Interpersonal conflict and innovative job performance: examining cross-lagged relationships and the moderating roles of goal orientations

This study examines the cross-lagged relationships between interpersonal conflict types (i.e., task, process, and relationship) and individual innovative job performance (IJP). We also examine the moderating roles of employees' goal orientations (mastery and performance goal orientations) in these relationships. Utilizing time-lagged data collected from 235 Pakistani employees, we observed negative associations between task, process, and relationship conflicts and employee IJP. Furthermore, we found that employee mastery goal orientation reduces the detrimental effects of interpersonal conflict types on IJP, while performance goal orientation increases these negative effects. This study sheds light on the adverse impacts of interpersonal conflict types on employees' IJP and elucidates the influence of employee goal orientations on these relationships.