Public release date: 19-Aug-2008
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Contact: Christa Poole
christa.poole@utoronto.ca
416-978-6974
University of Toronto

The price of power at work?

Men and younger workers with authority encounter more conflict on the job, says U of T

TORONTO, ON. – 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.

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

For more information, please contact:

Scott Schieman, Department of Sociology
Office - 416-946-5905
Scott.schieman@utoronto.ca

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