Skewed Task Conflicts in Teams: What Happens When a Few Members See More Conflict Than the Rest?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Sinha, Ruchi; Janardhanan, Niranjan S.; Greer, Lindred L.; Conlon, Donald E.; Edwards, Jeffery R.
• 署名单位: University of South Australia; University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin; Stanford University; Michigan State University; University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/apl0000059
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 1045-1055
• 关键词: teams; CONFLICT; skewness; reflective communication

摘要

Task conflict has been the subject of a long-standing debate in the literature-when does task conflict help or hurt team performance? We propose that this debate can be resolved by taking a more precise view of how task conflicts are perceived in teams. Specifically, we propose that in teams, when a few team members perceive a high level of task disagreement while a majority of others perceive low levels of task disagreement-that is, there is positively skewed task conflict, task conflict is most likely to live up to its purported benefits for team performance. In our first study of student teams engaged in a business decision game, we find support for the positive relationship between skewed task conflict and team performance. In our second field study of teams in a financial corporation, we find that the relationship between positively skewed task conflict and supervisor ratings of team performance is mediated by reflective communication within the team.