A Tactical View of Anger During Conflict: When Does It Work?

Tom Goddard — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:42:04 -0400

All of us have either seen anger used, or have used it ourselves, in a workplace conflict. It’s safe to say that sometimes it is effective in getting the result the angry person seeks, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes it backfires and makes matters worse, generating stubbornness in the person who is the object of the anger.

Van Kleef and Cote have looked at the question of whether there is a pattern to when anger works and when it does not, and have concluded that it has something to do with the appropriateness of the expression of anger and the relative power of the two involved in the conflict.