Conflict management and effectiveness in virtual teams

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the role of goal‐oriented attitudes and behaviors as antecedents of conflict management and the subsequent impact of conflict management on team outcomes in virtual teams. Of particular interest is the role of “commitment to team goals” as a predictor of successful conflict management and the subsequent impact of conflict management on team outcomes.Design/methodology/approach – This paper describes the results from a quasi‐experimental study examining the relationships among commitment to team goals, conflict management and team outcomes in virtual teams. First, it provides an in depth review of relevant empirical findings. Next, it describes a study examining the relationships between three sets of variables: commitment to team goals; conflict management; and team outcomes (performance and attitudinal) in the context of virtual teams. Data were collected from 141 students grouped in 39 teams size 3 to 4 that were part of four cohorts of an Engineering Management cour...

[1]  Carl E. Larson,et al.  Teamwork: What Must Go Right/What Can Go Wrong , 1989 .

[2]  E. Sundstrom,et al.  Work teams: Applications and effectiveness. , 1990 .

[3]  J. McGrath.  Time, Interaction, and Performance (TIP) , 1991 .

[4]  Gerben S. van der Vegt,et al.  PATTERNS OF INTERDEPENDENCE IN WORK TEAMS: A TWO‐LEVEL INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONS WITH JOB AND TEAM SATISFACTION , 2001 .

[5]  C. D. De Dreu,et al.  Task versus relationship conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction: a meta-analysis. , 2003, The Journal of applied psychology.

[6]  R. Baron.  Personality and organizational conflict: Effects of the type a behavior pattern and self-monitoring☆ , 1989 .

[7]  Lee Sproull,et al.  Reducing social context cues: electronic mail in organizational communication , 1986 .

[8]  Kristopher J Preacher,et al.  SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models , 2004, Behavior research methods, instruments, & computers : a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc.

[9]  S. G. Cohen,et al.  What Makes Teams Work: Group Effectiveness Research from the Shop Floor to the Executive Suite , 1997 .

[10]  Richard T. Watson,et al.  Supporting virtual team-building with a GSS: an empirical investigation , 2003, Decis. Support Syst..

[11]  E. Weldon,et al.  Processes that mediate the relationship between a group goal and improved group performance. , 1991, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[12]  Michael E. Holmes,et al.  Conflict management in a computer-supported meeting in a computer supported meeting environment , 1991 .

[13]  R. Likert,et al.  New Patterns of Management. , 1963 .

[14]  John E. Mathieu,et al.  A Temporally Based Framework and Taxonomy of Team Processes , 2001 .

[15]  Pamela J. Hinds,et al.  CONFLICT AND SHARED IDENTITY IN GEOGRAPHICALLY DISTRIBUTED TEAMS , 2001 .

[16]  Raghu Nath,et al.  Role of Performance Goals in Prose Learning. , 1976 .

[17]  K. Jehn.  A Multimethod Examination of the Benefits and Detriments of Intragroup Conflict , 1995 .

[18]  C. Dreu,et al.  OPTIMIZING PERFORMANCE BY CONFLICT STIMULATION , 1994 .

[19]  C. D. De Dreu,et al.  Influence of social motives on integrative negotiation: a meta-analytic review and test of two theories. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[20]  Efrat Elron.  Top management teams within multinational corporations: Effects of cultural heterogeneity , 1997 .

[21]  Miriam Erez,et al.  Effect of goal acceptance on the relationship of goal difficulty to performance , 1984 .

[22]  Christopher W. Moore.  The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflict , 1996 .

[23]  L. Weingart.  Impact of group goals, task component complexity, effort, and planning on group performance , 1992 .

[24]  Bradley L. Kirkman,et al.  Five challenges to virtual team success: Lessons from Sabre, Inc. , 2002 .

[25]  Tammy L. Rapp,et al.  Team Effectiveness 1997-2007: A Review of Recent Advancements and a Glimpse Into the Future , 2008 .

[26]  Narda R. Quigley,et al.  A Longitudinal Study of Team Conflict, Conflict Management, Cohesion, and Team Effectiveness , 2009 .

[27]  M. J. Billington,et al.  Goal-guided learning from text: inferring a descriptive processing model from inspection times and eye movements. , 1979, Journal of educational psychology.

[28]  L. James,et al.  Estimating within-group interrater reliability with and without response bias. , 1984 .

[29]  Anne P. Massey,et al.  Getting It Together: Temporal Coordination and Conflict Management in Global Virtual Teams , 2001 .

