Are Trust and Distrust Antithetical? Explores the Impacts on Conflict Management Styles and Subjective Values in the Construction Industry

Abstract

When interorganizational conflict arises within a construction project, the choice of conflict management styles significantly influences the evaluation of conflict resolution outcomes. However, contradictory findings in existing research have led to ambiguous guidance regarding how interorganizational trust influences conflict resolution. From the social embeddedness perspective, this study constructs a moderated mediation model of conflict resolution and proposes a set of hypotheses. It distinguishes interorganizational trust into two dimensions: trust and distrust, investigating their respective effects on conflict management styles and subjective values, with the conflict intensity as a moderator. Employing multivariate hierarchical regression analysis, this study tests the hypotheses with questionnaire data collected from the construction industry. The results reveal that the effects of trust and distrust are not opposite but rather asymmetric, contrary to common intuition. Specifically, trust exerts a greater effect on integrative behavior, while distrust exerts a greater effect on distributive behavior. Moreover, conflict intensity negatively moderates the positive relationship between distrust and distributive behavior, as well as between trust and integrative behavior. Integrative behavior promotes both instrumental subjective value and self-subjective value, while distributive behavior promotes instrumental and process subjective value. This study constructs the mechanism for the conflict resolution process and provides practical guidance for construction project managers to adopt strategic and effective approaches in managing interorganizational conflicts.