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This article explores the linkages between strategies for managing different types of conflict and group
performance and satisfaction. Results from a qualitative study of 57 autonomous teams suggest that
groups that improve or maintain top performance over time share 3 conflict resolution tendencies: (a)
focusing on the content of interpersonal interactions rather than delivery style, (b) explicitly discussing
reasons behind any decisions reached in accepting and distributing work assignments, and (c) assigning
work to members who have the relevant task expertise rather than assigning by other common means
such as volunteering, default, or convenience. The authors’ results also suggest that teams that are
successful over time are likely to be both proactive in anticipating the need for conflict resolution and
pluralistic in developing conflict resolution strategies that apply to all group members.
A great deal of empirical and theoretical attention has been in the presence of trust is more likely to result in positive effects
focused in the past decade on intragroup conflict and its impact on than where trust is low (Simons & Peterson, 2000). Building on
team performance (see De Dreu & Weingart, 2003, and Jehn & these developments, we take a closer look at the effects of conflict
Bendersky, 2003, for reviews). Two recent developments in this resolution (i.e., vs. absolute level of conflict). We want to know
line of research are the impetus for this article. First, the intragroup how conflict resolution tactics are associated with the impact of
conflict literature has begun to question the notion that measuring task, relationship, and process conflicts on group outputs, and how
levels of conflict by using the tri-partite classification (i.e., task, different approaches to managing each type of conflict are asso-
relationship, and process conflict) will reliably explain group per- ciated with increases versus decreases in team performance. In
formance. For example, a recent meta-analysis has cast doubt on doing so, we suggest that the way a team manages its conflicts is
the usefulness of this classification by questioning the widely critically important for predicting team viability and over time
theorized benefits of task conflict and suggesting that task conflict performance.
predicts similar negative outcomes to relationship conflict (De
Dreu & Weingart, 2003). A number of scholars have also reported
negative and contradictory associations between process conflict The Role of Conflict Management in Predicting Team
and performance (e.g., Jehn & Mannix, 2001). Outcomes
The second and related development in the group conflict liter-
A number of scholars have argued that conflict management,
ature is the move away from the notion that different types of
and particularly conflict resolution, is an important predictor of the
conflict have a direct impact on performance—instead scholars are
group and/or dyadic conflict–performance relationship (Jehn &
increasingly suggesting that various aspects of group process and
Bendersky, 2003; Marks, Mathieu, & Zaccaro, 2001; Mathieu &
group dynamics serve to ameliorate or exacerbate the impact
Schulze, 2006; Tinsley, 2001; Weingart, 1992; Williams &
conflict has on group outcomes generally (see Jehn, 1997, and
O’Reilly, 1988). In theorizing about this key role for conflict
Jehn & Bendersky, 2003, for a review). For example, task conflict
management, previous research suggests that a process for man-
aging conflict can help to reduce the negative impact of all types
of conflict by restoring fairness, process effectiveness, resource
Kristin J. Behfar, The Paul Merage School of Business, University of efficiency, working relationships, and/or satisfaction of parties
California, Irvine; Randall S. Peterson, Organisational Behaviour, London
(e.g., Thomas, 1992). For example, Tjosvold (1991) has argued
Business School, London, United Kingdom; Elizabeth A. Mannix, The John-
son Graduate School of Management, Cornell University; William M. K.
that a cooperative approach to conflict resolution allows conflict of
Trochim, Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University. a variety of types to be resolved in a way that is beneficial to the
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Kristin J. group. The procedural justice literature similarly supports the
Behfar, The Paul Merage School of Business, The University of California, notion that a process of conflict management that allows groups to
Irvine, Irvine, CA 92698. E-mail: kbehfar@uci.edu resolve their conflicts fairly will result in conflict of all types being
170
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN TEAMS 171
more effectively resolved, leading to more desirable group out- comes. We ask questions such as how do some teams manage
comes. The group value model, for example, posits that individuals relationship conflict and avoid its usual negative impact, while
benchmark their status in a group on the basis of how procedures others do not? More specifically, are there particular conflict
are applied to them during group process (Lind & Earley, 1992). resolution tactics that allow for the effective resolution of relation-
Team conflicts, whether latent or overt, often manifest themselves ship conflict? Why does task conflict manifest itself as construc-
as process-based conflicts in the form of passive-aggressive be- tive debate in some teams but as open fighting in other teams? In
haviors such as power plays, blaming, tardiness, or withholding other words, are there specific conflict resolution tactics that a
information (Edelmann, 1993; J. Wall & Callister, 1995). The team can chose that will allow for effective management of task
manner in which members treat each other while working through conflict? Do certain conflict resolution tactics work across all
problems changes expectations for the next group interaction, for types of conflict? Or does each type of conflict require different
member satisfaction with the group (Lind & Tyler, 1988), and for conflict resolution strategies?
member willingness to continue contributing to the group proac-
tively (Jehn, 1997). This Study: Linking Conflict Resolution Strategies With
Moreover, there is also a growing body of evidence to suggest
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
that, over time, the actions and reactions groups have to past
performance and evolving group dynamics leave teams prone to Our purpose in this study is to examine specific conflict reso-
some degree of chronic conflict, conflict spirals, and/or rigidity in lution strategies in groups to better understand their potential
their process management (Ancona & Chong, 1996; Arrow, Poole, effects on group outcomes (e.g., performance and satisfaction). To
Henry, Wheelan, & Moreland, 2004; De Dreu & VanVianen, accomplish this, we look at teams with consistently high or in-
2001; Kuhn & Poole, 2000; Peterson & Behfar, 2003; Rahim, creasing group performance and member satisfaction and consis-
2002). One critical key to understanding group performance lies in tently low or decreasing group performance and member satisfac-
better understanding the choices groups make in choosing conflict tion over time in order to see which conflict resolution strategies
resolution strategies to deal with this conflict. These choices are are associated with each of three commonly measured conflict
key to understanding a team’s ability to successfully learn and types: task, relationship, and process conflict. Task or cognitive
adapt task strategies to meet performance criteria (e.g., Argyris, conflict is disagreement over differences in ideas, viewpoints, and
1982; Edmondson, 1999). If teams make conflict resolution opinions pertaining to the group’s task (Amason & Sapienza,
choices that do not allow the team to resolve conflict effectively, 1997). Relationship conflict is disagreement resulting from inter-
those teams are likely to be prone to continuous, escalating con- personal incompatibilities, which includes affective components
flicts as members spend time reacting to provocative conflict such as feeling tension and friction. Process conflict is conflict
behaviors of other team members rather than focusing on the task about dividing and delegating responsibility and deciding how to
at hand. Teams that can adapt their processes appropriately, how- get work done (Jehn, 1997, p. 540). Each of these conflicts has
ever, are more likely to create teams where members are satisfied been theorized to result in different group dynamics, but very little
and performance is enhanced. is known about specific strategies teams employ to manage the
The conflict management process encompasses a wide range of different types of conflict or the efficacy of these strategies. In this
activities, including communication, problem solving, dealing study, we are specifically interested in understanding (a) how
with emotion, and understanding positions (Brett, 2001; Pondy, groups perceive that they have managed each type of conflict and
1992; Putnam & Poole, 1987). Conflict management behaviors (b) how different conflict management approaches are associated
have primarily been studied either as “individual styles” that are with strong or weak outcomes in team performance and satisfac-
stable traits of individuals, as types of behaviors (such as threats or tion. By understanding how groups experience and respond to
compromises), or as generalized behavioral orientations (e.g., different types of conflicts, we also hope to understand how
avoiding, accommodating, compromising, competing, problem performance spirals (both upward and downward) are established
solving; see Folger, Poole, & Stutman, 2001, for a review of the (cf. Lindsley, Brass, & Thomas, 1995).
