Roles of age and future time perspective of the work relationship in conflict management: A daily diary study.

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of age and future time perspective of the relationship (FTPR) on emotional and behavioral responses to workplace conflicts. A daily diary study that lasted for 15 consecutive workdays was conducted among 141 younger and older Hong Kong Chinese managerial employees. Compared with younger employees, older employees reported more positive and fewer negative emotions and utilized more passive strategies when experiencing conflicts at work. Moreover, employees who perceived an open-ended FTPR with conflict partners reported more positive emotions and used more passive and constructive strategies than did those with a limited FTPR. Moreover, the effects of passive and destructive strategies on interpersonal relationships were moderated by the age of participants and FTPR. The findings of this study reveal the importance of considering age and FTPR when examining conflict responses and work-related outcomes.

Focus on Opportunities or Limitations? Their Effects on Older Workers’ Conflict Management

“…Among the five strategies measured in this project, the direct effects of age were only observed in the habitual use of obliging and avoiding (see Figure 1), revealing that generally younger employees have a greater tendency to use these two passive strategies than their older counterparts when conflict arises in the workplace. These results fail to replicate the age-related increase in passive strategies shown in past studies (e.g., Davis et al, 2009;Yeung et al, 2020). One possible explanation may be related to the fact that younger workers generally have less work experiences than older workers, thus they are more likely to go along with the judgments or decisions recommended by other colleagues.…”

“…In line with the theoretical framework of SST, the age-related decline in the use of these strategies serves as an effective regulatory means to minimize the potential negative consequences to their emotional experiences. However, such an age effect is not consistently shown in the workplace (Davis et al, 2009;Yeung et al, 2015Yeung et al, , 2020, partly due to the nature of work conflict, such as the perceived future relationship with the conflict partner.…”

“…The participants were first asked to briefly describe the conflict incident by reporting the content and cause of this recalled incident as well as the gender of and relationship with the coworker involved. With reference to previous research on workplace conflict (Yeung et al, 2020), the causes of the conflict were grouped into two categories, which indicated the type of conflict reported: interpersonal (such as different viewpoints and opinions about how the task was performed, quality of work) and structural nature (such as rigid organizational rules and procedures and insufficient resources). The gender of (1 = male and 2 = female) and relationship with the coworker (1 = supervisor, 2 = peer, 3 = subordinate) were also recorded.…”

“…These results are contradictory to the prediction that age would exert a negative indirect effect on dominating through focus on limitations. It is speculated that among older workers, the relationships with co-workers may not be valued as much as other close social relationships such as family members and close friends (Yeung et al, 2020). With an increased perception of limitations at work, older workers would put greater emphasis on their personal interests, instead of paying more attention to the mutual interests with their coworkers when a conflict occurs.…”

Effects of Subjective Successful Aging on Emotional and Coping Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Emotional responses to the pandemic. With reference to previous studies assessing emotional responses to negative events [36,40], the participants were asked to rate the extent of their emotional reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, including four negative emotions (afraid, anxious, nervous, and upset) and four positive emotions (happy, calm, active, and attentive). In addition, two items were included to measure their feelings in response to reduced social contact owing to social distancing measures: "I felt frustrated because of the reduced social contact" and "I felt lonely because of the reduced social contact."…”