Digital Solutions for Workplace Conflict: Enhancing Mental Health and Job Performance

Workplace conflict is a pervasive challenge that affects employee mental health, job satisfaction, and overall performance. Traditionally, conflict resolution relied on face-to-face interactions, mediation sessions, or human resources interventions. However, the increasing digitization of the workplace—accelerated by remote and hybrid work models—has transformed how conflicts arise and are managed.

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, the modern workplace is being redefined by technological advancements—including Artificial Intelligence (AI)—that shape how employees communicate, collaborate, and manage conflict. With organizations increasingly adopting and depending on AI-enabled digital communication tools and platforms (e.g., email, instant messaging platforms, project management software, AI-powered chatbots, and virtual mediators), communication dynamics have fundamentally shifted. These tools offer employees flexible ways to collaborate but also introduce new avenues for misunderstandings, miscommunications, and conflict. In addition, remote work can reduce nonverbal cues, making it harder to interpret intentions and resolve issues constructively.

With organizations increasingly dependent on digital and AI-driven communication tools, the context and complexity of workplace relationships have fundamentally shifted, presenting new challenges and novel opportunities for fostering employee well-being and productivity.

As technology continues to permeate the workplace, this Research Topic seeks to investigate the future of digital and AI-based interventions in mitigating the negative effects of interpersonal conflict on job performance and mental health, and both the new challenges and novel opportunities in this realm. The collection welcomes articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

o The use of social media, digital tools, and AI solutions (such as AI-driven sentiment analysis and behavior monitoring) in mediating the relationship between workplace conflict and mental health;

o Effects of digital and AI-mediated interactions on employee mental health and well-being;

o The impact of blurred boundaries between formal and informal communication online, especially as AI technologies begin to automate, monitor, and analyze these interactions;

o How digital and AI-enabled interactions can escalate, resolve, or prevent workplace disputes;

o The dual role of digital platforms and AI systems as both sources of conflict and tools for conflict resolution and prevention;

o How digital and AI-based tools provide timely social support and access to mental health resources, such as AI-powered mental health chatbots;

o Practical digital and AI-driven solutions for healthy workplaces, including early conflict detection, automated mediation, and AI-informed HR strategies.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: digital solutions, workplace conflict, workplace conflict mediation, workplace conflict and mental health, mental health resources

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.