UC Irvine

In this study we investigate the role of supervisors in managing workplace conflict, with a focus on introducing and empirically testing a new construct called Supervisor Conflict Management Support (SCMS). The results confirm preliminary theory of how SCMS influences conflict resolution and organizational outcomes, including contextual factors such as conflict severity and expression norms. The results demonstrate that SCMS significantly improves conflict resolution outcomes and enhances organizational commitment while reducing employees’ intent to stay. Moderating analyses revealed that SCMS is most effective under lower conflict severity and restrictive expression norms. By examining supervisor conflict management support in a high-stakes organizational context, the findings contribute to advancing conflict management theory and offer practical insights for supervisory training aiming to improve workplace conflict resolution.