CONFLICT MANAGEMENT The Psychology of conflict and conflict ...

36 DE DREU AND GELFAND
an important role in the preferences and functions of different conflict
management styles.
neGleCteD levels anD Cross-level influenCes:
the next Generation of ConfliCt researCh
Collectively, the chapters in this volume highlight conflict antecedents,
processes, and functions at the individual, group, organization, and
cultural levels of analysis. We conclude this chapter with a discussion of
important areas of future research on conflict in organizations from a levels
of analysis perspective. We first focus on the importance of incorporating
issues of time into research on conflict in organizations. We then
discuss the importance of cross-level organizational research, including
top-down and bottom-up processes on conflict in organizations.
Time: A Neglected Dimension of Conflict
Although thinking in terms of individual, group, and organization
levels of analysis is increasingly common in the organizational sciences
(e.g., Klein & Kozlowski, 2000), scholars sometimes overlook other levels
of analysis that have to do with the fluidity of change over time. Conflict is
clearly a dynamic phenomenon that unfolds over time (Pondy, 1967), and
thus issues of time are by definition critical for the study of conflict. For
example, research on time and conflict can illustrate when different types
of conflict are particularly impactful for later performance. Jehn and Mannix
(2001) showed that the time period in which conflict occurs and the
patterns of conflict over time are critical for understanding group performance.
Groups that had low to moderate levels of process conflict in early
stages, moderately high levels of task conflict during middle and later
stages, and low levels of relationship conflict across all stages were more
successful than groups with other conflict profiles over time. Beersma
and De Dreu (2005) found that groups with individualistically motivated
negotiators achieved lower joint outcomes than groups with prosocially
motivated negotiators, but subsequently performed better on tasks that
required high levels of creative and innovative thinking.
Research on time and conflict can also call into question age-old assumptions
about causal relationships of conflict and organizational outcomes. For
example, Peterson and Behfar (2003) found that negative performance feedback
increased task and relationship conflict in groups, and Janssen (2003)
showed that organizational innovations caused (rather than predicted) relationship
conflicts among team members. Both studies thus illustrate that the
conflict-to-outcome linkage discussed previously can have a reverse causality.
Although studies of time and conflict such as these are relatively rare,
they clearly illustrate that time is of the essence in the study of conflict.