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IJCMA GUEST EDITORIAL

23,1
Conflict management and
emotions
4
Richard A. Posthuma
University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas, USA

Abstract
Purpose – The five studies included in this special issue focus on emotions and conflict management.
These studies highlight how conflict management research can help managers, employees, and
organizations more effectively manage the emotional aspects of conflict. This paper aims to
summarize these studies.
Design/methodology/approach – Five studies were selected and combined in this single issue so
that researchers could have an integrative review of recent research on emotions in the workplace. The
studies were chosen to highlight the relationships between emotions and key conflict variables, such
as task, relationship, and process conflict; trust; venting; and forgiveness. The studies were also
chosen to represent a broad range of samples, including participants from more than 14 countries and
cultures.
Findings – These studies indicate that a broad range of positive and negative emotions, such as
anger, enthusiasm, excitement, guilt, and remorse, are significantly related in complex and varied
ways to various aspects of conflict management. The studies highlight not only the importance of
understanding specific emotions in conflict situations, but also the need to understand how and when
the regulation of emotions can facilitate effective conflict management.
Research limitations/implications – These cutting-edge studies demonstrate how emotions are a
needed and important addition to the field of conflict management research – above and beyond
cognitions and behaviors. Such findings highlight the need for additional research on emotions in
conflict situations. Although these studies represent many different countries, more research is needed
that specifically compares and contrasts the influence of emotions on conflict management across
various cultures.
Originality/value – This special issue is the first publication to focus on the influence of conflict
management in many different countries and cultures.
Keywords Emotions, Task conflict, Relationship conflict, Venting, Forgiveness, Conflict, Trust
Paper type General review

International Journal of Conflict
Management
Vol. 23 No. 1, 2012
pp. 4-5
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1044-4068
DOI 10.1108/10444061211210797
Overview of studies
This special issue contains five new research studies that have discovered new and
significant relationships between emotions and conflict management. Each of the five
studies is summarized below.
Montes and Rodriquez examined the influence of emotions on the choice of conflict
styles. Using a sample from Spain, the results showed that people in more positive
moods and feelings were more likely to choose cooperative conflict styles. Such
findings suggest that it is important to understand emotions as well as rational
cognitions when dealing with conflicts.
Meanwhile, Wertheim and Donnali examined the influence of emotions on one’s
willingness to forgive offenders. Using a sample from Australia, the results showed
that the offenders’ remorsefulness and the victim’s empathic concern predicted
willingness to forgive the offenders. Offenders who chose a yielding conflict style were Guest editorial
more likely to be forgiven because of their perceived remorsefulness, suggesting that
offenders who have a history of using more dominant or forceful conflict styles should
choose a more yielding style and explicitly express remorse if they want to be forgiven.
The study by Chen and Ayoko examined the influence of three emotions
(enthusiasm, excitement, and behavioral guilt) on three types of conflict (task,
relationship, and process). Their study used a sample of employed graduate business 5
students from several countries (South Africa, Norway, China, Singapore, Malaysia,
Mexico, Persia, Scotland, the US, Germany, and New Zealand). The results suggest that
enthusiasm is positively associated with task conflict. However, excitement was not
related to task conflict. Nevertheless, both relationship conflict and process conflict
were positively associated to both excitement and enthusiasm. The authors also
discussed the impact of these factors on trust.
Parlamis examined the relationship between emotions such as anger and emotional
tone and venting behaviors. Using an experiment that involved graduate-level
students in the US, the results indicated that persons respond to venting differently
according to whether the person venting uses reinforcing or reinterpreting interactions.
The results suggest that venting can have useful emotional regulatory functions.
Finally, the study by Curseu, Boros, and Oerlemans examined the relationship
between emotion regulation and task and relationship conflict. Using a sample of
students from a Dutch university, the results showed that, when groups have less
effective emotional regulation, task conflict is more likely to evolve into relationship
conflict, which was more likely to occur in long-term as opposed to short-term groups.
The results suggest that effective management of long-term teams should include an
emotion regulatory function.

Summary
In sum, these five studies highlight the important influences of emotions in conflict
situations. Moreover, these studies have observed new and intriguing results that have
not been previously observed, suggesting that the relationships between emotions and
key variables involved in conflict management research are more complex than
previously thought. Clearly, more research is needed to better understand how
emotions relate to negotiations, conflict, and work performance as well as better
understand how emotional regulation can be used in organizational settings to more
effectively management conflict.

About the author

Richard A. Posthuma received his J.D., Cum Laude, from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in
1992 and his PhD in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management in 1999 from
the Purdue University Graduate School of Business. His research interests focus on conflict
management and human resource management. He is Professor of Management in the College of
Business Administration at the University of Texas at El Paso. Richard A. Posthuma can be
contacted at: rposthuma@utep.edu

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