Abstract

In recent years, conflict management has attracted a lot of attention in the field of organizational behaviors. It is investigated that each person has a unique style or approach to conflict and that we, possibly, alter the conflict approach in regards to a given situation. The present study aims to identify the role of emotions and the approaches people utilize in conflict management, and to examine the extent, subjective emotional states, influence their approaches to conflict. In addition, previous research has done a lot of efforts on the relationship between conflict and personality traits. Therefore, it is expected to examine further, whether there is any difference under the effect of face-saving concerns for others in the relation between emotions, and the approaches to conflict. The data obtained from the experiments with 110 participants demonstrated that positive emotional state has a significant positive effect on cooperative approach whereas; negative emotional state has a significant positive effect on competitive or avoiding approach. Furthermore, face-saving concerns for others as a moderating role did moderate the relationship between emotions and conflict management. The results also indicated that different levels of face-saving concerns for others influence the relationship between emotions and conflict management differently.

Key words: Emotions, conflict management, face-saving concerns for others.