Conflict Management and Aging in the Workplace

Synonyms

Conflict strategies; Conflict styles

Definition

Workplace conflict emerges when there is a disagreement between two or more parties in the organization or when a person perceives incompatible needs, goals, desires, or ideas with another person (Deutsch 1994). There are two major forms of conflict in the workplace: Interpersonal conflict takes place when a worker perceives that his/her valued outcomes are deprived due to interference from the opposing worker, while intergroup conflict arises when a group of workers perceive a deprivation of valued outcomes due to interference from the opposing group (De Dreu 2011).

Introduction

Conflict is inevitable in the workplace as long as there is social interaction between two or more parties, including individuals, units, departments, and organizations. It involves cognitive and behavioral reactions toward incompatible goals, competing interest in scarce resources, and interference in goal attainment (Hocker and Wilmot 1991). Depending on one’s attitudes, values, and goals, a social situation can be perceived as either a threat to one’s interests or an opportunity to cooperate and maximize the benefits of both parties. This behavioral intention in turn determines whether escalatory or de-escalatory action should be taken.

Abundance of conflict research has provided evidence for the detrimental effects of conflict when it is managed poorly. In particular, prior research has found that workplace conflict contributes to reduced job satisfaction and organizational commitment, poorer health and well-being, and disruptive behaviors that are costly to employers, such as absenteeism and turnover (De Dreu 2011). However, although it is undeniable that conflict can result in a number of negative outcomes, research from the past two decades shed light on the positive and constructive benefits of conflict when it is managed appropriately in the workplace. For example, workplace conflict has been found to enhance communication, resolve continuing problems, facilitate team performance, stimulate learning, and promote creative thinking under the condition that the conflict is problem-focused, cooperatively oriented, and involves integrative efforts to achieve optimal solutions (De Dreu 2011). Therefore, effective conflict management is crucial to team effectiveness and work productivity.

The number of mature workers aged 45 and above in the labor force has been growing drastically over the past decade, for example, from 34.9% to 42.9% in the United States (US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2011). The composition of labor force becomes more diverse, comprising mature workers from the baby boom cohorts (1946–1964) and later cohorts from generations X (1965–1976) and Y (1977–1992). The presence of workers from multiple age groups within an organization intensifies the occurrence of conflict because of differences in work values, work ethics, goal orientations, and conflict styles between younger and older workers.

In the face of changing demographic trends, how conflict can be managed effectively is a major concern for many organizations. It is therefore a pressing task to identify and unravel the underlying mechanisms of conflict in the mature workforce. By drawing from various areas of research, valuable insights can be obtained to reveal the influences of motivational orientation, goal orientation, and social identity on conflict strategy preferences among younger and older workers. Effective measures can then be proposed in light of the conditions that are required for conflict to result in positive outcomes. In the first section of this entry, the dual concern model (Rahim 2011) and the theory of cooperation and competition (Deutsch 1994) will be discussed to identify the major determinants of conflict strategy in the workplace. The second section will discuss the socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen 2006) and the social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner 1986) and review the empirical findings on age differences in conflict management. Implications and future directions on managing the workplace conflict will be discussed in the concluding section.

Conflict Management in the Workplace

Working adults’ responses to conflict can yield diverse consequences. According to the dual concern model, the ways to deal with interpersonal conflict can be categorized into five styles, including obliging, dominating, integrating, avoiding, and compromising (Rahim 2011). The selection of conflict styles is determined by one’s motivational orientation, i.e., the degree of attempts to satisfy concern for self and concern for other parties. In particular, obliging strategy is used when concern for self is low and concern for others is high. This involves meeting the needs of the opposing party and giving into his/her demands. Dominating strategy is used when concern for self is high and concern for others is low. This involves forcing the opposing party to accept and give into one’s personal views and demands. Integrating strategy is used when concern for self and others are both high. This involves collaborating with the opposing party in order to reach a mutually agreed solution so that the interests of both parties are satisfied. Avoiding strategy is used when concern for self and others are both low. This involves neglecting the conflict entirely to allow the conflict to dissipate on its own. Compromising strategy is used when concern for self and others are both moderate. This involves a give and take negotiation so that an intermediate position can be reached.

