ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT IN PUBLIC SERVICE: CONFLICT MANAGEMENT, CONTEXTUAL FACTORS, AND EMPLOYEE OUTCOMES by Aikaterini Ioanna Anestaki APPROVED BY SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: ___________________________________________ R. Paul Battaglio Jr., Chair ___________________________________________ Doug Goodman ___________________________________________ James R. Harrington ___________________________________________ Meghna Sabharwal Copyright 2016 Aikaterini Ioanna Anestaki All Rights Reserved To my family. ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT IN PUBLIC SERVICE: CONFLICT MANAGEMENT, CONTEXTUAL FACTORS AND EMPLOYEE OUTCOMES by AIKATERINI IOANNA ANESTAKI, BA, MS DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The University of Texas at Dallas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS December 2016 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to my committee members and department faculty, who all provided their support, guided me through my studies, and helped me get my Ph.D. First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my committee chair, Dr. Paul Battaglio, for his supervision, ongoing guidance and invaluable support through all the phases of the dissertation process. Also, I would like to thank Dr. Doug Goodman, head of the department of Public and Nonprofit Management, who ensured that I have all the necessary resources and guidance that I needed for my research. I am also grateful for the guidance of Dr. James Harrington, who has generously provided his time, expertise, and insightful comments on my work. In addition, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr. Meghna Sabharwal, for her mentoring, support, and encouragement throughout my doctoral studies. The support of my cohort, colleagues and friends is also greatly appreciated. I could not have asked for better companions on this journey. I would also like to thank Katie Doctor, our graduate program administrator, who has constantly provided her support, assistance and friendly advice. Most importantly, I would like to thank my family, as without their continuous encouragement, I would not have been able to accomplish this dissertation. To my parents, Stavro and Zina Anestaki, you have been always showing me nothing but your unconditional love and support to all of my endeavors. Words cannot express my gratitude, appreciation, and love to you. To my husband, Angelo Chokas, I am deeply grateful for your understanding and for always being v proud of me. Without your partnership, friendship, and endless love, I would not have made it that far. October 2016 vi ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT IN PUBLIC SERVICE: CONFLICT MANAGEMENT, CONTEXTUAL FACTORS, AND EMPLOYEE OUTCOMES Publication No. ___________________ Aikaterini Ioanna Anestaki, PhD The University of Texas at Dallas, 2016 Supervising Professor: R. Paul Battaglio Jr., PhD By expanding the conflict and conflict management literature to the public service environment, this study provides an insight into the role and aftermath of interpersonal conflicts for the organizational setting. Workplace conflicts consist of an inevitable, and typically perceived as toxic, phenomenon, owing to their negative consequences for employee job-related attitudes. Mitigating the dysfunctional conflict results can be a challenging endeavor for managers, as effectively handling workplace controversies is contingent upon the nature of conflicts, the adopted conflict management approach, and the prevailing organizational environment. As public organizations find themselves in the midst of a human capital crisis, and confront challenges for high performance results, delving into the factors that can threaten smooth organizational operations and employee behaviors becomes imperative. When studying the attitudes of state HR professionals about the role of organizational conflicts and their overall work experiences, this study reveals that relationship conflicts can be detrimental for vii organizational performance, even though there is not any association between organizational conflicts and turnover intent. Also, even though conflict management, and particularly a win-win approach, pertains to an essential human resources management mechanism, its role in balancing out the negative conflict outcomes only holds under the premise of a positive organizational environment. In view of fairness in interpersonal relations and an emotional attachment between employees and their organization, a cooperative approach to conflict handling could be positively associated with organizational performance and lower withdrawal intentions. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................................. v ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. vii LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background of the Study ............................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research Purpose and Research Questions .................................................................... 4 1.3 Contribution of the Study............................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER 2 ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT THEORY ........................................................ 8 2.1 Conflicts in the Organizational Setting .......................................................................... 8 2.1.1 A Multi-Level Phenomenon ................................................................................. 10 2.2 Antecedents of Organizational Conflicts ..................................................................... 11 2.2.1 Organizational and Individual Triggers ................................................................ 12 2.2.2 Relationship, Task and Process Conflicts ............................................................. 13 2.2.3 Conflict in the Public Service Environment ......................................................... 16 2.3 Assessing the Conflict Aftermath ................................................................................ 18 2.3.1 Dysfunctional Conflicts ........................................................................................ 18 2.3.2 Functional Conflicts .............................................................................................. 21 2.3.3 Organizational Performance ................................................................................. 24 ix 2.3.4 Turnover Intentions ............................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER 3 MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICTS ............................................. 30 3.1 Defining Conflict Management ................................................................................... 30 3.2 A Tool for Organizational Effectiveness ..................................................................... 32 3.2.1 Conflict Management Strategies ........................................................................... 33 3.2.2 The 5-style Typology ............................................................................................ 35 3.2.3 Cooperative vs. Competitive Conflict Management ............................................. 37 3.3 A Contingency Approach to Conflict Management .................................................... 39 3.4 Conflict Management in Public Management Research .............................................. 41 CHAPTER 4 CONTEXTUAL FACTORS AND CONFLICT BEHAVIORS ........................... 45 4.1 The Role of Contextual Factors ................................................................................... 45 4.2 Perceptions of Organizational Justice .......................................................................... 47 4.2.1 Organizational Justice and Job Outcomes ............................................................ 49 4.2.2 Organizational Justice in the Conflict Management Context ............................... 50 4.3 Organizational Commitment ........................................................................................ 51 4.3.1 Affective Commitment and Organizational Outcomes......................................... 53 4.4 Perceived Organizational Support (POS) .................................................................... 55 4.4.1 POS and Job-Related Outcomes ........................................................................... 56 CHAPTER 5 DATA AND METHODOLOGY .......................................................................... 58 5.1 Research Hypotheses ................................................................................................... 58 5.1.1 Conflict Behaviors and Job Outcomes .................................................................. 58 5.1.2 Conflict Management and Job Outcomes ............................................................. 59 x 5.1.3 The Role of Organizational Factors ...................................................................... 59 5.2 Survey Methodology .................................................................................................... 60 5.2.1 Study Population ..................................................................................................