“I don't have time for this”: Time perspectives and conflict management message styles

• Published date: 01 June 2024
• Author: Eric Fife,C. Leigh Nelson
• Date: 01 June 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21421

RESEARCH ARTICLE

“I don't have time for this”: Time perspectives

and conflict management message styles

Eric Fife | C. Leigh Nelson

School of Communication Studies, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA

Correspondence

Eric Fife, School of Communication

Studies, James Madison University,

54 Bluestone Drive, MSC 2106,

Harrisonburg, VA 22807, USA.

Email: fifeem@jmu.edu

Abstract

Two web survey studies were conducted to examine the

connection between people's time perspectives and the

conflict management message styles they were likely to

endorse. People view time in multiple ways from the

past, present and/or future perspectives. These studies

examine whether time perspectives are important pre-

dictors of how one approaches conflict and specifically

the messages they are likely to endorse, and thus are

more likely to use themselves. In the undergraduate

sample, self-oriented conflict message use was posi-

tively correlated to a past negative and a present fatalis-

tic perspective of time. Self-oriented conflict message

use was negatively related to a past positive and future

orientation time perspective. Other-oriented message

usage was positively correlated to a past negative, pre-

sent hedonist, present fatalistic, and transcendental ori-

entation toward time. Issue-oriented message use was

positively correlated with a past negative, present fatal-

istic, future, and transcendental orientation toward

time. Utilizing an online sample, self-oriented conflict

management message use was positively correlated to a

past negative, present hedonistic, present fatalistic and

transcendental perspective of time. Self-oriented

Received: 4 May 2023 Revised: 27 September 2023 Accepted: 18 December 2023

DOI: 10.1002/crq.21421

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits

use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or

adaptations are made.

© 2024 The Authors. Conflict Resolution Quarterly published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Conflict Resolution Quarterly. 2024;41:475–489. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/crq 475