CONFLICT MANAGEMENT The Psychology of conflict and conflict ...

9. CONFLICT, HEALTH, AND WELL-BEING 271
interPersonal ConfliCt anD strains
As depicted in the job stress model presented in Figure 9.1, interpersonal
conflict is linked to a variety of negative emotional states, including
anger, anxiety, and frustration. This relationship has been repeatedly supported
by occupational stress studies for a variety of stressors including
interpersonal conflict (Spector & Jex, 1998). Furthermore, anger, annoyance,
and frustration were the most frequently cited emotions reported in
a study of young engineers ranking conflict as a leading stressor (Keenan
& Newton, 1985). Similarly, Narayanan, Menon, and Spector (1999a)
reported that these three negative affective states as well as anxiety were
associated with stressors that included interpersonal conflicts at work for
all three occupational groups in their sample. Further, the most frequently
cited emotional reactions by an American sample reporting interpersonal
conflicts in a cross-national study were frustration, annoyance, and anger,
in descending order (Narayanan, Menon, & Spector, 1999b). Work frustration
and anxiety were also reported to be significant positive correlates of
conflict at work in a longitudinal study by Spector and O’Connell (1994).
Spector et al. (1988), in a study with multiple data sources, presented
further evidence of the affective outcomes of interpersonal conflict. Data
were obtained from incumbent self-reports and supervisor reports.
Incumbents reported conflict to be positively correlated with anxiety
and frustration. Interestingly, cross-source data using the supervisors’
reports of incumbent conflict showed a significant positive correlation
with incumbent reported anxiety and frustration. Finally, meta-analytic
findings also support a positive mean correlation in the mid-.30s between
conflict and anxiety and between conflict and frustration (Spector, 1997;
Spector & Jex, 1998).
The aforementioned studies indicated that this social stressor may elicit
a variety of negative emotional states and, therefore, suggested that the
specific emotional reaction that is experienced as a result of conflict is not
what matters, but rather, it is the experience of overall negative affect that
may require closer attention. Consequently, Fox, Spector, and Miles (2001)
used the job-related affective well-being scale to obtain a negative emotion
score derived from the responses to 15 items measuring various negative
emotional states. The results supported a significant positive correlation
(r 5 .49) between conflict and negative emotion, thus, indicating that the
variety of negative affective states resulting from conflict at work can be
studied by using a measure of overall negative emotions. In a study that
tested a model of voluntary work behaviors, Spector, Fox, Goh, and Bruursema
(2003) replicated these findings. Furthermore, Lee (2003) showed
that conflict both with coworkers and with supervisors was related to a
measure of overall negative emotions (r 5 .23 and .30, respectively) for a
sample of full-time working adults from a variety of occupations. The correlations
remained significant even when using cross-source data, such
that peer reports of conflict were correlated with self-reports of negative