title: Conflict Escalation in Response to Continued Pushy, Dominating Behaviour in the Workplace: Ideal and Everyday Response Strategies Examined
Creators: name: Short, Leonie Marianne
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2004
Subjects: subject: pushiness
subject: pushy behaviour
subject: behavior
subject: dominating behaviour
subject: conflict
subject: commmunication skills
subject: Social Rules Theory
subject: response
subject: responses
subject: dialectical theory
subject: work
subject: workplace
subject: workers

description: The aim of the current research program was to investigate the social context of escalation in response to continued pushy behaviour in the workplace. In doing so, this research program contributes to the development of communication skills by investigating the entire context of skills required for effective communication in managing everyday conflict in the workplace. The response class, Responding to continued pushy or dominating behaviour in the workplace, was selected as a vehicle for examining the context of escalation for two reasons. Firstly, this response class, by the very nature of pushy behaviour, embodies a continued interaction. In the past, assertive communication research has focused on one off responses rather than a continued interaction. Secondly, this response class has been identified in previous research as being of interest to assertiveness trainees (Cooley, 1979, Lefevre &amp; West, 1984, Wilson &amp; Gallios, 1993). The theoretical premise of the current research program resides in the application of Social Rules Theory to the difficult face-to-face communication situation, or response class, of responding to continued pushy behaviour in the workplace. In doing so, this approach also takes into account dialectical theory, conflict resolution theory, and the concept of response components that can be selected and/or combined in order to meet the requirements, or rules, of a specific situation. In adopting the Social Rules approach, the current research program addresses the key criticisms of the traditional approach to assertion and assertion training, namely that people behaving assertively are sometimes negatively evaluated for assertive behaviour (Wilson &amp; Gallois, 1993); and that assertion traditionally focused on the expressiveness of a response at the unintended cost of social or contextual appropriateness (Crawford, 1988); that finding a response is assertive does not delineate which aspects of the response are producing which types of effects (Galassi, 1978; Mullinix &amp; Galassi, 1981). Most importantly, the current research contributes to the field by examining the negative response class in terms of a response sequence of escalation, rather than a one-off response. This is new research and contributes to the field theoretically and to the conceptualisation of assertion and communication. In order to meet the goals of the current research program, the response class Responding to continued pushy behaviour in the workplace, was defined precisely in terms of the situational context. This response class implies a workplace relationship of an ongoing nature. Four other variables were involved in defining and investigating the situation. These were status, gender of message sender, gender of message receiver, and response level (initial response, first escalation or second escalation). The current program of research was carried out in a series of three related studies, and these four variables were examined in each of the three studies. The purpose of the first study was to elicit social rules and goals for interpersonally effective and appropriate escalation strategies in response to pushy dominating communication in the workplace. This study was conducted in two parts, a qualitative questionnaire completed by 20 females and 20 males, and two focus groups, one for females and one for males. Content analysis revealed a set of rules for an escalation sequence for each combination of status and gender. These rules were then operationalized, filmed and analysed in the second study. One hundred and twenty-three participants (64 females and 59 males) with work experience watched the operationalized responses and rated them on a series of seven scales. These scales were effectiveness in stopping the pushy behaviour (task effectiveness), effectiveness in maintaining the relationship (maintenance effectives), social appropriateness, interpersonal skill required, risk involved, personal difficulty in making the response, and likelihood of making the response. Analyses included descriptive statistics, which indicated that the operationalized responses were perceived to be effective and socially appropriate. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) were also conducted and revealed a number of significant interactions for each status level (manager, colleague, subordinate). The third and final study in this research program adopted a qualitative approach to examine continued pushy or dominating communication in the workplace. Eighty-two (45 female and 37 male) participants completed a qualitative questionnaire utilizing an open-ended approach. This questionnaire was designed for the purpose of the third study to elicit the typical behaviours, emotions and cognitions participants have in response to continued pushy behaviour in the workplace. Also, a data analysis process was designed specifically for the third study to provide an analytical procedure that was as systematically rigorous and replicable as possible. This process is explained in detail in Study 3. The results of the third study revealed differences between actual behaviour and rule based behaviour in response to continued pushy behaviour, namely that actual responses are more public and direct in nature, and more likely to promote destructive conflict escalation. This finding implies that typical responses are not as effective as rule based responses, highlighting the benefits of applying social rules to manage difficult face to face communication situations. In summary, the current research project utilized a multi-method approach in a series of three studies to reveal the nature of Social Rules based responses and typical responses. The results of this research program have implications for both the theory and practice of effective communication and effective communication training. Evaluation of both social rules based and typical responses have implications for communication trainees who wish to make informed choice based on a consideration of functionally effective behaviour and personal satisfaction. For example, social rules for escalation in response to continued pushy behaviour from a male manager may indicate that it is most effective for a female subordinate to acquiesce. However, the female subordinate may choose to violate social rules and risk being perceived as inappropriate and damaging the relationship, to achieve a super-ordinate goal or for personal satisfaction. Conversely, the social rules and responses developed in the current research program have implications for professional effectiveness in the workplace by providing guidelines for dealing with dominating behaviour.