Article

Individual Perceptions of Task Conflict and Relationship Conflict

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Abstract

We rely on the existing conflict literature and self‐verification theory to examine perceived task and relationship conflict. We set out to contribute to the discussion of whether relationship conflict is dysfunctional and task conflict is functional in terms of the individual evaluations of group efficacy and group mind. Our sample is a field setting of 127 individuals within a Fortune 500 company. Individual perceptions of group efficacy and group mind scores were significantly higher when neither type of conflict was perceived to occur often as compared with when both types of conflict were perceived to occur often. After decoupling types of conflict, we found when only task conflict occurred often, the perceived efficacy and mind scores were significantly higher than when both types of conflict occurred often. This is a contradictory finding based on the existing literature that suggests task conflict negatively impacts emergent states.

Keywords: group efficacy, group mind, relationship conflict, task conflict

How to Cite:

Solansky, S., Singh, B. & Huang, S., (2014) “Individual Perceptions of Task Conflict and Relationship Conflict”, Negotiation and Conflict Management Research 7(2), 83-98. doi: https://doi.org/10.34891/f7qb-5z16