multiple frameworks). Previous research in this tradition has Because relatively little research has examined the impact of
shown that different conflict management orientations (e.g., col- intragroup (i.e., as opposed to individual member) conflict reso-
laborating, competing, accommodating) affect success at the indi- lution strategies, we begin by examining the strategies that auton-
vidual and team levels (Blake & Mouton, 1964; De Dreu, 1997; omous work groups create to self-manage their team conflict. We
Morrill & Thomas, 1992; Putnam & Poole, 1987; Rahim, 1983; chose to investigate conflict management in autonomous teams for
Ruble & Thomas, 1976). For example, cooperative or collabora- two reasons. First, autonomous groups have become more preva-
tive orientations increase effectiveness in managing task conflict lent in the past 20 years, although often called by different names,
(De Dreu, 2006; Tjosvold, Hui, & Yu, 2003). Relationship con- including self-managing work teams, leaderless groups, high per-
flict, however, is typically described as needing to be managed formance teams, and shared leadership teams (Cohen & Ledford,
differently, with some studies recommending avoidance of rela- 1994). Autonomous teams are also widely used in academic set-
tionship conflict altogether (e.g., De Dreu & VanVianen, 2001) tings both as classroom tools as well as for research samples in
and other studies reporting that avoidance orientations increase academic research (Loyd, Thompson, & Kern, 2005). Second, in
negative emotion (Desivilya & Yagil, 2005). The present article theory, autonomous teams are particularly well suited to illustrate
builds on this tradition but takes a more fine-grained look at how the management of team processes, such as communication
conflict management tactics (as opposed to generalized strategies and conflict management, can enhance versus detract from team
such as “cooperation”) by trying to get a better understanding of viability. Because decision-making power about team processes is
the effects of specific conflict resolution strategies on group out- shifted from a manager directly to team members, autonomous
172 BEHFAR, PETERSON, MANNIX, AND TROCHIM
team members are also responsible for managing the communica- did not have formally appointed leaders, and they were jointly
tion and conflict that results from task decisions and subsequent responsible for the outcomes of the group. None of these demo-
group processes. Since team viability, or sustainable success over graphic variables were significantly associated with our key per-
time, depends on a team’s ability to adapt in response to changes formance measures and so were not analyzed further.
in the environment, to learn from feedback, and to resolve conflicts Although students used their same study groups to do problem
when faced with differences between old ways of doing things and sets in accounting and economics, the measurement used for
new performance expectations (Arrow, McGrath, & Berdahl, performance in this study was from their graded group assign-
2000; Hackman & Morris, 1975; Ilgen, John, & Jundt, 2005; ments in the organizational behavior core course because problem
McGrath, 1991; Okhuysen & Eisenhardt, 2002; Poole, Siebold, & sets had little variance in performance (i.e., they were mostly
McPhee, 1996; Vancouver, 2000), autonomous teams should be correct). The organizational behavior course assignments consisted
particularly well placed to display this type of adaptability. In of two five-page case analyses, worth 20% and 30%, respectively,
practice, however, the empirical evidence has been mixed (see of their final course grades. The two case analysis assignments
Beekun, 1989; Cohen & Ledford, 1994; Cummings & Griggs, represent non-routine tasks, as teams were responsible for identi-
1977; Pasmore, Francis, & Haldeman, 1982; T. Wall, Kemp, fying the management problem represented in the case and for
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
Jackson, & Clegg, 1986). Studies have found that autonomous recommending management actions for resolving the problem on
teams exhibit productivity declines over time, higher turnover the basis of research and theory presented in the core organiza-
rates, coordination problems, and declining member motivation tional behavior course. The core course met three times per week
(Cordery, Mueller, & Smith, 1991; Goodman, Devadas, & Hugh- over 10 weeks. The first paper was due in Week 4, the second in
son, 1988; Guzzo, 1982; Howell, Bowen, Dorfman, & Podskaoff, Week 9. Students were given cases to prepare and were asked to
1990; Moorhead, Neck, & West, 1998; Steiner, 1972). Therefore, “demonstrate your ability to apply what you have learned in
autonomous teams represent a critical test of how the use of selective and creative ways to analyze and diagnose organizational
specific conflict resolution tactics either facilitates or hinders ef- problems and solve them.”
fective conflict resolution.
Procedure and Measures
Method
Overview of Procedure
Research Setting and Participants
The data analyzed below are a mix of qualitative and quantita-
The research sample was the entire 1st-year MBA class of 252 tive analyses. We specifically make links between the qualitative
students, or 65 study teams, at an East Coast graduate school of process and quantitative outcome data. Open-ended survey ques-
management. The participants worked in the same teams across all tions were used to gather the qualitative data about team norms,
four of their first semester core curriculum classes, and the team conflicts, and conflict management, which were analyzed both by
portion of their work counted for at least 40% of each individual’s study participants and academic experts. We chose the open-ended
grade in each class. This sample was chosen because it constituted survey format because it elicits brief yet detailed team member
newly forming, intact autonomous groups with no previous his- accounts, minimizes demand characteristics because it does not
tory. Their workload was sufficiently heavy to make task interde- constrain team members’ options to discuss certain types of con-
pendence necessary, and their performance outcomes (i.e., grades) flict/management behaviors, and usually captures the most salient
were important to individuals’ academic standing (i.e., there were or important aspects of team processes (Fine & Elsbach, 2000;
probation consequences for low team grades) and job prospects Miles & Huberman, 1994). We chose not to use existing conflict
(for both recruiting and tuition reimbursement). In addition, the management inventories in this study because we were interested
school is relatively small, so it was highly likely that the team in capturing detail about team-level development and application
members would work together again in the course of their MBA of different strategies to different types of conflict. Therefore, we
program. Thus, while these were student teams, the atmosphere rely on a more participant-driven method of inquiry. Survey data
and consequences of the work were a reasonable simulation of were also collected to assess satisfaction.
autonomous business teams with both task-related work as well as
social relationship and reputation consequences if the groups
Measures
failed. The fact that the teams were newly forming and began their
work with the same baseline resources was also important to this Surveys. The teams were administered two surveys that in-
study in terms of differentiating the effectiveness of team conflict cluded both open-ended questions and close-ended measures. The
management strategies. first survey was administered after teams had completed their first
The students were an average age of 29 years; 27% women, group assignment but before they received a grade for that assign-
73% men; 34% born outside the United States; with an average of ment (Time 1). Measurement was taken prior to the participants
4.7 years of full-time work experience after completing undergrad- receiving their grades to ensure that they reported their observa-
uate degrees in a wide range of managerial and technical positions. tions about their group experiences instead of their reactions to the
Groups were randomly assigned with 3– 4 members, with the group’s grade. The Time 1 survey contained an open-ended ques-
caveat that each team contained at least 1 student born outside of tion about team norms and a close-ended measure of satisfaction,
the United States. With the exception of a few students, most of the along with other items relevant to the course but not used in this
foreign-born students had spent between 4 and 10 years living, study. The open-ended question asked respondents to describe
attending university, and/or working in the United States. Teams their team norms, defined as written or unwritten patterns of
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN TEAMS 173
beliefs, attitudes, communication, and behaviors that become es- needed at least 3 respondents to be included). There was no
tablished among team members (cf. Feldman, 1984; Guzzo & apparent pattern in the non-responses—members of these teams
Shea, 1992). While the focus of the study was on conflict resolu- came from a wide range of performance and satisfaction scores. Of
tion, we wanted to cross-reference normative data with our reso- the teams, 57 responded at the required level on both surveys to be
lution findings as a way of validating our conclusions and to included in our dataset here, and 8 did not respond and were
compare early versus later team norms as a reflection of how subsequently dropped from all analyses.
