Effects of Leader Age on Leader Conflict Management Strategies Towards Employees: The Mediating Role of Emotional Abilities

Schumacher, Alexandra (2023) Effects of Leader Age on Leader Conflict Management Strategies Towards Employees: The Mediating Role of Emotional Abilities. Master thesis, Psychology.

Text A. Schumacher Master Thesis.pdf Restricted to Repository staff only Download (267kB)

Abstract

Managing interpersonal conflict is an important aspect of organizational dynamics. Given that leaders are often held accountable for conflict processes and outcomes in the workplace, it becomes crucial to understand the factors that influence leaders conflict management behavior. While previous research suggests that conflict management improves with age, the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unclear. One possible explanation is that older individuals often possess stronger emotional abilities, which may mediate the association between leader age and conflict management behavior. However, the literature on the specific effects of leader age on conflict management strategies needs to be more extensive. Therefore, we investigated the impact of leader age on the use of constructive and destructive conflict management strategies, examining the potential mediating effect of emotional abilities. 431 (M = 40.31, SD = 10.16) organizational leaders completed an online questionnaire describing a conflict they have had with one of their subordinates, reporting on their emotional abilities and their use of conflict management strategies. Results showed that leader age did not directly influence conflict management unless controlled for age-related variables, such as work experience. However, emotional abilities significantly affected the use of conflict management strategies. Specifically, emotion management had a negative effect on destructive and constructive avoidance strategies. Emotion understanding positively affected problem-solving, destructive avoidance, and yielding, while emotion recognition did not affect conflict management strategies significantly. We conclude that developing emotion management and emotion understanding skills is crucial for younger and older leaders. Keywords: leadership, conflict management, workplace, age differences, emotional abilities

Item Type:	Thesis (Master)
Supervisor name:	Fousiani, K.
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	Work, Organizational and Personnel Psychology (WOP) [Master Psychology]
Date Deposited:	22 Jun 2023 19:56
Last Modified:	22 Jun 2023 19:56
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/2034

Actions (login required)

View Item