Universalistic and Contingency Predictions of Employee Satisfaction and ConflictUniversalistic and Contingency Predictions of Employee Satisfaction and Conflict

This paper reviews contingency and universalistic theoretical rationales linking satisfaction and conflict to organic and mechanistic styles of structure and control. Predictions suggested by both theoretical perspectives are tested on data from 52 departments of 13 consumer reporting organizations. The findings support both universalistic and contingency predictions although different variables were found to be important in the predictions of satisfaction and conflict. In contrast to several recent studies, this study indicates that contingency variables are frequently as good as, or even better than universalistic variables as predictors of satisfaction and conflict.