effective the strategies were (in addition to performance and sat- Team outcome measures. In order to investigate associations
isfaction scores; Jick, 1979). The teams received their grade for with team outcomes, team grade and team member satisfaction
their first group assignment only after Time 1 surveys were col- were treated as “outcome” measures. Because conflict manage-
lected. ment represents a convergence of cognitive and emotional forces
The Time 2 survey was identical to the Time 1 survey but also on group decision making (Folger et al., 2001; Hackman & Morris,
included two open-ended questions asking team members to de- 1975; J. Wall & Callister, 1995), team grade was the variable we
scribe the conflicts (if any) they had since their first group assign- chose to represent a group’s ability to successfully adapt its task
ment and how they addressed or managed those conflicts. During management strategies. Satisfaction was the variable we chose to
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
the term, respondents were directed to think about their team represent how well a group was managing the social or affective
experience since their first assignment (T1 measurement) and side of its work.
describe “What types of conflicts or disagreements arose in your Grades with a possible range of 60 to 100 were assigned by one
team?” and “How did your team manage or resolve these conflicts of two class professors who taught identical content but different
or disagreements?” The Time 2 survey was administered after they sections of the course. Both professors used the same grading
completed their second group assignment but before they received criteria and point systems for grading the cases. The performance
a grade for that assignment or for their final course grade. We scores at Time 1 ranged between 70 and 95, with a standardized
chose to collect data about conflict and conflict management only mean and median of 80 for both professors. The performance
at Time 2 because we were interested in capturing conflict man- scores at Time 2 ranged between 70 and 95, with a standardized
agement strategies during a complete team performance episode mean and median of 84 for both professors. See Table 1 for
(Marks et al., 2001), defined as distinguishable periods of time descriptive statistics on these data.
over which performance accrues and feedback is available (p. Satisfaction was measured with five items rated on a 9-point
359). Since teams are not particularly aware of the effectiveness of Likert scale adapted from Peterson (1997) that included asking
their process/task strategies until after they receive feedback participants how satisfied they were working with the team, how
(Hackman, 1990), and the impact of performance feedback is often much they liked other team members, to what extent the other
that of increased conflict (e.g., Peterson & Behfar, 2003), we were people on the team were generally friendly, if they would like to
interested in examining conflict resolution strategies when conflict work with their team again in the future, and how satisfied they
experiences were particularly salient and as teams learned how to thought their fellow teammates were with being a member of the
adapt or transition their task strategies for their next assignment team. Cronbach’s alpha yielded a reliability coefficient of .91 at
(Marks et al., 2001). In contrast, team norms are a relatively stable Time 1 and .92 at Time 2 for the satisfaction measure. All scores
team property (Bettenhausen & Murnighan, 1985), so we mea- were aggregated to the team level by calculating the team mean
sured them at both time periods as a cross-check to the effective- score. See Table 1 for descriptive statistics on these data.
ness of conflict management strategies. We recognize that concen- To assess the appropriateness of aggregating the satisfaction
trating on one performance episode limits the conclusions we can items to the team level, the within-group agreement index, rwg
draw about conflict management and team viability over time. (James, Demaree, & Wolf, 1984), and intraclass correlation coef-
However, we did so in order to uncover how conflict management ficient, ICC(1), were calculated for Time 1 and Time 2. The rwg
is associated with the beginnings of positive versus negative out- index ranges from 0 to 1, where values closer to 1 mean greater
come trends. within-group agreement. Klein et al. (2000) and numerous others
At Time 1, 244 responses (8 non-responses) were collected, for recommend a value of rwg ⫽ .70 to justify aggregating to the group
a response rate of 96.8%; the Time 2 data included 225 responses level, although the .70 cutoff is only a “rule of thumb” (Lance,
(27 non-responses), for a response rate of 89.3%. Teams with less Butts, & Michels, 2006). Values exceeded this cutoff: at Time 1,
than two-thirds of the members answering the surveys across both rwg⫽ .94; and at Time 2, rwg ⫽ .92. ICC(1) is also used to
time periods were dropped from the study (e.g., a 4-person team determine if aggregation is warranted and typically results in much
Table 1
Descriptive Statistics for Group Outcome Measures
lower values (a value ⬎ .12 is generally considered good; James, This response was decomposed into two separate statements: (a)
1982). Values exceeded this cutoff: Time 1 ⫽ .41; Time 2 ⫽ .47. Commitments were made initially but were not followed up or
The above findings indicate that there was more significant agree- backed up with the required efforts, and (b) opinions strictly
ment within groups than between groups, and, therefore, the ag- related to projects and write-ups were often interpreted by my
gregated satisfaction score was deemed appropriate. teammates as personal comments. Next, a group of 24 academic
experts in groups and teams research completed a 9-point Likert
Qualitative Data Analysis scale rating for a subset of the 235 conflict statements generated
according to how closely they were related to a specific type of
The purpose of analyzing the qualitative responses was to ex- conflict (e.g., task, relationship, or process; Hinkin & Tracey,
plore three questions: (a) What types of conflict resolution strat- 1999). These experts were faculty members and doctoral students
egies did the teams use to address different types of conflict (task, in management, social psychology, and industrial labor and rela-
relationship, and process)? (b) How are those strategies associated tions departments. Each statement was evaluated by at least 2
with positive versus negative outcome trends between Time 1 and experts on a rating scale from 1 (not at all related) to 9 (completely
Time 2? and (c) Was the success/failure of conflict management related) as to how related it was to each type of conflict. They were
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
reflected in changes in team norms? The qualitative data from the given definitions of each type of conflict as presented in Jehn
conflict-type open-ended question were coded by academic ex- (1997). The interrater reliability for the expert raters was assessed
perts. The data from the conflict management question were ana- with Cronbach’s alpha, yielding reliable ratings of ␣ ⫽ .84 for task
lyzed by participants. The responses to the team norms questions conflict, ␣ ⫽ .79 for relationship conflict, and ␣ ⫽ .75 for process
were coded by two professional managers of teams, each with 10⫹ conflict.
years of team management experience (more detail in each section
below). Classifying Conflict Management by Using Participant
Concept Mapping
Conflict and Conflict Management
The concept mapping method can best be thought of as “par-
The responses to both of the qualitative questions about conflict ticipatory content analysis” (Jackson & Trochim, 2002) and as a
and conflict management were typically one to three sentences hybrid between traditional content analysis and semantic mapping
containing one or two ideas about conflict and conflict resolution. analysis. We chose this method to analyze the conflict resolution
All respondents wrote something in for this question, even if it was responses because the research objective was to understand how
to indicate that the team experienced very little conflict or did very participants themselves (rather than the researchers) think about
little to manage it. Therefore, for each team we were able to conflict resolution strategies. Concept mapping as applied to qual-
separate the responses into a list of statements about conflict and itative data analysis (Jackson & Trochim, 2002) combines explor-
a list of resolution strategies employed. The analysis of these data atory statistical analysis with participants’ judgments to produce
consisted of three stages: (a) an expert rating of the extent to which clusters of similar thematic categories by using multidimensional
each conflict statement (responses to the first open-ended ques- scaling and cluster analysis. The analysis is a five-step process: (a)
tion) was related to task, relationship, and process conflict (Jehn, determining units of analysis, (b) participant sorting of units, (c)
1997); (b) a categorical coding by participants of conflict resolu- multidimensional scaling analysis, (d) cluster analysis, and (e)
tion strategies (responses to the second open-ended question) with cluster labeling. Beyond creating units of analysis from the initial
the concept mapping methodology (explained below; Jackson & responses, the researchers did not make any coding or analysis
Trochim, 2002); and (c) examination of how different conflicts and decisions.
