Dissertation Proposal Defense Meeting

Date: Monday, November 5, 2018

Time: 12:30pm

Location: J.S. Coon Bldg. Room 217

Advisor:

Howard M. Weiss, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Dissertation Committee Members:

Kimberly A. French, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Jamie C. Gorman, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Christopher W. Wiese, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Matthew A. Cronin, Ph.D. (George Mason University)

Title: Workplace Conflict, Emotions, and Well-being: A Process Approach

Abstract: While emotions are integral to the study of human conflict, these topics are largely studied separately. This is an oversight. As put by Jehn (1997), “Emotions are an important element of conflict. They define individuals’ subjective interpretation of reality and reactions to current situations” (p. 532). Similarly, Jones and Bodtker (2001) note, “Once one accepts the idea of emotion as central to conflict, issues of how emotion influences the management of conflict become central as well” (p. 219). Despite their connection, there is limited work theoretically connecting emotion and conflict in a thorough and comprehensive manner. I review these areas to propose a study to better connect these areas and examine their effects on well-being. I propose that emotion and emotion regulation literatures can contribute to the understanding of conflict. Organizational conflict is certainly a context where emotions must be managed and should therefore include a process of emotion regulation. There are some investigations of emotion regulation as a moderator of conflict (e.g., Curşeu, Boroş, & Oerlemans, 2012; Jiang, Zhang, & Tjosvold, 2013; Thiel, Harvey, Courtright, & Bradley, 2017), but this work does not theoretically integrate the emotion regulation or emotional labor process perspectives to the study of conflict. I draw on recent theory of the role of emotions in conflict expression (Weingart, Behfar, Bendersky, & Jehn, 2015) and integrate theory from emotional labor to propose a study to better understand the conflict process and its effects on well-being.