Managing conflict in groups and teams: Conflict about conflict

Abstract

Purpose - There are a number of ongoing debates in the organizational literature about conflict in groups and teams. We investigate two ''conflicts about conflict'' (i.e., two meta-conflicts) in the literature: we examine whether and under what conditions conflict in workgroups might be beneficial and we also explore the idea that group members may not always perceive the same levels of conflict. Design/approach - We bring together the research and theorizing of the past 15 years to inform the current state of literature and move forward research on these conflicts about conflict. We examine and develop the two meta-conflicts to illustrate the importance of studying these ideas and to provid..