Intragroup conflict

Intragroup conflict (or infighting) refers to conflict between two or more members of the same group or team. In recent years, intragroup conflict has received a large amount of attention in conflict and group dynamics literature. This increase in interest in studying intragroup conflict may be a natural corollary of the ubiquitous use of work groups and work teams across all levels of organizations, including decision-making task forces, project groups, or production teams. Jehn identified two main types of intragroup conflict: task conflict and relationship (or emotional) conflict (e.g., differences in personal values).

There are a number of antecedents of intragroup conflict. While not an exhaustive list, researchers have identified a number of antecedents of intragroup conflict, including low task or goal uncertainty, increased group size, increased diversity (i.e., gender, age, race), lack of information sharing, and high task interdependence.

Jehn developed the Intragroup Conflict Scale (ICS) to measure the two types of intragroup conflicts (i.e., task and relationship conflict). The ICS consists of eight 7-point Likert scale items which assess intragroup conflict. This scale has been applied in a number of contexts including decision making groups and groups in the moving industry. Furthermore, this scale has high construct and predictive validity.

A recent meta-analysis of 116 empirical studies, examining 8,880 groups, revealed a complex relationship between intragroup conflict and group outcomes. That is, effects of intragroup conflict on group performance or outcome is moderated by a number of factors including the context under which it is examined and the type of outcome. One of the prominent findings from the meta-analysis is that task conflict has a less negative relationship (and at times even positive) with group performance and outcomes than believed previously. The results also showed that intragroup conflict is not always negative or detrimental to group performance; for example, task conflict has been related positively to group performance and outcomes when such conflict occurs in management groups.

Task conflict goes hand in hand with intragroup conflict because task conflict mostly occurs in workplace or group environments. In a business or workplace environment task conflict involves two parties who are unable to reach an agreement or move forward on the task at hand due to differing needs or perspectives. There are essentially three components of task conflict. The first is behavioral. It occurs when someone interferes with your goals or objectives. For example, you wish to keep your work desk neat and tidy, but your coworker keeps leaving piles of paper all over it. The second component is cognitive. It is a disagreement between you and someone else due to a divergence between your interests, needs and objectives and the other person's interests, needs and objectives. For example, let's say you and a fellow researcher both need to use the company's supercomputer to process data on separate research projects. You each disagree about which research project has priority because it is in both of your interests to finish first, but only one of you can Affective component is the third and final task conflict component. Affect means 'emotional feelings,' and in the cause of conflict, it means negative feelings such as anger, resentment and aggression. Getting into a fight with a coworker over personal resentments is a perfect example.

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