<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>There are disagreements about the key factors affecting a line manager’s conflict management modes. Psychologists emphasise the role of the conflict situation and personal traits, while other scholars focus on the impact of organisational aspects in managing interpersonal conflict. This paper provides empirical evidence suggesting that three sets of factors, namely, situational, personal and organisational aspects, influence the mode of handling conflict by line managers. Mixed methods were used to collect primary data from 19 line managers and two human resources managers working in two Irish subsidiaries of multinational companies. Although the research design did not allow for a verification of whether each of those three sets of factors has a significant influence on managing conflict by line managers, the paper suggests that combining psychological and managerial approaches to managing conflict provides a fuller understanding of handling interpersonal conflict. It also provides original findings on how line managers handle interpersonal conflicts, contributing to a better understanding of the under-researched area of the actual role of line managers in dealing with negative HR aspects.</p></abstract>

There are disagreements about the key factors affecting a line manager’s conflict management modes. Psychologists emphasise the role of the conflict situation and personal traits, while other scholars focus on the impact of organisational aspects in managing interpersonal conflict. This paper provides empirical evidence suggesting that three sets of factors, namely, situational, personal and organisational aspects, influence the mode of handling conflict by line managers. Mixed methods were used to collect primary data from 19 line managers and two human resources managers working in two Irish subsidiaries of multinational companies. Although the research design did not allow for a verification of whether each of those three sets of factors has a significant influence on managing conflict by line managers, the paper suggests that combining psychological and managerial approaches to managing conflict provides a fuller understanding of handling interpersonal conflict. It also provides original findings on how line managers handle interpersonal conflicts, contributing to a better understanding of the under-researched area of the actual role of line managers in dealing with negative HR aspects.

Managing interpersonal conflicts at work by line managers

DCU Business School, Dublin City University,

The Irish Journal of Management

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Managing interpersonal conflicts at work by line managers"}

There are disagreements about the key factors affecting a line manager’s conflict management modes. Psychologists emphasise the role of the conflict situation...

Firm	Respondents’ label	Number employees supervised	Gender (F-female; M = male)	Nationality	Type of personality	Handling mode used most often	Collaborating (S1)	Avoiding (S2)	Compromising Selected (S3) scenarios	Competing	Accommodate
Hotel Co	JLM1	35	F	Irish	Extroverted	Collaborating	S1, S2		S3
	JLM2	8	M	Irish	Extroverted	Compromising	S2, S3		S1
	JLM3	2	F	Irish	Conscientious	Compromising/Collaborating		S3	S1	S2
	JLM4	30	M	Irish	Agreeable	Compromising		S2	S1	S3
	SLM5	2	F	German	Conscientious	Compromising	S1	S2	S3
	SLM6	7	M	Algerian	Conscientious	Collaborating	S2			S1	S3
	SLM7	2	F	Irish	Extroverted	Collaborating/Competing	S1		S3	S2
	JLM8	2	F	Slovakian	Agreeable	Collaborating	S1	S2	S3
	JLM9	20	M	Italian	Conscientious	Compromising		S2	S1		S3
	JLM10	15	M	Irish	Agreeable	Collaborating/Compromising	S1	S2	S3
	HR1	2	F	Irish	NA		NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Beauty Co	JLM11	4	F	English	Extroverted	Collaborating	S1	S2	S3
	SLM12	22	M	Irish	Agreeable	Collaborating/ Compromising	S1				S2, S3
	JLM13	4	F	Irish	Open	Avoiding	S1	S2	S3
	SLM14	11	F	Scottish	Extroverted	Collaborating	S1		S3		S2
	SLM15	9	F	Brazilian	Conscientious	Collaborating	S1		S2, S3
		SLM16	12	M	Irish	Agreeable	Compromising		S2	S3	S1
	JLM17	14	F	Irish	Conscientious	Collaborating/ Compromising	S2, S3		S1
	SLM18	3	F	Lebanese	Conscientious	Collaborating	S1			S3	S2
	JLM19	6	Male	Irish	Conscientious	Collaborating	S1		S2	S3
	HR2	36	Female	French	NA		NA	NA	NA	NA	NA

Managing interpersonal conflicts at work by line managers

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Aug 23, 2016

Page range: 74 - 87

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijm-2016-0005

Keywords
conflict management, line manager, mode interpersonal conflict, work conflict

© 2016 Jennifer Lawless and Aurora Trif, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Scenario Results

j.ijm-2016-0005.tab.002.w2aab2b8c33b1b7b1ab2aab1Ab2

Managing interpersonal conflicts at work by line managers

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Aug 23, 2016

Page range: 74 - 87

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijm-2016-0005

Keywordsconflict management, line manager, mode interpersonal conflict, work conflict

© 2016 Jennifer Lawless and Aurora Trif, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Scenario Results

j.ijm-2016-0005.tab.002.w2aab2b8c33b1b7b1ab2aab1Ab2

Keywords
conflict management, line manager, mode interpersonal conflict, work conflict