TY - JOUR
T1 - Things Are Not Always What They Seem
T2 - The Origins and Evolution of Intragroup Conflict*
AU - Shah, Priti Pradhan
AU - Peterson, Randall S.
AU - Jones, Stephen L.
AU - Ferguson, Amanda J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - Teams scholars have historically conceptualized and measured intragroup conflict at the team level. But emerging evidence suggests that perceptions of intragroup conflict are often not uniform, shared, or static. These findings suggest important questions about the microfoundations of intragroup conflict: Where does conflict within teams originate? And how does it evolve over time? We address these and other questions in three abductive studies. We consider four origination points—an individual, dyad, subgroup, or team—and three evolutionary trajectories—conflict continuity, contagion, and concentration. Study 1, a qualitative study of narrative accounts, and Study 2, a longitudinal social networks study of student teams, reveal that fewer than 30 percent of teams experience team-level conflict. Instead, conflict more commonly originates and persists at individual, dyadic, or subgroup levels. Study 2 further demonstrates that traditional psychometric intragroup conflict scales mask the existence of these various origins and trajectories of conflict. Study 3, a field study of manufacturing teams, reveals that individual and dyadic task conflict origins positively predict team performance, whereas traditional intragroup task conflict measures negatively predict team performance. The results raise serious concerns about current methods and theory in the team conflict literature and suggest that researchers must go beyond team-level conceptualizations of conflict.
AB - Teams scholars have historically conceptualized and measured intragroup conflict at the team level. But emerging evidence suggests that perceptions of intragroup conflict are often not uniform, shared, or static. These findings suggest important questions about the microfoundations of intragroup conflict: Where does conflict within teams originate? And how does it evolve over time? We address these and other questions in three abductive studies. We consider four origination points—an individual, dyad, subgroup, or team—and three evolutionary trajectories—conflict continuity, contagion, and concentration. Study 1, a qualitative study of narrative accounts, and Study 2, a longitudinal social networks study of student teams, reveal that fewer than 30 percent of teams experience team-level conflict. Instead, conflict more commonly originates and persists at individual, dyadic, or subgroup levels. Study 2 further demonstrates that traditional psychometric intragroup conflict scales mask the existence of these various origins and trajectories of conflict. Study 3, a field study of manufacturing teams, reveals that individual and dyadic task conflict origins positively predict team performance, whereas traditional intragroup task conflict measures negatively predict team performance. The results raise serious concerns about current methods and theory in the team conflict literature and suggest that researchers must go beyond team-level conceptualizations of conflict.
KW - dyadic conflict
KW - intragroup conflict
KW - subgroups
KW - temporal dynamics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092352220&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85092352220&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0001839220965186
DO - 10.1177/0001839220965186
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85092352220
SN - 0001-8392
VL - 66
SP - 426
EP - 474
JO - Administrative science quarterly
JF - Administrative science quarterly
IS - 2
ER -