TORONTO, ON. – Individuals with a more senior level of job authority have higher levels of interpersonal conflict according to new research out of the University of Toronto.
The study conducted by Scott Schieman, a professor of sociology at the University of Toronto and Sarah Reid, a PhD candidate, involved data from a 2005 sample of 1,785 working adults in the United States. This is the first study of a nationally representative sample that documents the link between power and conflict in the workplace across a broad cross-section of jobs and sectors.
"We show that a highly desired attribute of the job—authority—comes with some interpersonal costs, but those costs aren't distributed equally across key social groups," said Schieman.
The study found that:
- Workers with higher levels of job authority report significantly higher levels of exposure to interpersonal conflict from all sources at work;
- Men with authority report more conflict than similarly-positioned women;
- Younger workers with power report the highest level of conflict with others in the workplace.
Source: University of Toronto