CONSIDERATION OF FUTURE CONSEQUENCES AND DECISION-MAKING PATTERNS AS DETERMINANTS OF CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STYLES
This research examines the influence of temporal considerations on preferences for different conflict management styles. It also explores the mediating effect of different decision-making patterns in determining these styles. This research proposes that the extent to which individuals consider future consequences of current activities significantly influences their decision-making patterns and consequently their preference for different conflict management styles which could be cooperative or competitive in nature. High consideration of future consequences (CFC) would lead to more vigilant decision-making patterns and reduced hyper-vigilant decision-making patterns, thereby reducing the preference for competitive conflict management styles, and an increasing preference for cooperative behaviour.
Mediation models were tested with data obtained from participants on the Mechanical Turk platform, and obtained mixed support for the proposed hypotheses. Specifically, this research found strong support for high CFC leading to a reduced preference for competitive behaviour and weak support for high CFC leading to increased preference for cooperative behaviour. It was also found that vigilant and hyper-vigilant decision-making patterns mediated the relationship between CFC and competitive conflict management styles. Implications of the findings are discussed.