Gender Comparison for Conflict Experience and Consequences in Saudi Workplace

Abstract

This study aimed to compare the two genders in Saudi workplace for differences in how they perceive conflict and what are the consequences such as their performance, satisfaction and commitment. Saudi Arabia follows a patriarchy where women have been recently permitted to leave homes and join some professional occupations. This study will show whether women experience more task-focused conflict or interpersonal conflict at work compared to men or they fail to do so as a result of being grateful to be out there. Hypothesis are developed in view of existing research literature that Saudi women will experience more interpersonal conflict but also more task conflict due to their enthusiasm. Additionally, women will have higher job satisfaction, and commitment compared to men. A field study was conducted to collect a survey-based data to test the hypotheses. Results showed that as hypothesized, women experienced more conflict but also reported positive job attitudes such as satisfaction and commitment. We also tested if job attitudes were related to conflict and job attitudes. This study showed that women can contribute to the workplace in Saudi Arabia and that organizations should not only hire them in confidence but use the positive attitudes of women to improve work environment as well as performance on the whole.