SummaryThe present study explores the dynamics of conflict management as a team phenomenon. The study examines how the input variable of task structure (task interdependence) is related to team conflict management style (cooperative versus competitive) and to team performance, and how team identity moderates these relationships. Seventy-seven intact work teams from high-technology companies participated in the study. Results revealed that at high levels of team identity, task interdependence was positively associated with the cooperative style of conflict management, which in turn fostered team performance. Although a negative association was found between competitive style and team performance, this style of team conflict management did not mediate between the interactive effect of task interdependence and team identity on team performance.

The instrument exhibits acceptable reliability and validity in the Israeli cultural context. Further research is needed to evaluate the measure in other cultural settings.

The current study attempted to elucidate the mechanisms whereby constructive‐cooperative conflict management (integrating) fosters innovation in work teams. The proposed conceptual model postulated that the positive function of integrating in precipitating innovation is motivated by prosocial team atmosphere as manifested in team identity, the team’s capacity to mitigate the adverse impact of relationship conflict and its capability to maximize the potential gains of task conflict. Specifically, it was hypothesized: (a) integrating would predict innovation. (b) Team identity would be positively related to integrating, and that integrating would mediate the positive relationship between team identity and team innovation. (c) Task conflict would be positively related to integrating whereas relationship conflict would be negatively related to integrating. This research embraced a team‐level perspective and analysis. Seventy‐seven intact work teams from high‐technology companies participated in the study. The findings, by and large, supported the proposed conceptual model, especially the contention that teams’ proclivities with respect to conflict management play a pivotal role in their capacity to function in an innovative manner. A team’s integrating pattern meaningfully predicted team innovation. The mediating effect of the integrating strategy on the relationship between team identity and team innovation was also demonstrated. Finally, relationship conflict was negatively associated with a team’s integrating pattern, while the positive association of task conflict with the cooperative strategy was marginally significant.

This research examined antecedents of short-term success in mediation. Seventy-three hearings were observed at two community dispute resolution centers in New York State. Measures of short-term success were: reaching agreement, goal achievement, and immediate satisfaction with the agreement and with the conduct of the hearing. Results indicated that the likelihood of short-term success increased with disputant joint problem solving and decreased with disputant hostile and contending behavior and the prominence of intangible issues in the case. Satisfaction with the hearing increased with disputants' involvement in a continuing relationship; and goal achievement and both types of satisfaction decreased with escalation of the conflict prior to hearing. As predicted, joint problem solving increased with involvement in a continuing relationship and decreased with disputants' hostile and contentious behavior, the prominence of intangible issues, and escalation of the conflict prior to the hearing. Five mediator behaviors were either unrelated or negatively related to short-term success: providing reassurance, displaying expertise, keeping order, criticizing, and asking embarrassing questions. Mediator behaviors that were positively related to short-term success were those that demonstrated empathy, structured the discussion, and stimulated thinking. Multiple regression analyses revealed several interactions of mediator behaviors with disputant behaviors and prior conditions in predicting agreement and goal achievement.

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The current study focused on intra‐group conflict by attempting to elucidate individual and situational factors underlying choices along two dimensions of conflict management patterns: engagement versus avoidance and constructive versus destructive. In the study, the role of two types of self‐efficacy (global and social) among group members was investigated, as was the sense of group identification in team dispute resolution preferences modes. Sixty‐seven members of volunteer community service communes in the Israeli Scouting youth movement, 48 females and 19 males, representing 13 intact teams, participated in the study. Self‐report structured questionnaires (previously used and adapted for this study) served as research instruments. Both global self‐efficacy and group identification independently predicted the conflict engagement‐destructive pattern of domination. Social self‐efficacy served as the sole predictor of the preference to manage intra‐team conflict by means of integrating—the engagement‐constructive mode. In contrast, the choice of compromising was also fostered by the joint contribution of social self‐efficacy and group‐identification, beyond the direct effect of social self‐efficacy. The study corroborates the assumption that conflict management patterns within an intact team are related to dispositional variables on the individual level, i.e., global and social self‐efficacy, and to the team‐related variable of group identification.

The current study aims to identify the factors underlying differing preferences for conflict‐management patterns within work teams. Two major antecedents of dispute resolution modes were examined: the team members' emotional reactions to and their perceptions of the type of conflicts encountered in their work group. The sample consisted of 69 medical teams, comprising 331 employees (nurses and physicians) employed in several medical organizations. Self‐report structured questionnaires were used to assess the research variables. A series of regression analyses showed that cooperative (integrating and compromising) patterns of conflict management were associated with positive intragroup emotional states; contentious (dominating) patterns were associated with positive as well as negative emotions; and an avoidance pattern was associated with negative emotions only. Additionally, negative emotions were found to mediate the association of relationship conflict with a dominating pattern of conflict management. The findings point to the centrality of emotional states in determining conflict management preferences at the intragroup level.