Although the importance of conflict at work is difficult to underestimate,
our knowledge about the effects organizational conflict can have is relatively
limited and narrow. Much effort has gone into understanding the ways
employees and supervisors manage conflict at work, and many studies have
been conducted to decipher the intricacies of conflict and negotiation
processes in both the social psychological laboratory and within work teams
in organizations. Over the past 20 years an increasing number of studies
have considered the possible consequences conflict in work teams has on
individual and work-team effectiveness and productivity, showing that
under specific circumstances conflict at work can even be functional and
result in increased performance (De Dreu, Harinck, & Van Vianen, 1999;
Thomas, 1992; Tjosvold, 1998).