Conflict Resolution: An Examination of Perceptions of Cultural Conflict Resolution Strategies in Organizations

• Main Author: Williams, Daniel
• Format: Others
• Published: CSUSB ScholarWorks 2016
• Subjects: Conflict; Conflict Resolution; P-O fit; Organizational Culture; Industrial and Organizational Psychology; Organization Development
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/419; https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1472&context=etd

Conflict resolution research has resided at both the individual and group level for the many years. However, recent findings have provided evidence for the existence of conflict resolution strategies at the cultural level. As these recent findings indicate, the existence of such resolution styles at that macro level can have great implications on organizational outcomes. Therefore, the first goal of this study was to examine if these conflict resolution cultures would predict outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and psychological withdrawal behavior. Similarly, research on P-O fit has also provided some very interesting insights into employee behavior and attitudes. Given the idiosyncratic nature of conflict resolution and the recent findings mentioned in the previous paragraph, the second goal of this study was to examine if perceptions of congruence between an individual’s resolution style and the organization’s resolution style would affect job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and psychological withdrawal behavior. Finally, it was determined that perceptions of resolution (i.e. was the conflict constructively resolved) would be an appropriate and rather informative mediating variable for the relationships proposed above. Data was collected using a web-based survey software, which garnered 212 participants for the analysis. Evidence was found to support a majority of the proposed hypotheses. All three-conflict resolution cultures (collaborative, dominant, and avoidant) predicted the outcome variables in the directions consistent with both logic and the literature. Similarly, perceptions of resolution did mediate six of the nine proposed relationships between the resolution cultures and the outcome variables. Two of these mediation analyses were not conducted due to an insignificant initial bivariate correlation. Support was also found for all three proposed direct effects between perceptions of congruence and the proposed outcome variables. Finally, perceptions of resolution mediated the relationship between perceptions of congruence and all three-outcome variables. Again, the directions of these findings were consistent with both logic and the literature. Both the theoretical and practical implications, as well as the limitations with this study will be discussed.