The influence of situational features on perceived conflict styles and self-construals in work groups

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of situational features on self-construal and conflict styles in work group settings. A total of 504 participants completed a questionnaire about a cooperative or competitive task with members from an ingroup or outgroup. The major findings of this study include: (a) competitive group tasks lead to more dominating, avoiding, and third-party help and a great er emphasis of the independent self-construal than do cooperative group tasks; (b) ingroup situations lead to less avoiding and emotional expression, and a lesser emphasis of the independent self-construal than do outgroup situations; and (c) cooperative/ingroup situations lead to more integrating and more compromising than either cooperative/outgroup or competitive/ingroup situations, and a greater emphasis of the interdependent self-construal than cooperative/outgroup situations. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.