Motivational analysis of avoidance in organizational conflicts: Japanese business employees' concerns, strategies, and organizational attitudes

To examine motivational factors of avoidance in conflicts, we asked 154 employees of business organizations in Japan to rate their experiences of conflicts with supervisors in terms of strategies and concerns, which were formulated on two dimensions (the concern area and social value). Collectivistic concerns (group order/coherence and interdependent identity) increased avoidance while individualistic concerns (fairness and power) decreased it. The latter concerns urged confrontational tactics, instead. Japanese employees who had strong commitment to their organizations were concerned with collectivistic concerns, suggesting that conflict concerns mediated the relationship between organizational attitudes and reactions to organizational conflicts.