Enemies, partners or friends? Employer’s perspectives on conflict management by employee representatives in Europe

In organizations, a constructive dialogue between management and representatives of employees is essential to come to optimal decision making, prevent escalation of conflicts, and find integrative solutions for problems in the organization, related to the interests of employees. This social dialogue is in many countries, and specially within the European Union institutionalized. Elected and protected employee representatives (ERs), engage in social dialogue with management. This relation however is often conflictive. In this dissertation, we aim to gain a deeper understanding on the conflicts and conflict behaviors of ERs, particularly as perceived by their counterpart in the organization, being HR managers. This subject is understudied, however of great interest, both from academic and societal point of view. First, we developed a heuristic model for this dissertation (chapter 1), defining our key variables. We focus on perceived competences of ERs, in relation to task- and relationship conflicts between management and ERs, conflict behavior by ERs, and the relations with the perceived influence of ERs on decision making, and the quality of this decision making. We did so through three different studies.
Our first study was a systematic literature review on conflict and conflict behavior by ERs at organizational level. We found only a very limited number of empirical studies, and particularly few quantitative studies, investigating conflict and conflict behavior.
Our second and third study are based on a large multi-national survey. This was conducted in 12 EC member states, with 614 HR-managers participating.
Study two investigated the relations between perceived competences of ERs, their cooperative and competitive conflict behavior, and the perceived influence on the decision making related to traditional and innovative issues. Based on theories of competences, conflict behavior and influence, we tested our model, demonstrating that perceived competences are positively related with influence on both types of issues. This relation is partly mediated by conflict behavior. The theory of conglomerate conflict behavior is supported, with cooperative and competitive behavior contributing positively to perceived influence.
Study three investigated the relations between task and relationship conflict, conflict behavior and the quality of agreements. We tested hypotheses bases on theory of team conflicts and conglomerate conflict behavior. Task and relationship conflict are both negatively related to quality of agreements, with task conflict showing a stronger relation. This relation is partly mediated by conflict behavior. Both types of conflict are positively related with competitive behavior, and negatively with cooperative behavior. Both types of behavior however are positive related to quality of agreements.
In our concluding chapter (five), we summarize our findings, and discuss theoretical and practical implications.