The conflict literature, which has been mostly conducted in Western cultures, has assumed that members in a group perceive the similar levels of conflict. In contrast, research on conflict asymmetry-referring to members perceiving different levels of ...
The conflict literature, which has been mostly conducted in Western cultures, has assumed that members in a group perceive the similar levels of conflict. In contrast, research on conflict asymmetry-referring to members perceiving different levels of conflict in a group-has just begun. This paper integrates relational self theory in social psychology with conflict research in the organizational literature to predict the conditions under which conflict average versus conflict asymmetry generates positive outcomes at work (i.e., enhanced creativity) in Eastern cultures. Most people in Eastern cultures are the "relational self"-who define themselves by close relationships with others. In this paper, we develop hypotheses and present preliminary findings from an experiment.