the management strategies employed to resolve those conflicts Determining units of analysis. Units of analysis were created
were associated with different team outcome patterns. Thus, for from the statements generated by respondents in response to the
each respondent, there was a conflict statement, an expert coding second open-ended survey question, “How did you resolve those
of the type of conflict mentioned in that statement, a conflict conflicts?” Each raw response from a respondent was typically one
resolution statement, and a categorical coding of that resolution to two sentences long. Units of analysis were created by separating
statement done by the participants from the concept mapping respondents’ answers into single statements, each containing only
analysis—all of which were linked to team-level trends for per- one idea about conflict. For example, 1 respondent’s answer to the
formance and satisfaction. conflict resolution was “The issue was discussed and everyone was
asked an opinion. Basically it was the way we approached the case
Classifying Conflict Type by Using Expert Ratings assignments. [and] We had two people work on the first assign-
ment and made turns on the next one.” This response was broken
All of the conflict responses from the first open-ended question into two separate statements: (a) The issue was discussed and
were decomposed into single statements by Kristin J. Behfar. A everyone was asked an opinion. Basically it was the way we
sample of the 50 statements was also decomposed by a hypothesis- approached the case assignments; and (b) we had two people work
blind coder with strong agreement (i.e., Cohen’s ⫽ .72), sug- on the first assignment and made turns on the next one. All of the
gesting acceptable reliability in identifying discreet units of anal- conflict resolution responses from the open-ended question were
ysis. For example, 1 participant’s response was “Commitments decomposed into single statements by Kristin J. Behfar. This
were made initially but were not followed up or backed up with the process resulted in 210 statements about conflict resolution—an
required efforts. Opinions strictly related to projects and write-ups average of three to four statements per team. These 210 statements
were often interpreted by my teammates as personal comments.” were matched with their corresponding conflict statement for anal-
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN TEAMS 175
ysis by a respondent identification and team number. A sample of during the teams’ life cycle, we divided the qualitative data into
the 50 statements was also decomposed by a hypothesis-blind four categories: (a) teams with consistently high or increasing
coder with strong agreement (i.e., Cohen’s ⫽ .90), suggesting performance and satisfaction; (b) teams with consistently high or
acceptable reliability in identifying discreet units of analysis. increasing performance but consistently low or decreasing satis-
Participant sorting of units of analysis. To avoid introducing faction; (c) teams with consistently low or decreasing performance
researcher bias to the remaining steps of the concept mapping but consistently high or increasing satisfaction; and (d) teams with
analysis, MBA students were used as decision makers. Second- consistently low or decreasing performance and satisfaction. To
year students were chosen instead of the original study respondents create these categories, we first assigned codes to each team on the
to protect privacy. Second-year students are a reasonable proxy for basis of their outcomes relative to the mean (above or below)
the original respondents because they are, as a group, demograph- between the two time periods. For example, a team that was below
ically virtually identical and they have experienced the same the mean at Time 1 but above the mean at Time 2 was coded as
courses and have been members of similarly composed teams. We increasing. Teams that were above the mean at Time 1 but below
gave 15 students, 9 male and 6 female, who responded to a the mean at Time 2 were coded as decreasing. Teams that were
recruiting poster, a set of cards with statements (i.e., units of above or below the mean at both time periods were coded as
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
analysis) on them and instructed them to sort cards containing consistent. This was done for both grade and satisfaction scores at
similar ideas together into piles (cf. Jackson & Trochim, 2002, on Time 1 and Time 2. We chose to classify teams by their relative
the method). The students worked individually, and there was no position to the mean for two reasons.1 First, it provides a relatively
limit to the number of piles they could create. They were asked to objective cutoff point for assessing a meaningful change, or an
give each of their piles a name. The only restriction was that they upward versus downward pattern, in a dense outcome distribution.
could not create a “Miscellaneous” pile—if they thought a state- Second, it allows us to capture “high” versus “low” start and end
ment did not belong with any of the others, they were instructed to points for each team during the performance episode we are
leave it in its own pile. investigating. The object of this analysis was to identify associa-
Multidimensional scaling analysis. A multidimensional scal- tions between conflict management strategies and outcome pat-
ing analysis on the sorting was done to create a map of conceptual terns—not to identify characteristics of strategies associated with
similarity between the statements that visually displayed the sim- one single high or low performance outcome. We believe this is
ilarity judgments of the sorters. A 210 ⫻ 210 binary square matrix meaningful because teams performing well early need to remain
(rows and columns represent conflict resolution statements) was vigilant about their process effectiveness and resist the temptation
created for each individual sorter. Cell values represented whether to blindly rely on previously successful tactics (e.g., Hackman &
or not a pair of statements was sorted by a particular coder into the Wageman, 2005). Therefore, the lumping of increases with con-
same pile (i.e., yes vs. no; 1 vs. 0 coding). These individual sistently high scores but decreases with consistently low scores
matrices were then aggregated by adding together all 15 of the represents strategies that allow for continuous growth versus con-
individual matrices. From the aggregated matrices, multidimen- tinuous decline.
sional scaling created coordinate estimates and a two-dimensional
map of distances between the statements based on the aggregate
sorts of the 12 coders. A two-dimensional solution was chosen Intrateam Agreement
because it provides the most useful foundation for a cluster anal- In order to construct a team-level account about conflict and
ysis (Kruskal & Wish, 1978). conflict management from the individual members’ accounts, we
Cluster analysis. Cluster analysis was conducted on the mul- followed a two-step decision rule based on within-team concept
tidimensional scaling coordinates. Two additional 2nd-year MBA frequencies. For conflict type, frequency counts were based on the
students worked together to choose the cluster solution (i.e., num- expert rater’s classification of the conflict units, and for conflict
ber of clusters) that they felt most accurately represented the management frequency counts were based on the concept mapping
structure of the data. They made their final decisions by looking at classification of the resolution units (Miles & Huberman, 1994). In
the cluster dendogram and discussing whether or not the contents order to minimize validity threats associated with frequency counts,
of clusters merging at each solution were conceptually similar we followed a two-step inclusion/exclusion decision method. First,
enough to merge. Their decisions about the final number of con- because of the open-ended “free-recall” nature of the data and the way
ceptual clusters to choose represents a final solution for the data. we created units of analysis, there is the potential for a particularly
Cluster labeling. After a final solution was chosen, the same two angry, strong-minded, or verbose team member to generate signifi-
MBA students re-examined the statements in each cluster, as well as cantly more units than might those with more moderate tendencies
the names the original sorters had given each of their piles, to (Geer, 1991). For example, 1 team with 3 survey respondents gener-
determine a label that best represented the content of the clusters. ated four conflict units. Member 1 was associated with two of those
They then chose what to name or label each cluster. All cluster units, both about personality conflicts. This has the potential to over-
groupings and the language of the cluster labels chosen originated represent the distribution of meaning about certain types of conflicts
from the sorters’ labels or from the participants’ statements. in the sample. Therefore, we followed the convention of constraining
frequency counts to only one unique concept per team member
Summary Analysis: Linking Conflict Type, Conflict (Kraut, 1996). In the above example, this means that we would
Management, and Outcome Patterns
To examine the link between conflict types, conflict manage- 1
The same analysis was done with change scores (Time 2 – Time 1) to
ment strategies, and positive versus negative outcome patterns create categories for comparison. The results were virtually identical.
