Redefining Conflict as Identity Communication

Addressing limitations of past conflict definitions (see Lewicki et al., 1997; Tjosvold, 2006), this paper seeks to redefine conflict as identity management communication (i.e., face-threatening communication) via two studies. In Study 1, we manipulated the number of face threats in a brief roommate conversation to determine whether subjects perceived different levels of face threat intensity (i.e., tactfulness and task-orientedness) and labeled the conversations conflicts. Our results indicated subjects perceived conversations with more face threats as less tactful and labeled those conversations conflicts rather than problem solving. In Study 2, we explored face threat exchange in 11 transcripts of actual divorce mediations. We found positive face threats are met with positive face threats whereas negative face threats are met with negative face threats. In sum, we defined conflict more narrowly to distinguish it from related concepts and make it an easier construct to explore, then found support for our definition.