Job satisfaction and work productivity: The role of conflict-management culture

Conflict-management culture is an important factor affecting job satisfaction and productivity in the workplace. We examined the effect of conflict-management culture on individual-level job satisfaction and productivity at work by analyzing data collected from bank tellers in the USA and Korea with multigroup path analysis using Mplus. Results suggested that a collaborative conflict-management culture had a positive effect, and a dominant conflict- management culture had a negative effect on job satisfaction in both USA and Korea. Results differed between the two countries in that in Korea (a) a dominant conflict-management culture was positively associated with productivity, and (b) an avoidant conflict-management culture was positively related to job satisfaction, but no significant effects for either of these were found in the USA. These findings suggest that cultural differences should be considered when exploring the effects of conflict-management styles on individual-level job satisfaction and productivity.