A team process and emergent states approach to understanding team conflict and outcomes

It has been suggested that a central challenge of leading teams is stimulating productive conflict that may contribute to positive outcomes while minimizing the presence of dysfunctional conflict. This study examined the roles of four emergent states: Goal Commitment, Knowledge of Team Roles, Transactive Memory Systems and Performance Feedback in influencing Team Conflict and consequently, team effectiveness (Performance and Innovation). It was hypothesized that Team Trust would moderate the relationship between the emergent states and conflict and between conflict and the two team outcomes, Innovation and Performance. It was also hypothesized that team conflict would mediate the relationship between the emergent states and the two team outcomes.;Study participants consisted of 231 members of thirty-three (33) work teams from organizations in the Washington, DC region. The teams were recruited from organizations in the Washington DC area and consisted almost exclusively of teams from local municipal governments (31 teams). The final sample consisted of thirty-one teams with a mean team size of 7.45 (sd = 4.38) and a mean participation rate of 90% (sd=.15).;The team members completed a confidential fifty-four item Team Questionnaire, describing their team and team experience on the variables of interest. The team data collection meetings were held at the teams' location and lasted from 20-30 minutes.;Hierarchical multiple regression was used to evaluate the study hypotheses involving the relationships of Goal Commitment, Specialization, Coordination, Credibility, Role Knowledge, and Performance Feedback with team Conflict. Trust, the hypothesized moderator variable, was entered into the equation as part of an interaction term with each predictor of interest in the various regression models.;Due to psychometric issues that required the analysis of overall Team Conflict instead of the Relationship and Task Conflict subscales, several of the hypotheses involving the subscales could not be tested. However, the core hypotheses were tested using the overall Team Conflict score and the Transactive Memory subscales, Specialization, Coordination and Credibility.;The hypothesized moderator role of Team Trust was partially supported. The findings indicated that Trust moderated the relationship between the level of perceived Credibility of team member information and Team Conflict. Trust also moderated the relationship between Performance Feedback and Team Conflict. The hypothesized moderator role of Trust in the relationship between Team Conflict and team outcomes was also partially supported. Trust did not moderate the relationship between Team Conflict and Performance, but did moderate the relationship between Team Conflict and Innovation. Lastly, the hypothesized mediator role of Team Conflict in the emergent state -- team outcomes relationship was not supported.;Despite methodological issues the findings highlight the important role of trust in influencing team effectiveness, either directly or through interaction with other team emergent states and processes.