176 BEHFAR, PETERSON, MANNIX, AND TROCHIM
eliminate one of Member 1’s units about personality conflict. How- members walked out of the team when there was a disagreement.
ever, if Member 1 had generated one statement about personality An optional case was not completed due to a team member’s
conflict and one about task conflict, both units would have been different opinion. Had we had something in writing as the team
included at this stage. This resulted in the elimination of only six norm, we’d be better off dealing with these issues”; and (c) “The
conflict units and five associated conflict resolution units (one of the norm is, and always has been, that it is not easy going for us. Our
eliminated conflict units did not have an associated resolution unit). problems never really went away.” Examples of norms coded as
While only six units did not meet inclusion criteria, their exclusion having no mention of trouble include (a) “We have no problem,
does help correct for potential overrepresentation threats and any open, friendly team. Goal is to learn together. Kind, considerate,
unitizing artifacts. ‘things are under control’”; (b) “A strong intent to seek consensus.
The second step in excluding units was intended to roughly Open and frank communication. Willingness to listen to as well as
capture intragroup agreement about conflict experiences. Recall provide views on all group work”; and (c) “Everyone took the
that we included teams in the analysis with at least two-thirds of team seriously. Nobody ever showed up late. A lot of respect
members responding. To assess agreement about the types of towards the other team members. Great friends. Fun people, but
conflict each team experienced, we examined the number of indi- the underlying key to the success was the mutual respect we held.”
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viduals that mentioned different types of conflict. We followed a The coding was done on both Time 1 and Time 2 norms.
50% rule for inclusion in 4-person teams and a two-thirds rule for Cohen’s kappa was used to assess the interrater reliability, which
inclusion in 3-person teams (if there were only 2 respondents from met acceptable agreement of .81 at Time 1 and .96 at Time 2
a 3-person team, both or 100% had to mention a type of conflict). (Fleiss, 1981). On the basis of the coding, we established four
This exclusion criterion resulted in the elimination of 30 conflict categories of norms patterns: (a) Teams mentioning trouble at both
units and their associated conflict management units: 12 about Time 1 and Time 2; (b) teams mentioning trouble at Time 1 but not
process conflict, 8 about relationship conflict, and 10 about task Time 2; (c) teams not mentioning trouble at Time 1 but mentioning
conflict. After both steps, 174 of the original 210 conflict man- Trouble at Time 2; and (d) teams not mentioning trouble at Time
agement units (a reduction of 36 units) and their associated conflict 1 and Time 2. A chi-square test was performed to determine
statements were included in the summary analysis. whether the frequency of patterns in team norms differed between
the four categories of team outcome patterns discussed earlier
Interteam Agreement (e.g., consistently high / increasing performance and satisfaction).
Table 2
Representative Statements From Each Cluster of Conflict Resolution Strategies on the Concept Map
Voting “We tended to let people express their points of view, but typically majority ruled at decision time.”
Ideas about using voting “If no one volunteered for an assignment we voted them in.”
procedures “We discussed opinions until frustrated and then voted.”
“Only when we were out of time and at an impasse we voted.”
“Only a few times it was required to informally get ‘votes’ for support to resolve conflict.”
“We recognized when it was time to ‘agree to disagree’ and then voted.”
Compromise or “We talked each issue deeply and carefully ‘til we reach the consensus.”
consensus “We tried to compromise so as to not jeopardize our relationship.”
Ideas about how groups “Compromise—mostly I just said “whatever” which probably wasn’t great team behavior.”
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“We talked about our schedules and then compromised. One member gave up a weekend, another agreed to get up
early one morning.”
“We recognized differences in work styles and tried to compromise our preferences.”
“We would discuss in detail everyone’s views until we got a consensus (sometimes more than I could take.)”
Discuss or debate “If one member thought one thing and another disagreed, we just discussed the pros/cons and quickly came to a
Ideas about discussing conclusion.”
and debating ideas/ “We went through each solution to determine which was the easiest to defend with the information in the case.”
opinions “We met and voiced our concerns regarding the quality and effort put into the paper.”
“Making sure everyone had a chance to fully explain their views and then went through a logical process of
discussion to pick the most convincing argument.”
“Although the majority of time was spent on determining how to convince one or more members to the ideas.”
Open communication “No one was hard set on making their point, everyone was open.”
Ideas about the level of “The team members took the arguments positively and not personally.”
affect or emotion in “To resolve conflict we tried to keep open-minded and learn from one another.”
team discussions “Discussions were very amicable.”
“We incorporated everyone’s ideas.”
“We all reminded each other to ‘not sweat the small stuff.’”
“Frustrations boiled over to conversations with classmates that didn’t help our problems.”
“The conflict was dealt with by people involved in talking it out.”
Idiosyncratic solutions “Written rules to punish those who are late or lazy.”
Ideas related to fixing or “We tried to correct agreeing too much by challenging things and playing “Devil’s advocate” better in the second case.”
responding to problems “Condescending tendencies—we gave people ‘time-outs’.”
“We told that person if they made changes again without our permission that we’d kick them out.”
“We instituted a time for “talking turns” which seemed to keep interruptions and arguments to a minimum.”
“We told that person to stop rolling his eyes at us.”
“We created a team calendar and made everyone put their classes and commitments on a week in advance. This made
scheduling a little easier.”
“If you were late you have to buy everyone a Coke.”
Rotating responsibilities “Who ever was the last “reviewer” of the paper had “veto” power about conflict.”
Ideas about how to “We assigned a member to be “on call” in case someone dropped the ball.”
allocate responsibility “Two people both wanted control. We gave it to the person who we thought had the best writing style and knew the
material the best.”
“Each meeting had a team leader assigned and that person made the agenda.”
“For example, on one case one guy could have done the case by himself—so we used him to double check the work
the rest of us did. So we learned and still did well.”
“Because the members were not happy, we split the paper into 3 and divided the additional draft work.”
“We spent more time in meetings rather than individually to work on cases and the result was very good.”
“We gave everyone a chance to volunteer to do the work they wanted to do.”
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN TEAMS 179
Table 3
Observed and Estimated Expected Frequencies for Changes in Norms by Outcome Pattern Category
Consistently Consistently
high/increasing low/decreasing
Consistently performance, performance, Consistently
high/increasing consistently consistently low/decreasing
performance low/decreasing high/increasing performance
Norms Trend and satisfaction satisfaction satisfaction and satisfaction Total
provide additional evidence that our outcome patterns are meaningful. regarding the quality and effort put into the paper (Team 38,
Examples of these norms are summarized in Table 4. Member 1)”; or “We talked about our schedules and then com-
promised. One member gave up a weekend, another agreed to get
Consistently High or Increasing Performance and up early one morning” (Team 34, Member 1).
Satisfaction Resolving task conflict. Fifteen teams, or 71% of the teams in this
category, reported strategies for resolving task conflict. All 15 teams
This group of teams demonstrates the theoretical ideal of team- reported using three complementary strategies: compromise/
work in managing and preventing conflict. consensus, discuss/debate, and open communication. Teams used
Resolving relationship conflict. Only 1 of the teams in this these strategies to secure solid understandings behind compromises/
category reported addressing relationship conflicts, which re- group decisions by considering the pros and cons of different opin-
volved around negative non-verbal behavior or having to deal with ions, alternatives, and possible solutions. For example, “We put down
an overly dominant personality. It reported using avoided/ignored what the two sides of the conflict were, then came back to them after
to ensure bad behavior did not disrupt the group: “One member we had nailed down everything we agreed on” (Team 6, Member 3),
was smart & made good contributions to the group, but was very “We dealt with conflict by analyzing out each interpretation” (Team
insulting—so we listened to his points and ignored the bad faces he 31, Member 2), and “We talked thru the conflict by referencing facts
made” (Team 26, Member 3). that we collectively brainstormed” (Team 43, Member 3). These
Resolving process conflict. Seven teams, or 33% of the teams teams were able to reach compromise/consensus by considering evi-
in this category, reported strategies to address process conflict, dence and convincing all members. For example, “We dealt with
which primarily revolved around time management and the impact conflict by making sure everyone had a chance to fully explain their
of domineering members on group process. There were two dom- views and then went through a logical process of discussion to pick
inant management strategies: rotating responsibilities and discus- the most convincing argument” (Team 13, Member 1). They also
sion/compromise. Six of the 7 teams used both of these to either identified that the nature of the conversation was not intertwined with
mitigate the negative impact of 1 member and/or to prevent any negative emotion. For example, “The team members took the argu-
time management conflicts from escalating. For example, 1 team ments positively and not personally” (Team 28, Member 1); and “No
had a member with heavy interview commitments until mid- one was hard set on making their point; everyone was open” (Team
quarter— her team’s solution was “One member did most of the 46, Member 1).