[30]  P. Shrout,et al.  Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: new procedures and recommendations. , 2002, Psychological methods.

[31]  Mahesh S. Raisinghani,et al.  An empirical study of best practices in virtual teams , 2001, Inf. Manag..

[32]  M. D. Dunnette,et al.  Effectiveness of T-group experiences in managerial training and development. , 1968, Psychological bulletin.

[33]  Robert P. Steel,et al.  A meta-analytic study of the effects of goal setting on task performance: 1966-1984 , 1987 .

[34]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  Process Analysis , 1981 .

[35]  David P Mackinnon,et al.  Confidence Limits for the Indirect Effect: Distribution of the Product and Resampling Methods , 2004, Multivariate behavioral research.

[36]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[37]  M. Beruvides,et al.  Performance patterns in face‐to‐face and computer‐supported teams , 2011 .

[38]  Yuhyung Shin,et al.  Conflict Resolution in Virtual Teams , 2005 .

[39]  J. R. Larson,et al.  Group Goals, Group Coordination, and Group Member Motivation , 1993 .

[40]  D. L. Gladstein.  Groups in context: A model of task group effectiveness. , 1984 .

[41]  Guido Hertel,et al.  Managing virtual teams: A review of current empirical research , 2005 .

[42]  T. Ruddy,et al.  AN EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORK GROUP CHARACTERISTICS AND PERFORMANCE: ONCE MORE INTO THE BREECH , 1997 .

[43]  E. A. Locke,et al.  Goal setting as a means of increasing motivation. , 1967, The Journal of applied psychology.

[44]  Annelies E. M. Van Vianen,et al.  Personality in teams: Its relationship to social cohesion, task cohesion, and team performance , 2001 .

[45]  S. Kiesler,et al.  Group processes in computer-mediated communication☆ , 1986 .

[46]  E. Mannix,et al.  The Dynamic Nature of Conflict: A Longitudinal Study of Intragroup Conflict and Group Performance. , 2001 .

[47]  E. McDonough,et al.  An investigation of the use of global, virtual, and colocated new product development teams , 2001 .

[48]  B. Emans,et al.  Motivating Effects of Task and Outcome Interdependence in Work Teams , 1998 .

[49]  Martin Euwema,et al.  Managing conflict with a subordinate or a superior: Effectiveness of conglomerated behavior , 1995 .

[50]  A. Bandura,et al.  Self-evaluative and self-efficacy mechanisms governing the motivational effects of goal systems. , 1983 .

[51]  David P Mackinnon,et al.  Resampling and Distribution of the Product Methods for Testing Indirect Effects in Complex Models , 2008, Structural equation modeling : a multidisciplinary journal.

[52]  Mario G. Beruvides,et al.  Structuring group decision making in a web-based environment by using the nominal group technique , 2007, Comput. Ind. Eng..

[53]  Anne P. Massey,et al.  Because Time Matters: Temporal Coordination in Global Virtual Project Teams , 2003, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[54]  Deborah G. . Ancona,et al.  Demography and Design: Predictors of New Product Team Performance , 1992 .

[55]  Annelies E. M. Van Vianen,et al.  Managing relationship conflict and the effectiveness of organizational teams , 2001 .

[56]  Lucy Gilson,et al.  Virtual Teams: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go From Here? , 2004 .

[57]  Edwin A. Locke,et al.  The directing function of goals in task performance. , 1969 .

[58]  S. M. Sales,et al.  Some effects of role overload and role underload , 1970 .

[59]  Gina J. Medsker,et al.  RELATIONS BETWEEN WORK GROUP CHARACTERISTICS AND EFFECTIVENESS: IMPLICATIONS FOR DESIGNING EFFECTIVE WORK GROUPS , 1993 .

[60]  J. Brett.  Managing organizational conflict. , 1984 .

[61]  Bradley J. Alge,et al.  Goal commitment and the goal-setting process: conceptual clarification and empirical synthesis. , 1999, The Journal of applied psychology.

[62]  Donald E. Conlon,et al.  The Dynamics of Intense Work Groups: A Study of British String Quartets , 1991 .

[63]  Sandra E. Spataro,et al.  Getting to Know You: The Influence of Personality on Impressions and Performance of Demographically Different People in Organizations , 2001 .

[64]  Youngjin Yoo,et al.  Dynamic nature of trust in virtual teams , 2002, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..