Investigating face-to-face and virtual teamwork over time: When does early task conflict trigger relationship conflict?
North Carolina State UniversityPast research has indicated that early task consict can trigger subsequent relationshipconsict during teamwork. The current study examines conditions that may exacerbateor attenuate this relationship. SpeciÞcally, this study examines the moderating role ofprocess consict and communication medium on the link between task consict andrelationship consict over time. A longitudinal laboratory experiment was carried outcomparing 22 face-to-face (FTF) groups, 22 videoconference (VC) groups, and 22synchronous computer mediated (i.e., OchatO) communication (CMC) groups workingon a complex team task over a period of 1 month. Results highlight the robust insuenceof early…
Relationship, task and process conflicts on team performance
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine which communication contexts – virtual or traditional interactions – is more disruptive or beneficial to the effects of intragroup conflicts on team performance.Design/methodology/approachA laboratory experiment was conducted comparing 22 face‐to‐face (FTF) teams, 22 videoconference (VC) teams and 22 computer‐mediated communication (CMC) teams over a month.FindingsResults showed that VC teams are the highest performing teams and CMC teams the lowest. However, when task conflict increases VC team performance diminishes at the first stage of the teamwork. FTF team performance is also improved by task conflict, but also by process conflict. After …