Similar to motivational orientation, another line of research examined goal orientation as the underlying determinant of conflict behaviors. According to the theory of cooperation and competition (Deutsch 1994), goal interdependence, which is the perception of how goals are related, influences social interaction. Specifically, goal interdependence can be grouped into three categories: cooperative goals, competitive goals, and independent goals. These three types of goal orientation are proposed to have a significant impact on the way conflict is handled. For cooperative goals, individuals perceive their goals to be positively related to each other so that successful achievement of one’s goal would lead to the successfulness of another in reaching his/her goal. Individuals who are motivated by cooperative goals would avoid the escalation of conflict since working cooperatively as a group would be more effective in achieving the most desirable outcome for both parties. In comparison, for competitive goals, individuals perceive their goals to be negatively related to each other; so increasing the chances of success for one person would diminish the chances of success for another person. Under this win or lose perspective, conflict will most likely be escalated since individuals are motivated to do better than others and behave competitively in order to ensure that they succeed while others fail. For independent goals, individuals perceive their goals to be unrelated to the goals of others; so their personal goal attainment is prioritized, while other people’s goals are irrelevant to their concerns and efforts. Motivated by an independent orientation of goals, actions are taken in order to ensure one’s personal interests are met, regardless whether the other party is satisfied or not.

Age Differences in Conflict Management

Although the dual concern model and the theory of cooperation and competition are prominent in the literature on conflict management, they generally assume that goals and motivation remain more or less constant over the life span. Applying these two frameworks to the age-diversified workforce would lead to the prediction that a worker’s behavioral responses are determined by his/her motivational or goal orientation, regardless of his/her age. For example, an older worker who has high concern for self and low concern for others would be as likely as a younger worker to prefer the use of dominating strategy. However, the literature on life span development stresses that older adults shift their goal orientation from knowledge-related goals to emotional goals when they perceive future time as increasingly limited (Carstensen 2006). Therefore, it is doubted whether these two models can fully explain the patterns of conflict strategy use in an age-diversified workforce.

Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST; Carstensen 2006) can be applied to understand conflict behaviors of older workers since it provides a theoretical explanation for age-related changes in developmental goals and social behavior. According to this theory, the way emotion is regulated is guided by future time perspective, which becomes increasingly limited as the person ages. Younger individuals who are likely to perceive an expansive future time prioritize knowledge-related goals, including knowledge acquisition, career advancement, and expansion of social network. As individuals grow older, they are more likely to perceive limited time and therefore shift their priority to emotional goals such that emotionally meaningful experiences are emphasized and valued. Therefore, the emphasis of emotional goals motivates older individuals to make use of adaptive emotion regulatory strategies that can maximize positive emotional experiences, while younger individuals are less likely to focus on emotion regulation.

When applying SST to predict conflict styles of younger and older workers, it is expected that older workers’ emphasis of emotional goals motivates them to concern for others more than themselves and to cooperate instead of to compete, such that they are more likely to use passive strategies such as obliging or avoiding. Assertive strategies such as dominating style are less likely to be utilized by older workers as these strategies will prevent them from maximizing positive emotional experiences. In contrast, younger workers tend to use more assertive strategies to manage conflict situations as they focus on knowledge-related goals and are concerned for themselves more than others. These speculations are supported by research findings. For example, in a national survey of 1785 working adults in the United States, Schieman and Reid (2008) revealed that among male workers with higher authority, younger workers engaged in more aggressive and competitive conflict behaviors than did older workers. Similarly, Davis et al. (2009) examined behavioral responses toward workplace conflict in a sample of 2513 American working adults. This study demonstrated that both younger and older workers used active–constructive strategies such as perspective taking or creation of solutions to deal with conflict incidents at work, though older workers displayed a greater tendency to utilize passive-avoidant strategies such as yielding or adapting.

