Understanding the connections between relationship conflict and performance: The intervening roles of trust and exchange

Research shows that relationship conflict has a negative impact on job performance. There is scant theoretical work, however, explaining the interpersonal dynamics that lead to this outcome. A conceptual model is developed that explores how relationship conflict impacts performance through its effects on trust and exchange. We argue that relationship conflict has a detrimental effect on trust motivating coworkers to rely more on calculus-based trust than on relationship-based trust. This, in turn, affects the form of exchange coworkers use with one another, leading them to rely on negotiated exchange to the exclusion of reciprocal exchange. This kind of exchange relationship, finally, affects in-role, extra-role, and attitudinal outcomes. The literature shows that superordinate goals can mitigate relationship conflict and we use social and self-categorization theories to explain and explore this effect on both relationship conflict and trust. How trust and exchange might change over time is also explored. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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