The Association of Subordinates' Perception of the Manager's Ambiguous Behaviors With the Likelihood of Conflict Occurrence: a Cross-Cultural Study

Abstract

The research aims to provide evidence to explain the contradictive findings in the literature on the organizational conflict phenomenon and the relationship between conflict and culture, by focusing on the relationship between ambiguous behaviors and conflict. To achieve this goal, in the context of low-status compensation theory, the relationship between incivility, humor as ambiguous behaviors, and the likelihood of managersubordinate conflict occurrence was investigated. To test the culture’s effect on this relationship, survey data were collected from 478 white-collar subordinates working in SMEs in Turkey and the UK. According to the results, the subordinate’s perception of the manager’s ambiguous behaviors affects the likelihood of relationship conflict and task conflict occurrence. In addition, the study reveals that culture is associated with the likelihood of relationship conflict occurrence but not task conflict. The study contributes to the literature by providing evidence for the relationship between humor, incivility, conflict, and culture. © 2024 International Association for Conflict Management.