work later in the quarter, the rest of us pulled the load until then”
(Team 34, Member 2). Another team was unsatisfied with the
lateness and lack of commitment from 1 member and agreed to Consistently High/Increasing Performance, Consistently
take turns ensuring work quality was up to team standards, “We Low/Decreasing Satisfaction
had two people work on first assignment and made turns on next
one” (Team 9, Member 2). These teams also used discussion and These teams managed conflict with a focus on preventing con-
compromise to generate an understanding about how to mitigate tinuing or escalating conflict by putting more structure in the way
conflicts before they escalated: “We met and voiced our concerns individual team members worked together.
180 BEHFAR, PETERSON, MANNIX, AND TROCHIM
Table 4
Examples of Team Norms
Consistently high/increasing Team 7, “Coming to meetings on time. Take nothing “Always think “we can do it.” No hesitation
performance and Member 2 personally—constructive criticism only. in changing opinion. Listen to other
satisfaction Open communication of all ideas via members carefully.”
email and at meetings. Make sure
everyone on the same page—everyone
understands why things are included and
excluded in final paper. All functions of
team members are interchangeable.
Whoever wants to work on particular
item just needs to ask—the group will be
stronger this way.”
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Team 25, “We try to have total participation and “Respect, communication, and general
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Consistently high/increasing Team 24, “We have to collaborate, even if we don’t “We all tend to like to be in control. We
performance, consistently Member 3 like it. We want an “A.” Our process have tried to balance control by moving
low/decreasing satisfaction (the process of getting the work done) is responsibilities for writing from member
important and needs to be defined and to member for each draft. Our goals are
agreed upon in advance.” aligned-we all want to do well. We
communicate fairly well, but tend to take
sides.”
Team 51, “Despite the fact that 3 of us overruled the “3 of us get along well, work well together,
Member 3 4th person, the 4th person was unwilling and had a positive experience. The other
to accept that. That person then went as member was always a challenge for us to
far as adding information back into our deal with.”
paper that we had agreed to take out.
This ended up compromising our grade.
Very frustrating”
Consistently low/decreasing Team 52, “A strong intent to seek consensus. Open “Open ideas, trust and agreement.”
performance, consistently Member 4 and frank communication. Willingness to
high/increasing listen to as well as provide views on all
satisfaction group work.”
Team 65, “Overall, the group worked well with one “We never spent too much time analyzing
Member 1 another. I believe we all contributed the material which I believed hurt us on
evenly to the preparation of the case and some cases. It was always known that
the write-up. One thing I would certain members of the group would be
recommend is that all members of the late.”
group need to show up to meetings on
time. Even being a few minutes late
should not be tolerated.”
Consistently low/decreasing Team 56, “Two members were also easily frustrated “We have a 2 vs. 2 situation in “How to do
performance and Member 1 and impatient though they had the project” viewpoints. 2 tend to cave, 1
satisfaction unrealistically short expectations of the tends to be overly aggressive, 1 tends to
amount of time required for a project.” not be taken seriously.”
Team 59, “There is friction about ideas that gets “We talk (and talk, and talk, and talk) until a
Member 2 emotional, mostly caused by one person. consensus (or agreement that promises an
We compromise to get past it.” end to talking) is reached.”
Note. All table entries are quotations from participants. Consistently low/decreasing performance, consistently high/increasing satisfaction had no
significant pattern in the chi-square analysis.
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN TEAMS 181
Resolving relationship conflict. Six teams, or 55% of the Consistently Low/Decreasing Performance, Consistently
teams in this category, reported addressing relationship conflicts. High/Increasing Satisfaction
These conflicts revolved around recurrent clashes between domi-
nant personalities and direct accusations that members made (e.g., These teams focused on relationships over task when managing
stealing ideas, not caring about the team, and/or rude and conde- conflicts.
scending behavior). All 6 teams used strategies from the avoid/ Resolving relationship conflict. Only 2 out of 11 teams, or
ignore, idiosyncratic solutions, and discuss/debate categories. 18% of the teams in this category, reported experiencing relation-
ship conflict. These 2 teams had 1 member that created emotional
Taken together, these teams directly confronted relationship con-
conflict in the teams. Both teams reported using strategies to avoid
flict at the group level in order to prevent/avoid its reoccurrence.
the conflict. For example, “We always divided work so those two
For example, teams managed escalating emotion by explicitly
people did not have to directly work together. The group avoided
agreeing to overlook it: “We agreed to recognize when conflicts
ever having to deal with that from beginning” (Team 35, Member
would help our ultimate goal–to get a better grade. It wasn’t easy,
3) and “We decided to rally together–we all decided that that one
but helped everyone calm down” (Team 2, Member 2); and “Emo-
person’s style was not a reflection of how the rest of us operate”
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tional outbursts were contained. We all knew the tension was (Team 45, Member 1). The remaining 9 teams in this category did
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there, we just agreed to not let it interfere” (Team 51, Member 2). not mention relationship conflict.
While they agreed not to let emotion interfere, they also set up Resolving process conflict. Only 2 teams, or 18% of the teams
rules or created explicit expectations (idiosyncratic solutions) to in this category, reported managing process conflicts. These con-
help members adhere to this. For example, “When it got personal flicts centered on team meetings, such as members arriving late or
we ended the meeting. There was a cooling off period of about 30 when to schedule a meeting. Both teams resolved these conflicts
minutes, and then we came back. This was harder when we with strategies from the rotating responsibilities category, which
procrastinated and didn’t have a spare 30 minutes” (Team 51, included changing/rotating work approach to foresee member con-
Member 1) and “We figured out how to avoid each other’s trigger flicts. For example, “We tried a new way of working together that
points – for one it was meetings that drag on. For me it was being better considered our busy schedules” (Team 65, Member 1); “We
late AND unprepared” (Team 47, Member 2). plotted out our busy times before the deadline and avoided meeting
Resolving process conflict. Six teams, or 55% of the teams in during those times” (Team 35, Member 2).
this category, reported addressing process-related conflicts. Resolving task conflict. Seven teams, or 64% of the teams in
These conflicts centered on disagreements about time manage- this category, reported managing task conflict. All of the teams
ment and workload distribution because of uneven contribu- used three strategies: open communication, discuss/debate, and
tions or commitment from some members. Five of the 6 teams compromise/consensus. Different from the teams described previ-
used two strategies together to address these conflicts: rotating ously, these teams did not have emotion intertwined in their task
responsibilities and idiosyncratic solutions. That is, they devel- debates. Instead, there was not enough debate and too much focus
oped systems to correct problems and/or rules to prevent prob- on compromise: “We avoided conflict. I believe we were too quick
lems from occurring again. For example, “We figured out how to come to consensus” (Team 3, Member 2); and “Resolved by:
to get the lame member to do something useful–take minutes, We went through each solution to determine which was the easiest
schedule meetings and talk to the TA” (Team 54, Member 2); to defend with the information in the case” (Team 10, Member 3).
