Interaction of Task Conflict, Relationship Conflict and Job Satisfaction

Given the underrepresented empirical evidence on the association between conflict and job satisfaction particularly on the individual level analysis, our study investigates the interaction between age, gender and education level and perception of job satisfaction and conflict. The purpose of this study is to provide confirmatory evidence that conflict and demographic characteristic have significant association with job satisfaction among employees in Croatia. Findings from this preliminary research indicate that as employees experience more task conflicts, the relationship conflict increases while job satisfaction decreases. Moreover, relationship conflict has stronger association with job satisfaction (particularly on satisfaction with the coworkers) in comparison with the association of task conflict, which is consistent with the literature on the subject. Surprisingly, job satisfaction among Croatian employees varies with age, whereas no significant differences appears across gender or education groups. Implicitly, the results raise the questions about employers', managers' and human resources practitioners' awareness of the conflict and job satisfaction predictors or controlling factors.