Past research on conflict management showed that the selection of conflict strategies varies by role of the conflict partner. For instance, in the study measuring conflict styles of 1219 managers in the United States, Rahim (1986) demonstrated that employees were more likely to use obliging to handle conflict with superiors and utilize compromising with peers. When resolving conflict with subordinates, they tended to use integrating as primary styles and avoiding as backup styles. Both Lee’s (1990) and Nguyen and Yang’s (2012) experimental studies further support the influence of the role of the conflict partner in the selection of conflict strategies. Specifically, there was a greater tendency to use direct and assertive strategies to resolve conflict with subordinates, compromising strategies to deal with peer conflict, and indirect and harmony-preserving strategies to handle conflict with supervisors. However, these studies did not take age into consideration in the examination of conflict behaviors. To address the limitation of the prior research, Yeung et al. (2015) measured behavioral responses to workplace conflict in a sample of 280 Hong Kong Chinese managerial and executive employees aged between 22 and 66 years. The participants were asked to recall a personal workplace conflict experience that happened in the past 3 months. They also reported their goal orientations and conflict responses during the conflict situation. Results of this study revealed that relative to younger employees, older employees utilized more avoiding to handle conflicts with supervisors and less dominating with subordinates. These age differences could be explained by the higher level of cooperative goals held by the older workers relative to their younger counterparts, supporting the proposition of SST on the age-related variation in goal orientation.

In addition to the influences of motivational orientation and goal orientation reviewed above, one’s social identity can also affect the selection of conflict strategies, especially during intergroup conflict. The social identity theory, which was developed to provide theoretical contributions toward social phenomena such as intergroup relations, stereotyping, and group processes (Tajfel and Turner 1986), is suitable to explain the intergroup dynamics of an age-diversified workforce. Social identity is defined as an individual’s self-concept based on his/her perceived membership of relevant social groups that are of value and emotional significance to him/her. In a conflict involving a younger worker and an older worker, the individuals may identify themselves as members of the younger or older age group, which subsequently influences their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors toward the intergroup conflict (De Dreu 2011). Members of an in-group are motivated to enhance positive distinctiveness compared with the out-group members. This in-group–out-group bias is commonly manifested in intergroup conflict where members of opposing parties utilize strategies that favor the in-group and denunciate the out-group. Intergroup conflict is expected to be most severe in organizations with age diversity and distinct group boundaries between younger and older workers, as this can foster intergroup competition and social conflict, causing a higher likeliness for opposing intergroup relations to be formed (Dencker et al. 2007).

While the social identity theory makes general assumptions about the behavioral responses of conflict, five types of conflict strategy can be predicted by integrating with the dual concern model (Haslam 2004). According to the integrated model of conflict, the two axes of the dual concern model, concern for self and concern for others, can be reconceptualized as the salience of subgroup identity and the salience of superordinate identity, respectively. Salience of subgroup identity refers to one’s social identification with a subgroup (younger or older workers), while salience of superordinate identity refers to one’s social identification with a superordinate group (employees of an organization). This reconceptualization is possible because concern for self is consistent with the behavioral intentions of subgroup identity, while concern for others is consistent with the behavioral intentions of superordinate identity. As presented in Fig. 1, conflict between younger and older workers is escalated when dominating strategy is utilized by those who have a salient age group identity. In order for the conflict to be reconciled, social identity must be salient on both subgroup and superordinate dimensions so that an integrative solution can be reached.

Conflict Management and Aging in the Workplace, Fig. 1

The integrated model of conflict (Adapted from Haslam 2004)

To test the effect of social identity on conflict behaviors, Ho (2014) examined the relationships among social identity, goal orientation, and conflict strategies in a cross-sectional survey among 380 clerical workers in Hong Kong. Two hypothetical scenarios involving conflict with a younger worker and an older worker were used to stimulate workplace conflict. In response to each conflict scenario, participants were asked to respond to a questionnaire on how they perceived their goals as related to the opposing worker and the type of conflict strategies that they prefer to utilize under the circumstances. Results of the moderated mediation models revealed that organizational and age group identities had a combined influence on conflict strategies through goal orientation, but the pattern differed by the age of the opposing party. In the conflict with a younger worker, individuals were more likely to use integrating when both of their organizational and age group identities were high. Individuals who were identified as members of the organization but had moderate age group identification were more likely to use compromising toward the younger worker. Furthermore, organizational identification was related to the use of obliging toward the younger worker when age group differentiations were minimal. It was also found that these relationships could be explained by the low level of independent goals held by the respondents.

