Task Conflict and Team Creativity: Transformational Leadership and Relationship Conflict as Moderators

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the dual effects of task conflict on team creativity and the role of team-focused transformational leadership (TFL) as a key contingency in the task conflict–team creativity relationship.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 325 teams across ten large companies in South Korea. The study tested the hypothesized moderated mediation model using an SPSS macro (PROCESS, Hayes, 2008).FindingsResults showed that task conflict is directly and positively related to team creativity and is negatively and indirectly related to team creativity via relationship conflict. Furthermore, the study found that team-focused TFL moderates all paths through which task conflict affects team creativity. Specifically, team-focused TFL enhances the positive direct effect of task conflict and alleviates the negative indirect effects of task conflict on team creativity.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough this study could not test the causal chains of the proposed relationships owing to a cross-sectional nature of data, the present research provides theoretical implications for the conflict, leadership and team creativity literatures. The study highlights the role of transformational leadership in the process through which team conflict is managed so as to increase team creativity.Practical implicationsTo capitalize on the creativity-related benefits associated with task conflict, managers will need to pay attention to the role they can play and their leadership that emphasizes collective goals and identity. Managers and team leaders are also expected to intervene in conflict situations to minimize the harmful effect of task conflict that may take place owing to the association between task conflict and relationship conflict.Social implicationsThe findings will have implications for any social contexts where people work together toward common goals. In such contexts, the study emphasizes the role of leadership in teams to use the creative potential associated with different opinions and values regarding what and how work to be completed.Originality/valueThe study’s examination of the dual paths through which task conflict affects team creativity brings insights into why the impact of task conflict on team creativity has been inconsistent or unclear in past research. This paper also articulates a leader’s role in teams in relation to managing team conflict to increase team creativity.

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Differentiated transformational leadership, conflict and team creativity: an experimental study in China

International Journal of Emerging Markets ◽

10.1108/ijoem-12-2020-1478 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Peihua Dai ◽

Mingming Feng ◽

Jing Wang

Keyword(s):

Transformational Leadership ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Mediating Effect ◽

Task Conflict ◽

Relationship Conflict ◽

Team Creativity ◽

Content Type ◽

Team Conflict ◽

New Perspective

Purpose The authors investigated the impacts of differentiated transformational leadership (TFL), including team-focused TFL and individual-focused TFL, on team creativity through the mediating effect of team conflict, consisting of task conflict and relationship conflict.Design/methodology/approach The authors designed and conducted a close-to-reality experiment, enrolling 180 students and six professors from a large Chinese university. Student participants worked on a real marketing project and professor participants imitated the behaviors of transformational leaders. Using the computed values of team-focused TFL, individual-focused TFL, team creativity, task conflict and relationship conflict, the authors assessed the relationship among differentiated TFL, team creativity and team conflict.Findings Team-focused TFL has a significantly positive impact on team creativity through the mediating effect of task conflict, whereas individual-focused TFL has a significantly negative impact on team creativity through the mediating effect of relationship conflict.Originality/value From a new perspective of team conflict, the authors revealed the “black box” of the differentiated TFL–team creativity relationship. Moreover, other determinants were well controlled in the experiment, and thus, the authors effectively clarified the intervening mechanism of differentiated TFL on team creativity through the mediating effect of team conflict.

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Conflict and creativity in inter-organizational teams

International Journal of Conflict Management ◽

10.1108/ijcma-01-2016-0003 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 74-102 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Nan Hu ◽

Zhi Chen ◽

Jibao Gu ◽

Shenglan Huang ◽

Hefu Liu

Keyword(s):

Shared Leadership ◽

Negative Relationship ◽

Task Conflict ◽

Relationship Conflict ◽

Curvilinear Relationship ◽

Team Creativity ◽

Content Type ◽

Conflict Situations ◽

Organizational Teams ◽

Study Offer

Purpose This paper aims to examine the effects of task and relationship conflicts on team creativity, and the moderating role of shared leadership in inter-organizational teams. An inter-organizational team normally comprises employees from collaborated organizations brought together to conduct an initiative, such as product development. Practitioners and researchers have witnessed the prevalence of conflict in inter-organizational teams. Despite significant scholarly investigation into the importance of conflict in creativity, a deep theoretical understanding of conflict framework remains elusive. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire survey was conducted in China to collect data. Consequently, 54 teams, which comprised 54 team managers and 276 team members, were deemed useful for the study. Findings By testing our hypotheses on 54 inter-organizational teams, we found that relationship conflict has a negative relationship with team creativity, whereas task conflict has an inverted U-shaped (curvilinear) relationship with team creativity. Furthermore, when shared leadership is stronger, the negative relationship with team creativity is weaker for relationship conflict, whereas the inverted U-shaped relationship with team creativity is stronger for task conflict. Research limitations/implications The main limitation is cross-sectional, which cannot establish causality in relationships. Despite this potential weakness, the present research provides insights into conflict, leadership and inter-organizational collaboration literature. Practical implications The findings of this study offer some guidance on how managers can intervene in the conflict situations of inter-organizational teams. Social implications Managers are struggling to identify ways to effectively manage team conflict when a team of diverse individuals across organizational boundaries are brought together to solve a problem. The findings of this study offer some guidance on how managers can intervene in the conflict situations of inter-organizational teams. Originality/value This paper provides understandings about how relationship and task conflicts affect team creativity in inter-organizational teams.

