Conflict Levels
Conflict on a team isn’t necessarily bad. As we discuss in Chapter 15 , conflict has a complex relationship with team performance. Relationship conflicts—those based on interpersonal incompatibilities, tension, and animosity toward others—are almost always dysfunctional. However, when teams are performing nonroutine activities, disagreements about task content (called task conflicts ) stimulate discussion, promote critical assessment of problems and options, and can lead to better team decisions. A study conducted in China found that moderate levels of task conflict during the initial phases of team performance were positively related to team creativity, but both very low and very high levels of task conflict were negatively related to team performance. 53 In other words, both too much and too little disagreement about how a team should initially perform a creative task can inhibit performance