Conflict Cultures in Organizations: How Leaders Shape Conflict Cultures and Their Organizational-Level Consequences
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Journal of Applied Psychology © 2012 American Psychological Association 2012, Vol. 97, No. 6, 1131–1147 0021-9010/12/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0029993 Conflict Cultures in Organizations: How Leaders Shape Conflict Cultures and Their Organizational-Level Consequences Michele J. Gelfand Lisa M. Leslie University of Maryland University of Minnesota Kirsten Keller Carsten de Dreu Rand Corporation University of Amsterdam Anecdotal evidence abounds that organizations have distinct conflict cultures, or socially shared norms for how conflict should be managed. However, research to date has largely focused on conflict management styles at the individual and small group level, and has yet to examine whether organizations create socially shared and normative ways to manage conflict. In a sample of leaders and members from 92 branches of a large bank, factor analysis and aggregation analyses show that 3 conflict cultures— collaborative, dominating, and avoidant—operate at the unit level of analysis. Building on Lewin, Lippitt, and White’s (1939) classic work, we find that leaders’ own conflict management behaviors are associated with distinct unit conflict cultures. The results also demonstrate that conflict cultures have implications for macro branch-level outcomes, including branch viability (i.e., cohesion, potency, and burnout) and branch performance (i.e., creativity and customer service). A conflict culture perspective moves beyond the individual level and provides new insight into the dynamics of conflict management in organizational contexts. Keywords: culture, conflict management, norms, leadership, organizations Why do some organizations develop cultures in which conflict headlined as having “a staff consumed with infighting over how to is managed productively, whereas others have cultures in which sell their candidate” (Sheehy, 2008, p. 2). For psychologists, many members consistently work against one another, sabotaging each questions remain unasked and unanswered: Is there any evidence other in and out of the boardroom? Southwest Airlines, for exam- that conflict cultures exist at the organizational level? How do such ple, has been argued to have a collaborative conflict culture (Git- distinct conflict cultures develop? How do leaders shape the de- tell, 2003), whereas other organizations such as Playco describe velopment of conflict cultures? What are the consequences of themselves as having a dominating conflict culture, approaching conflict cultures for organizational-level outcomes? conflict like they are in “the Old West” or through “warfare Answers to these questions cannot be found in the psychological games” (Morill, 1995, p. 195). Still others, such as the now defunct literature on conflict, which has generally focused on conflict Wang laboratories, are known to have avoidant cultures, in which management styles at the individual and small group level. In this people actively suppress conflict at all costs (Finkelstein, 2005). research, we start with the premise that although individuals have Conflict cultures emerge not only in traditional organizations but idiosyncratic preferences for different conflict management strat- also in other contexts, such as the inner circles of the 2008 egies, organizations provide strong contexts (Johns, 2006; democratic presidential candidates. “No drama Obama” was O’Reilly & Chatman, 1996) that serve to define socially shared known to have a “circle of people who were collaborative and and normative ways to manage conflict—what we refer to as nondefensive” (Tumulty, 2008, p. 1), whereas Hillary Clinton was conflict cultures—which reduce individual variation in conflict management strategies (De Dreu, van Dierendonck, & Dijkstra, 2004; Gelfand, Leslie, & Keller, 2008). Because norms typically develop around fundamental problems that need to be managed in This article was published Online First October 1, 2012. any social system (Schein, 1992; Schwartz, 1994), and conflict is Michele J. Gelfand, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland; an inherent problem in most if not all organizational systems Lisa M. Leslie, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota; (Argyris, 1971; Katz & Kahn, 1978; Thomas, 1976; Walton, Kirsten Keller, Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, CA; Carsten de Dreu, Dutton, & Cafferty, 1969), we expect that conflict cultures can Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. develop in many organizations. This research was based on work supported in part by U.S. Airforce Here we develop a conflict cultures paradigm and provide a Grant FA9550-12-1-0021 and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the U.S. Army Research Office