.

This study provides an alternative interpretation of workplace conflicts and their management in China that is anchored in the unique organizational and national cultural context. They constitute the base for future development of culture-based explanations of Chinese organizational conflict behaviors.

The purpose of this study is to examine the differential association of three different workplace conflicts on employee-related outcomes, such as loneliness and well-being. Further, the study pursues to explore the perceived social support at the workplace as a conditional factor in the relation between different conflict types and employee loneliness.

The data were collected using a self-administered survey from 554 IT employees. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the study postulations.

The findings indicated that all three types of conflicts differently associate on both loneliness and well-being. Besides, it found that loneliness works as a mediator between conflict types and employee well-being. Further, perceived social support at the workplace moderates the relationship between different types of conflict, such as relationship, process, task conflicts and employee loneliness at work.

The study provides helpful directions to HR managers by providing a clear empirical understanding of the types of conflicts and its association on employee-related outcomes. Further, the study highlights the need for developing social support in an organisation during conflict episodes, to manage the adverse association of these conflicts on employee well-being and to restore employee well-being.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, for the first time, a study has been conducted highlighting the differential association of workplace conflict and employee outcome and indicating its intervening mechanisms and conflict management conditions.