When Conflict Meets Cooperation: How Passion and Collectivism Sustain Helping

What is it about?

This study examines how employees maintain cooperative, helping behavior even when faced with task and relationship conflicts in the workplace. Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, it proposes that conflict drains psychological and emotional energy, prompting employees to withdraw support for others. However, two personal resources—passion for work and collectivistic orientation—can protect employees from this depletion, allowing them to stay helpful even under strain. Using survey data collected from banking-sector employees in Portugal, the study finds that conflict—whether about tasks or relationships—reduces helping behaviors because it fosters beliefs that coworkers are quarrelsome or uncooperative. Yet, this negative effect weakens significantly when employees are passionate about their work or guided by collectivistic values that emphasize harmony and mutual care. Passion helps employees reinterpret conflict as a challenge that motivates greater engagement, while collectivism encourages them to preserve group cohesion rather than retaliate or withdraw. Together, these results show that conflict does not inevitably erode cooperation—its impact depends on the emotional and cultural resources employees bring to work. In organizations where employees feel personally driven and socially connected, even disagreements can coexist with a strong spirit of helping. The study encourages managers to recognize that cultivating enthusiasm and collectivist values can turn conflict-prone workplaces into resilient, supportive communities.

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Photo by Cherrydeck on Unsplash

Photo by Cherrydeck on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study is unique because it integrates task and relationship conflict into a single resource-based framework, identifying passion for work and collectivistic orientation as parallel buffers that sustain cooperation. It advances COR theory by showing how personal emotional and cultural resources jointly protect employees from the energy depletion that typically follows workplace conflict. By emphasizing that cooperation can persist even amid disagreement, it reframes helping behavior as an active, resilient response to strain rather than its casualty. It is also timely, as organizations increasingly face friction from hybrid work, diverse teams, and economic uncertainty. In such environments, sustaining helping behavior is vital for collaboration and innovation. The study’s findings from Portugal—a context characterized by high collectivism and relational sensitivity—underscore the power of passion and shared cultural values to keep employees cooperative even in contentious times. Managers who nurture both intrinsic motivation and communal spirit can transform conflict from a source of division into an opportunity for growth and solidarity.