under Grant W911NF-08-1-0144. first-time test across 92 bank branches. We propose that conflict Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Michele cultures, like their individual level and small-group analogues J. Gelfand, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College (e.g., De Church & Marks, 2001; De Dreu, 2006; De Dreu & Park, MD 20742. E-mail: [email protected] Weingart, 2003a; Jehn, 1995; Jehn & Mannix, 2001; Lovelace, 1131 1132 GELFAND, LESLIE, KELLER, AND DE DREU Shapiro, & Weingart, 2001; Pruitt & Rubin, 1986; Simons & a proactive approach and easily engage in constructive negotia- Peterson, 2000; Tjosvold, 1998; Ury, Brett, & Goldberg, 1988; tions and collaborative problem solving. Competitors are inclined Van de Vliert, 1997), take the form of avoidant, dominating, and to compete and dominate the conflict partner—rather than nego- collaborating, are at least partially shared by their members, and tiating open mindedly—and seek victory and perceive both the are distinct from other unit-level constructs such as justice climate, board room and shop floor as battlegrounds in which you eat or are psychological safety, and learning and performance climate. eaten. Finally, avoiders tend to shy away from addressing conflict Drawing on classic work by Lewin, Lippitt, and White (1939) and and go to great lengths to suppress the expression of conflict. later by Schein (1983), we also test the notion that leaders’ own Research to date has advanced validated measurements of the conflict management styles are related to distinct conflict cultures three conflict management strategies at the individual and small- and that conflict cultures predict unit-level outcomes, including group level (e.g., De Dreu, Evers, Beersma, Kluwer, & Nauta, viability, customer service, and creativity. 2001; Rahim, 1983), identified a wide variety of individual- A transition to a more macro perspective on workplace conflict difference and situational predictors of these strategies, and un- management not only enriches conflict theory but also situates the covered the effects that these strategies have on individual and conflict literature more centrally in the mainstream organizational team outcomes (see, e.g., De Dreu & Gelfand, 2008, for a review). sciences literature. Largely separated from its organizational roots, Nevertheless, the literature on workplace conflict management conflict research has been isolated from other central topics in styles has been largely divorced from the workplace context itself organizational behavior, such as leadership, organizational struc- and the ways in which features of organizations constrain or enable ture, culture, and organizational change. Reviews of the negotia- how conflict is managed at the unit level. Although individuals tion literature have rarely discussed whether and how conflict may have idiosyncratic preferences for different conflict manage- relates to organizational processes and performance, and likewise, ment strategies, organizational contexts often provide strong situ- reviews of organizational behavior rarely discuss conflict manage- ations (Johns, 2006; O’Reilly & Chatman, 1996) that serve to ment (De Dreu & Gelfand, 2008). This research thus seeks to bring define what is a socially shared and normative way to manage these disparate research traditions together, and is of the first to conflict. That is, work settings are often highly stable and predict- examine the consequences of conflict management for important able: Employees generally interact with leaders who model behav- unit outcomes. From an applied perspective, the conflict culture iors they deem appropriate, employees have contact with similar paradigm can pave the way for the development of new diagnostic coworkers and face similar (interpersonal) problems on a recurring tools and mechanisms for implementing systematic, organizational basis, and incentive structures do not change overnight. In addi- level change around conflict management. More generally, a tion, individuals within the same unit, team, or department tend to macro conflict culture perspective complements extant micro per- influence one another (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978), thus creating spectives, which together can provide a more comprehensive ac- their own social environment with rather stable, and at least count of conflict management processes in situ, in this case, in partially shared, views about the tasks to be done and ways of organizational contexts. dealing with one another—including on how to manage conflicts. An implication of these notions is that although individuals have The Cultural Basis of Conflict Management their own personal preferences for different conflict management strategies, employees in a given unit may come to share similar Within the organizational sciences, the subject of conflict has attitudes