Breaking Barriers: How Emotional and Cultural Intelligence Shape Conflict Management and Workplace Success – A Higher Order SEM Comparison

The purpose of this research is to explore the effects of organizational conflict on organizational performance, with a particular emphasis on the mediating functions of emotional intelligence (EI), cultural intelligence (CQ), as well as moderating effects caused by conflict management styles. Additionally, it compares the results obtained from two structural equation models (SEM): a traditional SEM and a higher order SEM. Data were collected from 250 employees through convenience sampling in various organizational settings using survey questionnaire, assessing organizational conflict, EI, CQ, conflict management styles, and performance measures. Structural equation modelling techniques were employed to analyses the relationships between these variables. Two models were constructed: a traditional SEM and a higher order SEM, with the latter incorporating latent higher order constructs of EI and CQ. Between organizational conflict and performance, strong adverse links are discovered through initial analyses between organizational conflict and performance. The outcome of SEM 1 reveals that conflict supervision means can influence the affiliation between organizational conflict, and performance. Mediation analysis indicated that EI and CQ partially mediated this relationship. Further investigation in SEM 2 aims to scrutinize the curbing impact of conflict management styles on these relationships and their collective impact on performance outcomes. Comparative analysis between the two SEMs highlighted the superiority of the higher order SEM in capturing the complexity of the relationships among variables. This paper adds to the literature by offering insights into the mechanisms through which EI, CQ, and conflict management styles influence the outcome of organizational conflict on organizational performance. Moreover, the comparison between traditional and higher order SEM provides methodological advancements, enhancing the understanding of these relationships in organizational research.