Task conflicts were resolved by including all ideas rather than
“Conflict required empowering one person to step up to take
engaging in careful analysis.
charge” (Team 23, Member 1); and “We just agreed things
needed to get better. Now you get punished ($10) or embar-
rassed unless you perform” (Team 2, Member 2). Consistently Low/Decreasing Performance and
Resolving task conflict. Five teams, or 45% of the teams in this Satisfaction
category, reported managing task-related conflicts. These conflicts
These teams had a hard time assessing the root cause of their
centered on differences of opinions and ideas related to case
performance and seemed willing to try anything to reduce the pain
analysis. Only 1 team managed emotionally charged task conflict
of their team experience.
with rules for “talking turns” (idiosyncratic solutions). The major-
Resolving relationship conflict. Five of the 14 teams, or 36%
ity (4 of the 5 teams) used two strategies to manage their task
of the teams in this category, reported managing relationship
conflicts: compromise and voting. Compromise, however, was conflict. These conflicts were severe: for example, “Tremendous
associated with giving in or giving up one’s own opinion in the personality clashes” (Team 53, Member 3) and “Members fought
interest of getting work done. For example, “After considerable like crazy” (Team 59, Member 3). All 5 teams used open com-
dialogue, the one individual agreed to go ahead with the project, munication to address personality conflicts, and all 5 reported no
but with an extreme amount of reservation” (Team 2, Member 1); success: “Unfortunately, personality differences created friction
and “Some people just said ‘OK, let’s just move on’” (Team 23, which never seemed to go away” (Team 44, Member 1); and “We
Member 2). The same 4 teams also reported using voting or did not resolve the conflict. We talked about expectations but no
majority rule to resolve task conflicts: “If you were on the losing tangible improvements came out of that” (Team 53, Member 1).
side of a vote you just had to deal with it. Suck it up and move on. Resolving process conflict. Eight teams, or 57% of the teams
Be a team player” (Team 30, Member 3); and “We tended to let in this category, reported managing process conflicts. These con-
people express their points of view, but typically majority ruled at flicts centered on expectations for time management and creating
decision time” (Team 23, Member 3). a process to work together. All of the teams used strategies from
182 BEHFAR, PETERSON, MANNIX, AND TROCHIM
the rotating responsibilities and avoid/ignore categories, but the surprisingly underutilized frame of reference. That is, we look at
strategies reflect a lack of success: “We didn’t resolve much–still conflict resolution strategies at the group rather than individual
I don’t know at what point we went wrong. We did the best we level (i.e., individual conflict styles), and we induce multiple
could” (Team 66, Member 4); “We didn’t have the sense that team-level strategies rather than look at or impose a single strategy
everybody was satisfied with how the work was done (Team 41, (e.g., a cooperative frame). In that sense, we take a closer or more
Member 3); and “We all agreed to be more prepared and respon- fine-grained look at team-level conflict resolution strategies than
sible, but it’s one thing to agree an another thing to actually DO has been done in the past. Interestingly, our participant-driven
IT” (Team 67, Member 5). The strategies from the rotating re- categorization of team conflict management does loosely map onto
sponsibilities all described “rotation” of approach to work: “We current individual-level conflict management typologies (e.g.,
tried brainstorming, we tried devil’s advocate, we tried it all” Blake & Mouton, 1964; Pruitt & Rubin, 1986; Rahim, 1983; Ruble
(Team 66, Member 1); and “We tried different ways/approaches & Thomas, 1976), and the results of the summary analysis are
for each case” (Team 42, Member 1). consistent with the underlying theory. Our results, for example, are
Resolving task conflict. Nine teams, or 64% of the teams in consistent with existing conclusions about the benefits of integra-
this category, reported managing task conflict. Eight of these tive and collaborative approaches to managing conflict and the
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teams reported using the same two strategies: discuss/debate and drawbacks of contending and avoiding approaches (De Dreu &
compromise/consensus. However, the compromise/consensus VanVianen, 2001; Pruitt & Rubin, 1986; Tjosvold et al., 2003).
units reflected a pattern of “giving in” to avoid unpleasant expe- The interesting addition to current literature from these results
riences: “Mostly I just said “whatever” which probably wasn’t comes from comparing management of the three types of conflict
great team behavior” (Team 66, Member 3); and “One member between different outcome patterns. We propose, therefore, that,
was domineering and a control freak. Most of the time the group rather than by directly mapping existing individual-level conflict
gave in to the dominant member” (Team 59, Member 1). The management “styles” onto our findings, the results of this study
discuss/debate units reflected a focus on issues tangential to the can be better characterized by Hackman and Morris’s (1975) three
actual work: “Conflict continued about what constituted an anal- criteria for team viability: (a) The team must meet the expectations
ysis versus what was simply a retelling of the case” (Team 56, of those who receive their work (i.e., performance); (b) the team
Member 1) and “Although majority of the time was spent on needs to satisfy the individual needs of members in the group
determining how to convince one or more members to the ideas experience (i.e., individual member satisfaction), and (c) the pro-
(Team 19, Member 4). cess the group uses (e.g., conflict management tactics) must en-
hance its ability to work together in the future. We do, however,
Summary note where there is overlap between the individual conflict man-
agement styles literature and our own findings. We also discuss the
These results and differences between the four outcome trends results of the summary analysis in terms of how differences in
are summarized in Table 5. Overall, the results of the summary conflict management focus reflect (or not) shared governance of
analysis suggest that while teams may have reported using strat- team process (criterion #3) and how these are associated with
egies from the same conflict resolution categories, the way that outcome patterns (criteria #1 and #2). In short, we identify overlap
they applied those strategies to resolve different conflicts was with existing individual conflict management style typologies but
often associated with very different patterns of change in perfor- do not try to force the categories where there is not complete
mance and satisfaction. conceptual agreement across levels of analysis.
The teams that were consistently high/increasing in performance
Discussion and satisfaction represent fulfillment of all three team viability
criteria. The focus these teams developed in their conflict man-
The teams in this study all started from the same point—the agement strategies was on “equity,” or finding an appropriate (not
groups were newly formed, endowed largely with the same re- necessarily equal) way for all members to contribute given their
sources, had the same task assignments and performance evalua- constraints (a mix of accommodating, collaborating, and compro-
tion criteria, and were working under the same time constraints. mising). They were most likely able to achieve performance goals
Yet, even under these very similar operating conditions, they and high individual member satisfaction by proactively securing
developed and applied conflict resolution strategies in very differ- solid understanding of the compromises and trade-offs both the
ent ways with different results. Our results suggest a number of team and individual members made in planning how to prevent
implications for the literature on conflict in teams. potentially destructive conflicts. Stated in the language of the
commonly cited “dual concerns” approach—these teams had both
Theoretical Contributions a concern for their task and a concern for integrating the interests
of individual members. They took this approach to managing both
There are two interrelated theoretical contributions this study task and process conflicts. Their norms at Time 1 and Time 2 were
makes. The first is to provide detail about how teams manage task, coded as functional, and they seemed to establish clear expecta-
relationship, and process conflicts as well as the performance and tions and shared criteria for selection (e.g., of ideas and work
satisfaction tradeoffs associated with choices in conflict resolution distribution) if there was disagreement.
strategies. For example, our results suggest that majority rule In contrast, the teams that were consistently high/increasing in
voting is associated with consistently high and increasing task performance but low/decreasing in satisfaction had more of a
performance but consistently low and decreasing member satisfac- “rules” focus toward conflict management (a mix of competing/
tion. We reveal these results by looking at these issues through a forcing and compromising). They were more focused on reacting
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN TEAMS 183
Table 5
Summary of Conflict Resolution Strategies Organized by Outcome Category
Consistently
low/decreasing perfor-
Consistently Consistently high/increasing mance, consistently
high/increasing perfor- performance, consistently high/increasing Consistently low/decreasing
mance and satisfaction low/decreasing satisfaction satisfaction performance and satisfaction
Type of (21 teams, 55 conflict (11 teams, 33 conflict (11 teams, 46 conflict (14 teams, 40 conflict
conflict management units) management units) management units) management units)
Task Used discuss/debate and Used compromise/consensus Used discuss/debate Used discuss/debate and
open communication to and voting. and open compromise/consensus.
reach compromise/ communication to
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consensus.
