Process Conflict and Negative Affect: The Role of Perceived Social Support at Work Place

Interpersonal conflict in organizations is one of the major factors influencing individual performance and well-being at work. It is natural, as people of different attitude and preference are come together in a work place, which may be task related, relationship related or process related. Understanding the influence of process conflict on the psychological well being of team members will help managers to handle conflict effectively. Being a psychological construct, studying the relevance of “affect state” in conflict situations becomes imperative. Hence this study investigates the effect of process conflict episodes on the negative affect state of the individual. Further, it also investigates the role of perceived social support in the relationship between process conflicts and affect states. The results indicated that there is a relationship between process conflicts and “negative affect state” of the individual and perceived social support moderates the relationship. It is evident that process conflict increases the negative affect state of the individual and providing social support can reduce the escalation of negative affect.