Complex Interpersonal Conflict Behaviour by Evert Van der Vliert

Author:Evert Van der Vliert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Study 4: Impact of the Concerns

The crucial postulate of the conflict concerns theory states that concern for the attainment of one’s own goals and concern for the attainment of the other’s goals co-determine the dominant conflict behaviour. This general postulate can be broken down into more specific hypotheses. Hypothesis 1: higher concern for one’s own and for the other’s goals results in less avoiding, more compromising, and much more problem solving. This hypothesis deals with the integrative dimension of conflict behaviour. Hypothesis 2: higher concern for one’s own goals and lower concern for the other’s goals results in less accommodating and more fighting. This hypothesis deals with the distributive dimension of conflict behaviour.

One of the theory’s supplementary postulates addresses the impact of the concerns on the (de-)escalative consequences. Concern for the other’s goals, rather than concern for one’s own goals, is supposed to de-escalate or escalate the conflict. The theory also states that the behaviour intermediates between the dual goal concern and the further (de-)escalative course of the conflict process. Taken together, concern for the other’s goals, rather than concern for one’s own goals, produces conflict behaviour that de-escalates or escalates the conflict (Hypothesis 3).

The above three hypotheses were put to the test by Onne Janssen, Martin Euwema and myself (1994; Janssen, 1994; Janssen & Van de Vliert, 1996; Janssen et al., 1996).

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