In the conflict with an older worker, individuals were more likely to use integrating strategy when their organizational and age group identities were high. Individuals who were identified as members of the organization but had minimal age group identification were more likely to use obliging strategy toward the older worker. Furthermore, organizational identification was related to the use of compromising strategy toward the older worker when the level of age group differentiations was moderate. These relationships could be explained by the high level of cooperative goals held by the respondents.

Ho’s (2014) study suggests that social identity contributes more to independent goal orientation with younger workers and cooperative goal orientation with older workers. This difference in goal orientation when the age of the opposing party differs may be explained by values deeply rooted in the Chinese culture. According to Confucius’ ideology, it is a virtue to respect senior adults and sacrifice one’s own interests to establish and maintain relationships with older people. Therefore, during conflict with older workers, one’s cooperative intention is a major determining factor of how the conflict should be managed. Nevertheless, consistent with the findings of the literature on intergroup conflict, in-group membership can diminish conflict of interest and facilitate cooperation between opposing parties.

Implications for Managing an Age-Diversified Workforce

In general, the literature on conflict management in the workplace holds the assumption that the same set of predictive factors of conflict behaviors is applicable to all working adults, regardless of their age. However, as reviewed above, goal orientations change as a person grows older, suggesting that the way older workers deal with conflict incidents may not be the same as those utilized by younger workers. Even though researchers can infer from past aging research on interpersonal tensions to predict conflict responses of older workers, these studies focus largely on conflicts with family members and close friends. Therefore, it remained unclear whether younger and older workers react to workplace conflict differently, as it usually involves coworkers and clients who are not perceived as emotionally close as family members and close friends. The findings of our research tentatively suggest that similar to other nonwork conflicts, older workers utilize more passive strategies (e.g., avoiding) and fewer destructive strategies (e.g., dominating) to manage workplace tensions than do younger workers (Yeung et al. 2015). Putting research findings from the literatures on life span development and conflict management together, it seems older individuals manage daily interpersonal conflicts in a similar way, regardless of the context. This proposition awaits future investigation to explicitly compare within-individual use of conflict strategies and goal orientations across different life domains to confirm whether the age-related pattern of conflict management is context-specific or not. In addition, by integrating the dual concern model and social identity theory, Ho (2014) further demonstrated that social identity can influence goal orientation, which would in turn influence one’s preference for conflict strategy. Specifically, workers with higher organizational and age group identities tend to hold more cooperative goals and therefore use more integrating strategies to handle conflicts with an older conflict partner. Future research should include the assessment of social identity to accurately predict conflict strategies of working adults.

The majority of conflict management research was conducted on Western populations. Past cross-cultural studies on conflict management suggest that Chinese employees, in general, are more likely to utilize non-confrontational strategies (such as avoiding or compromising) than their Western counterparts (Bazerman et al. 2000). Yeung et al.’s (2015) study demonstrated a robust age effect, even in a sample of working adults with cultural norms of non-confrontational conflict approaches. Older Chinese workers displayed higher level of avoiding strategies when handling conflicts with supervisors than did younger Chinese workers. Future studies should replicate this age effect in a cross-cultural comparison study by recruiting both Western and Asian working adults of a wide age range.

In addition to the examination of age variation in conflict management, future studies should also investigate the impact of conflict strategies on work outcomes. Past studies often suggest that avoiding strategies are related to higher work and conflict stress (Friedman et al. 2006) and reduced job satisfaction (De Dreu and Dijkstra 2004). It is questioned whether older workers’ greater preference for avoiding strategies is associated with poorer work outcomes and psychological well-being. However, according to SST, older adults’ use of passive strategies is indeed consistent with their developmental goal orientation that emphasizes on emotional goals and interpersonal closeness (Carstensen 2006). Therefore, greater use of passive strategies should contribute positively to their well-being or have a less harmful effect. Cross-sectional studies of Yeung and Fung (2012) and Yeung et al. (2015) have demonstrated that the use of emotional suppression and avoiding strategies is beneficial to the older workers by improving their sales productivity and lowering the level of negative emotions and interpersonal tensions. These findings imply that the use of passive strategies is not always harmful to working adults but depends largely on the age of the users. The long-term beneficial effects of passive strategies on older workers though await future investigation.

Conclusion

Age differences in conflict management are observed, which can be explained by age-related changes in goal orientation and social identity.

Cross-References

• Socioemotional Selectivity Theory