The Price of Power at Work? Men and Younger Workers with Authority Encounter More Conflict on the Job

Newswise — 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.

The study findings are published in the August edition of the journal Work and Occupations.