Research Deep Dive Day 4: Workplace Conflict

Research Deep Dive - Day 4 of The Quiet Power Playbook

The Quiet Power Playbook: For kind leaders who want promotions, not politics

By Martin Schweinsberg, Ph.D. | kindandquiet.com

The $359 Billion Problem: Understanding Workplace Conflict Costs

The CPP Global Human Capital Report (2008)¹ tries to estimate of how much workplace conflict costs in dollar terms. Their methodology is simple, probably a little too simple, but on the other hand also easy to understand and transparent:

The Calculation:

• They Surveyed ~5,000 employees across 9 countries
• U.S. employees reported spending 2.8 hours/week "dealing with conflict"
• Average hourly earnings in 2008: $17.95
• Total estimate: 2.8 hours × $17.95 × total paid hours = $359 billion annually

Critical Analysis:

I’m usually very skeptical when I read these seemingly astronomical estimates. They sound like clickbait. However, this estimate of $359 billion annual costs to the U.S. economy at least seems to be based on a relatively simple empirical basis. The authors of this report surveyed around 5,000 employees from the U.S. and eight other countries. Unfortunately, the report doesn’t contain the raw questions that survey participants were asked, so we have to make some inferences. U.S. employees in their sample estimated that they spend 2.8 hours per week “dealing with conflict”. The authors then took the average hourly earnings ($17.95 in 2008), and then multiplied 2,8 hours with the average hourly earnings, and with the number of total paid hours in 2008. See page 2 in the report for more on this. This resulted in the headline estimate of $359 billion.

Is that a perfect estimate? Obviously not, but at least it’s somewhat transparent and understandable. It clearly also makes a number of assumptions, and simplifies things a lot. Does conflict have no value? Is an hour spent on resolving a conflict really a cost? What if the conflict is about an important production process, and the solution now makes the entire production 10% more efficient? And how should we think about conflicts that are avoided? They don’t appear at all in this estimate, but should we really treat these as having no cost? The reality is clearly more complex, but this estimate at least gives us a sense of how prevalent and costly conflict at work might be.

The Stanford CEO Study: Complete Findings

Larcker et al. (2013)² surveyed executives about their development needs, revealing surprising priorities:

Full Results (see page 2 in the report):

• 43% rated conflict management as highest need
• 35% cited delegation skills
• 32% mentioned decision-making
• 28% highlighted team building
• Only 22% mentioned vision/strategy

Methodology Notes:

The study included more than 200 CEOs, board directors and senior executives. Conflict management ranked highest across all company sizes, suggesting this isn't just a "startup problem", it's universal. I don't know of any research to back this up, but my own sense is that if anything, there is more conflict as organizations get bigger.

Daily Negotiation Research: The Hidden Prevalence

A study by Matteo di Stasi, Jordi Quoidbach, and myself ³ revealed that people spend approximately 25% of social interactions negotiating—presumably resolving conflicts. This experience sampling study tracked participants across multiple days, and we asked people: "what are you doing right now"? This helped us measure what people actually do, rather than what they remember they did.

Key Findings:

• Negotiation frequency correlates with well-being. It seems that people are less happy directly after or during a negotiation, but that if they have negotiated, their happiness increases a few days later.
• The relationship is clearly complex and we didn't have random assignment, so there's a question about causality (does negotiating 'cause' these things, or do these things just correlate with negotiations?).
• A plausible interpretation: people typically don't enjoy negotiating in the moment (and are a little less happy directly after a negotiation), but there are real benefits to having negotiated (for example, a conflict has been resolve) and these benefits allow people to be happier in the long run
• People underestimate how often they negotiate
• Workplace negotiations are often informal and unrecognized. I call these stealth negotiations.

Practical Integration Strategies

For Balanced Pragmatists (High Balance + Low Exploration):

1. Set yourself a "Creativity Timer": Five minutes to generate options before you decide
2. Partner with someone high in Exploration for complex conflicts
3. Use your natural tendency to be calm to de-escalate, then pause before your move on

For Balanced Explorers (High Balance + High Exploration):

1. Time-box yourself and your partners so you don't get distracted: "We'll explore for 15 minutes, then decide"
2. Set decision criteria in advance to prevent endless analysis
3. Use your win-win vision to build coalitions

For Sensitive Pragmatists (Low Balance + Low Exploration):

1. Schedule "processing time" after conflicts before making decisions
2. Use your authenticity strategically—vulnerability can be powerful
3. Write down your initial solution, then force yourself to generate two more

For Sensitive Explorers (Low Balance + High Exploration):

1. Create structured frameworks to contain your option generation
2. Use your emotional intelligence to read what others really need
3. Partner with a Pragmatist for execution after you've designed the solution

References

💡 Can’t access these papers? Here’s how to get them legally (often free), and here’s why it costs $40 in the first place.

1. CPP Global. (2008). Workplace conflict and how businesses can harness it to thrive. Mountain View, CA: CPP, Inc.Link
2. Larcker, D. F., Miles, S., Tayan, B., & Gutman, M. (2013). 2013 executive coaching survey. Stanford Graduate School of Business.Link
3. Stasi, M., Schweinsberg, M., & Quoidbach, J. (2024). Daily negotiation and its effects on well-being. Manuscript in preparation.OSF link

The Quiet Power Playbook: For kind leaders who want promotions, not politics

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Martin Schweinsberg, Ph.D. (ESMT Berlin)

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