What Moderates the Relation Between Intragroup Conflict, Emotional Exhaustion, and Work Engagement?

The present study investigated whether emotion regulation moderates the association between relationship conflict and group emotional exhaustion and whether conflict management moderates the association between task conflict and group work engagement in organizational workgroups. We conducted hierarchical regression and moderation analyses on questionnaire responses from the members of 91 workgroups (N = 595). The analyses revealed that emotion regulation via distraction moderated the influences of relationship conflict on group emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, a cooperative style of conflict management moderated the influences of task conflict on group work engagement. The findings suggest that distraction and a cooperative style are effective for moderating group emotional exhaustion and group work engagement respectively. Future research should use a more interpretive perspective to gain deeper insight on the ways of managing conflict at the workgroup level. This study suggests which strategies would be most useful for reducing group emotional exhaustion and for increasing group work engagemen