Handling conflict at work – the impact of active and agreeable conflict styles

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the relationships between emotional intelligence (EI), conflict management styles and job performance in a Chinese cultural context. Design/methodology/approach – The present paper uses a cross-sectional research design. Paper-based questionnaires were distributed to employees working in the R & D department of a science and technology institute in Taiwan. In total, 300 questionnaires were distributed and 248 valid questionnaires were analyzed, with a return rate of 81.4 per cent. Findings – The results show that EI has a positive impact on job performance. Furthermore, agreeable conflict style positively moderated between EI and job performance, whereas active conflict style has negative moderating effect. Research limitations/implications – Due to the research design, sample and data collection method, the research results may lack representativeness. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to use a different approach in the future. Practical implications – Organizatio...