team work 3

201

increases rigidity in terms of people holding onto suboptimal preferences, leading to poor decisions.24 In addition, relationship conflict negatively interferes with a team’s abil- ity to process information.25 A field study of task and relationship conflict in work teams in Taiwan and Indonesia revealed that relationship conflict exacerbated the negative relationship between task conflict and team performance.26 When it comes to team sat- isfaction, relationship conflict is more disruptive for teams than is task conflict.27 Indeed, relationship conflict is more interpersonal, emotional, and likely to be directed at others.

Some investigations have studied the time course of conflict in teams. Groups that have high levels of trust among their members during the early stages of group develop- ment are buffered from experiencing future relationship conflict (see Exhibit 8-2). When groups receive negative performance feedback early on, both relationship and task conflict

Factors that Affect Intragroup Trust

Low Intragroup Trust

High Intragroup Trust

Task Conflict

R el

at io

ns hi

p C

on fli

ct

Low

Lo w

High

H ig

h

Medium

M ed

iu m

Lo w

Int rag

rou p T

rus t

High Intragroup Trust

Exhibit 8-2 Trust Tempers Negative Conflict Based on Peterson, R. S., & Behfar, K. J. (2003). The dynamic relationship between performance feedback, trust, and conflict in groups: A longitudinal study. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 92, 102–112; Hurley, R. (2006). The decision to trust. Harvard Business Review, 84(9), 55–62, © Leigh L. Thompson.

24De Wit, F.R.C., Jehn, K.A., & Scheepers, D. (2013). Task conflict, information processing, and decision- making: The damaging effect of relationship conflict. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 122(2), 177–189. 25De Dreu, C. K. W., & Weingart, L. R. (2003a). Task versus relationship conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(4), 741–749. 26Shaw, J. D., Zhu, J., Duffy, M. K., Scott, K. L., Shih, H.-A., & Susanto, E. (2011). A contingency model of conflict and team effectiveness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(2), 391–400. 27De Dreu & Weingart (2003a). “Task versus relationship conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction: A meta-analysis.”

M08_THOM4204_06_SE_C08.indd 201 10/25/16 3:09 PM