Non-emotional, fact-driven Compromise was associated Discussion of different Consensus was associated with
discussions helped team with a “majority rules” ideas was amicable either the group “giving in”
members understand how focus—if one member did and consensus to a dominant member or by
the group reached not agree he/she conceded centered on finding individuals “giving in”
consensus. Conflicting to the consensus of the a way to because they were tired of
views were explored and majority. When this incorporate all arguing.
consensus was reached concession did not occur, member’s ideas
based on evidence that these teams used more rather than engaging
convinced all members. formal voting strategies to in debate to select
demonstrate consensus. the best ideas.
Relationship Inconclusive: Only one Used discuss/debate and Inconclusive: Only Used open communication.
team reported managing idiosyncratic solutions to two teams reported These teams experienced
relationship conflict. avoid/ignore conflicts. managing severe interpersonal conflict,
These teams explicitly relationship conflict. which members openly
discussed the impact of discussed. However, all
relationship conflict on teams reported this did not
the team and agreed it change or eliminate these
should not be allowed to conflicts.
impede performance.
Members agreed to rules
or procedures that
enforced this agreement
(e.g., cooling off periods).
Process Used discussion/debate Used rotating Inconclusive: Only Used rotating, responsibilities
with responsibilities and two teams reported and avoided/ignored.
compromise/consensus to idiosyncratic solutions. managing process Rotating Responsibilities
employ rotating They created rules or conflict. centered on “rotation” of
responsibilities. procedures to address work approaches or task
These teams forecasted previous time strategies intended to correct
scheduling and management previous process and perfor-
commitment conflicts or member contribution mance problems. Units
and discussed quality of issues. Members agreed coded in the
work concerns early. how to share (rotate) avoided/ignored category all
Work assignments were responsibility for reflected a lack of
made to prevent correcting problems (e.g., resolution.
predicted problems from empowering one member
occurring. Members as an arbitrator, monetary
made compromises in penalties).
their schedules and work
assignments to ensure
quality of work.
to conflicts and structuring or creating rules to avoid the continued the team norms accounts coded as troubled, the residual tension
disruption in meeting performance goals than on preemptively among members never completely subsided (they in fact agreed to
planning to prevent such disruptions. This approach created a “overlook” the interpersonal tension).
focus on task over integrating individual interests and is reflected Reciprocally to these teams, the low/decreasing performance
in their majority-rules approach to task conflict, in the boundary and high/increasing satisfaction teams developed an “equality”
conditions they set for managing relationship conflict, and in the focus (very similar to an accommodating style) where complete
arbitration approach they took for process conflict. As such, the accommodation of individuals took the place of rules or criteria for
disruptive impact of conflict was “managed” but, as reflected in selection. While conclusions can be drawn from these data only
184 BEHFAR, PETERSON, MANNIX, AND TROCHIM
about task conflict management strategies, their strategies were centered on more superficial fixes such as trial and error with
heavily classified by participants as “avoidant,” as they avoided different processes. This is consistent with previous findings about
difficult conversations in the interest of preserving interpersonal teams that have difficulty establishing stable and functional con-
relationships and never really seemed to face the difficult task of flict resolution approaches (see Argyris, 1982; Jehn & Mannix,
integrating various interests and perspectives to create a superior 2001).
team product. Thus, they maintained interpersonal harmony at the The second theoretical contribution of our work is to develop
cost of relatively poor task performance. group-level theory about conflict resolution strategies. Taking a
Finally, the teams that were low/decreasing in performance and step back from the specific conflict resolution tactics we found, an
satisfaction took an ad hoc approach to managing conflict—roles underlying pattern emerges— one of two broad dimensions that
were never clear; the root cause of problems was not identified nor describe how the matching of conflict resolution strategies with
successfully corrected; there was no central/coherent conflict man- conflict create a pattern of group outcomes. We show this in Figure
agement strategy; and communication came at a high cost. In the 2. Notice, for example, that the teams with mixed outcome changes
traditional conflict management typologies, these teams represent during the performance episode (22 teams in this sample) demon-
a double-edged mix of competing/forcing and avoiding styles. strate how a different conflict management focus, either creating
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While these teams were willing to directly confront and argue rules in reaction to conflict versus accommodating all members to
about their interests, this process (as reflected in the team norms prevent it, can transform the impact of conflict. In the rules-
accounts) became an obstacle to working together effectively. As focused teams, for example, the negative impact of process and
a result, teams tended to resign or make superficial accommoda- relationship conflict was suppressed by their conflict management
tions to get past the conflict, which neither improved their task approach and enabled the group to engage in “healthy” debate-
focus nor integrated the interests of members. For example, they driven task conflict. However, a lack of focus on integrating
resolved task conflict by either giving into a dominant member or individual interests into the team solution may have caused satis-
spending too much time trying to convince 1 member; their dis- faction to suffer, perhaps because peers had to enforce rules, and
cussion of relationship conflict usually escalated rather than re- without rules members did not feel they could count on each other
solved the problem; and their attempts to resolve process conflict to behave in the best interests of the team. In the equality-focused
Reactive Preemptive
Strategies Strategies
teams, there was very little mention of relationship or process way a team manages conflict resolution and adapts its process is of
conflict as their desire to suppress disagreement influenced the paramount importance to understanding why teams struggle to
decisions they made in structuring their process. So, while pre- sustain high performance and/or high individual member satisfac-
emptive prevention of conflict made team members feel good, tion over the longer term (Hackman & Morris, 1975; Homans,
their approach did not address bigger issues underlying task 1950; McGrath, 1964; see also Cordery et al., 1991; Goodman et
achievement (e.g., extracting member expertise). al., 1988; Guzzo, 1982; Howell et al., 1990; Marks et al., 2001;
Overall, we would argue that these results suggest a theoretical Moorhead et al., 1998; Steiner, 1972). Our results suggest that it is
melding of findings from the conflict management literature and not just the type of conflict a team experiences that matters; rather,
Hackman and Morris’s (1975) widely cited team viability model. how well conflict resolution strategies address a team-level bal-
Figure 2, the summary of our key findings, could also be seen as ance between task and affect management is what yields team
an updated version of this model. These results can be summarized viability. An imbalance of one kind or another is associated with
by two striking and interrelated differences that developed be- a threat to viability.
tween teams in this study. Along the vertical axis, we categorize
conflict management as particularistic versus pluralistic. Groups
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In the article “The Critical Role of Conflict Resolution in Teams: A Close Look at the Links
Between Conflict Type, Conflict Management Strategies, and Team Outcomes,” by Kristin J.
Behfar, Randall S. Peterson, Elizabeth A. Mannix, and William M. K. Trochim (Journal of Applied
Psychology, 2008, Vol. 93, No. 1, pp. 170 –188), Figure 2 on p. 184 (Theoretical Contributions
section) is missing information about the numbers of teams and statements for the two groups using
particularlistic strategies. For the decreasing and consistently low performance/decreasing and
consistently low satisfaction group, there were 14 teams and 40 statements; for the decreasing and
consistently low performance/increasing and consistently high satisfaction group, there were 11
teams and 46 statements.