Antagonistic and Nonantagonistic Dialectical Contradictions in Organizational Conflict

Abstract

This study examined the perceived importance of five dialectical contradictions to conflict episodes for 40 organizational employees. Using a revised version of the Retrospective Interview Technique and questionnaire data, organizational employees were asked to recall important conflict episodes, coded for issue type, over a 1-year time period. Following in-depth questions about the conflicts, a questionnaire was administered that asked participants to rate five dialectical contradictions according to their importance for each conflict episode. A second questionnaire was also administered that asked participants to determine if conflicts were dialectical (antagonistic and nonantagonistic) or nondialectical, relative to each conflict episode. Results reveal that all five dialectical contradictions were rated in the moderate range of importance to organizational conflict episodes. Ratings for differences among the five themes were significant for 3 of the 12 conflict issues identified. Results from the second questionnaire reveal that 49.9% of all conflicts were dialectical (15.7% antagonistic, 34.2% nonantagonistic), and 51.1% were nondialectical. Implications for future research are discussed.