title: Skewed task conflicts in teams: What happens when a few members see more conflict than the rest?
abstract: Task conflict has been the subject of a long-standing debate in the literature-when does task conflict help or hurt team performance? We propose that this debate can be resolved by taking a more precise view of how task conflicts are perceived in teams. Specifically, we propose that in teams, when a few team members perceive a high level of task disagreement while a majority of others perceive low levels of task disagreement-that is, there is positively skewed task conflict, task conflict is most likely to live up to its purported benefits for team performance. In our first study of student teams engaged in a business decision game, we find support for the positive relationship between skewed task conflict and team performance. In our second field study of teams in a financial corporation, we find that the relationship between positively skewed task conflict and supervisor ratings of team performance is mediated by reflective communication within the team. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: School of Management, University of South Australia.
authors.forename: Ruchi
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8918-7585
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.affiliation: Department of Management, University of Texas at Austin.
authors.forename: Niranjan S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Janardhanan
authors.affiliation: Department of Organizational Behavior, Stanford University.
authors.forename: Lindred L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Greer
authors.affiliation: Department of Management, Michigan State University.
authors.forename: Donald E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Conlon
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
authors.forename: Jeffery R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Edwards
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003142:Communication; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult