The relationship between interpersonal conflict and workplace bullying

Author(s):

Jose M. Leon-Perez (Business Research Unit, ISCTE-Instituto Universitàrio de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal)

Francisco J. Medina (Department of Social Psychology, University of Seville, Seville, Spain)

Alicia Arenas (Department of Social Psychology, University of Seville, Seville, Spain)

Lourdes Munduate (Department of Social Psychology, University of Seville, Seville, Spain)

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Abstract:

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the role that conflict management styles play in the relationship between interpersonal conflict and workplace bullying.

Design/methodology/approach

– A survey study was conducted among 761 employees from different organizations in Spain.

Findings

– Results suggest that an escalation of the conflict process from task related to relationship conflict may explain bullying situations to some extent. Regarding conflict management, attempts to actively manage conflict through problem solving may prevent it escalating to higher emotional levels (relationship conflict) and bullying situations; in contrast, other conflict management strategies seem to foster conflict escalation.

Research limitations/implications

– The correlational design makes the conclusions on causality questionable, and future research should examine the dynamic conflict process in more detail. On the other hand, to the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study empirically differentiating interpersonal conflict and workplace bullying.

Originality/value

– This study explores how conflict management can prevent conflict escalating into workplace bullying, which has important implications for occupational health practitioners and managers.

Keywords:

Conflict escalation, Relationship conflict, Task conflict, Mobbing

Publisher:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Acknowledgments:

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve the quality of the paper. In addition, the authors declare that they do not have conflicts of interest. The present study was funded by a grant from the Junta de Andalucia (Spain) (Ref. CONV2010/256) as well as it was partially supported by the Strategic Project (Ref. PEst-OE/EGE/UI0315/2011) from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).

Copyright:

© Emerald Group Publishing Limited 2015
Published by Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Citation:

Jose M. Leon-Perez, Francisco J. Medina, Alicia Arenas, Lourdes Munduate, (2015) "The relationship between interpersonal conflict and workplace bullying", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 30 Issue: 3, pp.250-263, https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-01-2013-0034

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