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Do social conflicts at work affect employees’ job satisfaction? The moderating role of emotion regulation

Alexandra Hagemeister (University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany)
Judith Volmer (University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany)

International Journal of Conflict Management

ISSN: 1044-4068

Article publication date: 5 December 2017

Issue publication date: 14 March 2018

3794

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine social conflicts with co-workers (SCCWs) as a predictor of job satisfaction with co-workers (JSCWs) on a daily basis. Moreover, dispositional emotion regulation (ER) was suggested to moderate the within-person relationship between daily conflicts at work and JSCWs.

Design/methodology/approach

Ninety-eight employees from German civil service agencies completed surveys across five consecutive work days. Dispositional variables and controls were assessed in a general survey which was completed before the start of the daily surveys.

Findings

Hierarchical linear modeling showed that SCCWs at noon were significantly related to employees’ JSCWs in the evening and that dispositional ER moderated this relationship, indicating that people with high abilities of ER reported higher levels of job satisfaction with their co-workers than people with low abilities of ER after experiencing SCCWs.

Originality/value

The present study links conflict research with organizational and personality research. The findings broaden the understanding of social conflicts in an organizational context and further highlight ER as an important factor which can buffer the negative effects of workplace conflicts.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by a postdoctoral research grant from the University of Erlangen. The authors would like to acknowledge the help of Juliane Bräutigam, Simone Pfeifle, Iris Plückhahn, Miriam Rohe and Beatrix Winter in the data collection and Maximilian Orth for his help in data analysis as well as for comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Citation

Hagemeister, A. and Volmer, J. (2018), "Do social conflicts at work affect employees’ job satisfaction? The moderating role of emotion regulation", International Journal of Conflict Management, Vol. 29 No. 2, pp. 213-235. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCMA-11-2016-0097

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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