Search

In the years since Jehn's (1995) seminal article on task conflict in teams, researchers have sought to understand the beneficial aspects of conflict on performance. Initial efforts focused on the distinction between task and relationship conflict, while more recent efforts have focused on various conditions inside or outside a team. In this article we review and integrate the disparate theoretical arguments for, and empirical evidence of, moderators of the task conflict and team performance relationship in order to organize the findings and provide a framework for future research on conflict in teams and organizations. Specifically, we find four types of conditions suggested, and in some cases found, to moderate the task conflict and team performance relationship: characteristics of the conflict, the task, the team, and individuals within the team. The implications of this review should be valuable to scholars of conflict, teams, and organizations along with practitioners wishing to increase productivity through rigorous discussion and debate in their teams and organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]