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The relationship between R&D team diversity and team creativity

Management Decision ◽

10.1108/md-12-2019-1727 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Jinyong Kim ◽

Chanhoo Song

Keyword(s):

Transformational Leadership ◽

Mediating Effect ◽

Task Conflict ◽

Team Leaders ◽

Multiple Sources ◽

Team Creativity ◽

Content Type ◽

Team Members ◽

Team Diversity ◽

The Relationship

PurposeThis study aims to explore how and what type of team diversity is related to team creativity in R&D organizations, incorporating conflict as a mediator and transformational leadership as a moderator.Design/methodology/approachSurvey questionnaires were used to collect data from 24 Korean R&D teams (185 team members, 24 team leaders and 24 managers) in the public and private sectors. The dependent variable, team creativity, was measured by questioning R&D team managers to whom R&D team leaders report directly, and the antecedents, mediator and moderator were answered by team members and their leaders.FindingsThe data confirmed that team diversity, particularly informational diversity, was positively associated with team creativity. However, conflict did not show a significant mediating effect between team diversity and creativity. Transformational leadership had a negative moderating effect between informational diversity and task conflict in such a way that when transformational leadership was high, teams with higher informational diversity showed lower task conflict between team members.Originality/valueA growing number of R&D projects require interdisciplinary efforts resulting in incorporating scientists and engineers from multiple disciplines, and growing numbers of women and minorities now choose careers in science and technology. Naturally, R&D project teams have become more diverse than before. This study provides empirical evidence from multiple sources, showing both mediating and moderating effects on the relationship between R&D team diversity and creativity.

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Is it about task conflict or relationship conflict?

Nankai Business Review International ◽

10.1108/nbri-02-2017-0009 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 324-343

Author(s):

Jianxun Chen ◽

Songbo liu ◽

Yue Wang ◽

Tao Wang ◽

Xueqiang Zheng

Keyword(s):

Transformational Leadership ◽

Transactional Leadership ◽

Leadership Behavior ◽

Task Conflict ◽

Relationship Conflict ◽

Exploratory Learning ◽

Learning Behavior ◽

Content Type ◽

Ceo Leadership ◽

The Relationship

Purpose Based on the team conflict theory and organizational learning theory, this study aims to discuss the two different types of conflicts of the top management team (TMT) on the different mechanisms of exploratory learning behavior of firms, and, based on the perspective of CEO-TMT (CEO – chief executive officer) interface, the different moderating effects caused by different CEO leadership styles are clarified. Design/methodology/approach Using the sample of 193 firms’ samples with multi-source data, the authors take an empirical test of the theoretical framework. Findings The effect of task conflict on exploratory learning behavior was insignificant, and relationship conflict had a positive effect on exploratory learning behavior. However, when CEO’s transformational leadership level was high, or transactional leadership level was low, there existed “bathtub curve” relationship between task conflict and exploratory learning behavior, and the relationship conflict under these conditions strengthened exploratory learning behavior. When CEO’s transactional leadership level was high, or transformational leadership level was low, there existed the inverted U-shaped relationship between task conflict and exploratory learning behavior, and the relationship conflict under such conditions weakened exploratory learning behavior. Originality/value First, the authors challenge the assumption of linear mechanism of task conflict, trying to build the mechanism of curve hypothesis, and the nonlinear explanation might be able to integrate the inconsistent results in the existing literature. Second, according to the inconsistent results of relationship conflict in existing literature, this study takes perspective of the CEO-TMT and introduces CEO leadership behavior as a moderating variable to test the moderating effect of CEO leadership and clarifies the boundary conditions of TMT conflicts.

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Is relationship conflict totally detrimental to team creativity?: Mediating role of team learning and moderating role of transformational leadership

Current Psychology ◽

10.1007/s12144-020-01106-3 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Zhongjun Ye ◽

Hefu Liu ◽

Jibao Gu ◽

Jin Yang

Keyword(s):

Transformational Leadership ◽

Team Learning ◽

Relationship Conflict ◽

Team Creativity ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Moderating Role

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Task and Relationship Conflict at Work

European Journal of Psychological Assessment ◽

10.1027/1015-5759/a000064 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 171-178 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock ◽

Anna Grohmann ◽

Simone Kauffeld

Keyword(s):

Factor Analysis ◽

Confirmatory Factor Analysis ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Longitudinal Design ◽

Industrial Sector ◽

Task Conflict ◽

Relationship Conflict ◽

Factor Solution ◽

Convenience Sample ◽

Confirmatory Factor

The distinction between task and relationship conflict is well established. Based on Jehn’s (1995) intragroup conflict scale, we developed an economic six-item questionnaire for assessing relationship and task conflict in work groups. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed on data from a convenience sample (N = 247), and confirmed the original two-factor solution. The stability of the obtained two-factor solution was supported by confirmatory factor analysis in a longitudinal design with a second sample (N = 431) from the industrial sector. In line with previous research, the two types of conflict were intercorrelated. Moreover, the two subscales showed differential longitudinal effects on team outcomes. Task conflict was beneficial for performance in nonroutine tasks (but not in routine tasks). Relationship conflict had a negative impact on team viability and coworker trust.

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