CONFLICT MANAGEMENT The Psychology of conflict and conflict ...

9. CONFLICT, HEALTH, AND WELL-BEING 279
reported sources of stress. Liu (2002) found that Chinese faculty reported
experiencing significantly more overall interpersonal conflict and conflict
with supervisors than American faculty did. Furthermore, the levels of
interpersonal conflict among university support staff in the two countries
did not differ, providing evidence for the presence of this stressor across
cultures (Liu, 2002). Consistent with these findings, Spector, Sanchez, Siu,
Salgado, and Ma (2004) found that Chinese in Hong Kong and People’s
Republic of China reported more conflict than Americans did.
ConfliCt anD soCial reGulation
Although interpersonal conflict has been shown to have negative effects
on health and well-being, there can be circumstances in which behaviors
that lead to short-term conflict can be useful in the longer term.
Bies, Tripp, and Kramer (1997) discussed how revenge (e.g., striking back
against someone who has done something perceived as harmful) could
have a social regulatory function. If an individual is treated in an unkind
way, that individual might strike back, thus producing a conflict with the
offending individual. The other individual might be careful in the future
to avoid further acts of revenge, and thus future conflicts could be avoided.
Of course, there can be instances in which an act of revenge produces an
equivalent response, thus prolonging the conflict over time.
the iMPaCt of ConfliCt on orGanizational
effeCtiveness: PraCtiCal iMPliCations
The effects of interpersonal conflict at work are not limited to employee
health and well-being; they also affect organizational effectiveness
through direct bottom line costs and by means of organizationally relevant
variables. For example, it is estimated that organizations spend over
$200 billion on work stress issues, including turnover, health care costs,
and productivity (DeFrank & Ivancevich, 1998). Longitudinal research
has also shown that from 60% to 90% of health care provider visits are,
in some part, due to stress (Cooper & Payne, 1988). This and other studies
point to the fact that the mental and physical health of employees can
heavily affect the health care costs of organizations. The Health Enhancement
Research Organization (HERO; 2004) reported that employees
reporting persistent depression had health care costs 70% greater than
their nondepressed counterparts did ( 8). These findings are even more
dramatic for males for whom the increase in costs was 91% more than for
men not at risk. Given the strong support for the relationship between
conflict in organizations and employee depression, these findings are
quite alarming. Furthermore, HERO findings also indicated an increase
in health care expenditures of 46% for employees reporting uncontrolled
stress over those not at risk.