Employee Organizational Behaviour and Leader Conflict Management Strategies: The Mediating Role of Leader–Employee Relationship Quality

Teeninga, Joshua (2025) Employee Organizational Behaviour and Leader Conflict Management Strategies: The Mediating Role of Leader–Employee Relationship Quality. Master thesis, Psychology.

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Abstract

Workplace conflict between leaders and employees has been significantly associated with turnover, advocacy, and well-being (Lee et al., 2022; Sonnentag et al., 2013). While previous research has primarily focused on how leaders’ conflict management strategies (CMS) affect outcomes, less is known about how employee behaviours—specifically organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and counterproductive work behaviour (CWB)—are related to leaders’ conflict responses. Guided by social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), this study examined whether employee OCB and CWB relate to leader use of forcing and problemsolving CMS, with leader-member exchange (LMX) as a potential mediator. Data were collected from 58 European leader–employee teams using a two-wave design. Mediation analyses revealed no significant direct or indirect relationships between employee behaviour, LMX, and leader CMS. Several potential explanations for these null findings are discussed, including the limited observability of employee behaviour, attribution processes (Martinko et al., 2011), leader emotional intelligence (Schlaerth et al., 2013), leadership style (Saeed et al., 2014), and cultural or power dynamics (Fousiani et al., 2022; Yamini et al., 2025). Methodological limitations—such as a small sample size (Cohen, 1992), single-source LMX ratings (Matta et al., 2015), undifferentiated conflict types (Jehn, 1995; De Dreu & Weingart, 2003), and aggregated behavioural data—may also have contributed. These findings highlight the complexity of leader–employee conflict and underscore the need for future research to consider contextual, interpersonal, and methodological factors when examining how employee behaviour shapes leader conflict responses. Keywords. leader conflict management strategies, organizational citizenship behaviour, counterproductive work behaviour, leader–member exchange, social exchange theory

Item Type:	Thesis (Master)
Supervisor name:	Fousiani, K.
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	Work, Organizational and Personnel Psychology (WOP) [Master Psychology]
Date Deposited:	08 Jul 2025 11:54
Last Modified:	08 Jul 2025 11:54
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/5361

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