Introducing profiles of team conflict

Abstract

There are three types of team conflict accepted in modern literature: task conflict, relationship conflict, and process conflict. Task conflict suggests differences in opinions and perspectives about the task itself. Relationship conflict suggests interpersonal incompatibilities related to friction and frustration among members. Process conflict involves perceived incompatibilities regarding plans for implementing the teams ideas. Previous work examined these three conflict types independently, but we take a holistic perspective by considering each team's profile. We have recovered four profiles in several studies and these profiles are linked to multilevel outcomes such as team performance and individual team member burnout. We report on the implications of this research for moving the field of high performance teamwork forward.