Excited to Disagree?
A Study of Emotions in
Team Conflict
Laurie R. Weingart
Tepper School of Business
Carnegie Mellon University
(in collaboration with Julia Bear and Gergana Todorova)
1
Virtual Humans
RESEARCH
PRODUCTS
USC
Computational Models
Implementation
CMU, USC
CMU
validation
Identify Cultural Factors
CUNY, Georgetown, CMU
validation
Validated
Theories
Models
Modeling
Tools
Theory
Formation
validation
Briefing
Materials
Scenarios
Data Analysis
CUNY, Georgetown,
U Pitt, CMU
Surveys & Interviews
CUNY, CMU, U Mich, Georgetown
Common task
Subgroup task
Cross-Cultural
Interactions
U Pitt, CMU
Training
Simulations
2
Teams And Team Outcomes
• Team
–
–
–
–
–
Small group
Task focused
Common goal
Interdependent, collaborative, actions
Interdependent outcomes
• Team Outcomes
– Performance
– Attitudes
– Learning
3
Conflict in Teams
• Conflict = active discussion of disagreements
• Conflict and team performance
– Positive – constructive debate
– Negative – escalation
• Conflict Types
– Task - conflict about the task itself: how to perform the task, what
needs to be done, etc.
– Process - conflict about how to get a task done: managing
deadlines, who should do what, etc
– Interpersonal - conflict while working that is more personal in
nature: about personal preferences, personalities, non-work related
issues, etc
4
Emotion in Conflict
• Why study emotion?
– Emotion has a strong influence on subsequent
behavior
– Different types of conflict elicit different levels of
emotion.
• What is emotion?
– Subjective experience of affect that is short-term,
discrete and has an attributed cause (Barry, 1999; Frijda,
1993)
– Not = mood
5
Negative Emotions
• What do we know?
– Team conflict (overall) is associated with high levels of
negative emotions (Greer & Jehn, 2007; Jehn, 1995)
– Interpersonal conflict is largely defined by the experience
of negative emotions (Jehn, 1995; Jehn & Mannix, 2001)
• However…
– very little empirical research in this area
– Task and process conflict may also invoke negative
emotions (Cronin & Bezrukova, 2006; Greer & Jehn, 2007)
– Some conflict may invoke positive emotion
6
Example of Circumplex Models of Emotion
active
Frustrated, anxious, angry, annoyed, tense
Attentive, active, interested, alert, energetic
positive
negative
Dissatisfied, tired, irritated, worn out,
exhausted
Calm, content, at ease, quiet, sympathetic
passive
(e.g., Feldman & Russell, 1998; Larson & Deiner, 1992; Russell, 1980; Watson & Tellegen, 1985)
7
Stream of Research
• Measurement development pretest
• Study 1: How do team members experience conflict?
– Both positive and negative emotions?
– Both active and passive emotions?
– Different emotions during task, process, and interpersonal
conflict?
• Study 2: What role do conflict emotions play in team
collaboration and performance?
• Study 3: How does the process differ across cultures
and when people from different cultures interact?
8
Measurement Development Pretest
• Procedure:
– Identified 10 representative emotions from each category
– Determined face validity in conflict setting using a sample of MBA
students enrolled in Groups and Teams course (n = 25)
• Ranked each set “in terms of how likely team members involved in conflict are
likely to experience them”
• Selected top 5 from each category
• Results:
– Positive Active: Attentive, active, interested, alert, energetic
– Positive Passive: Calm, content, at ease, quiet, sympathetic
– Negative Active: Frustrated, anxious, angry, annoyed, tense
– Negative Passive: Dissatisfied, tired, irritated, worn out, exhausted
9
Study 1:
Exploratory Online Survey
• Sample
– Markettools – marketing research firm
– Selection criteria – significant experience working in teams (“worked
regularly on an important task for more than 1 month in duration”)
– Sample size: 86 respondents met our criteria
– Sample description: majority were18-34 years old, 4 year college degree,
white, employed, management experience
• Procedure
– Retrospective Study: recall experiences and report on emotions
– Defined conflict type (task, process, interpersonal)
– Asked participants to report how they felt when engaged in each type of
conflict
• Self-report Likert-type scales
• 5 items for each type of emotion
10
Findings
• Repeated-measures (2 X 2 X 3) ANOVA
– Main effects:
• emotion valence, F (1, 85)=15.35, p<.0001
• emotion activation, F (1, 85)=65.61, p<.0001
• conflict type, F(1,85)=.24, ns
– 2-way interactions:
• between conflict type and emotion valence, F (2, 84) = 9.72, p<.0001
• between emotion valence and activation, F (1, 85) = 56.44, p<.0001
– 3-way interactions:
• between conflict type, emotion valence, and emotion
activation, F (2, 84) =10.11, p<.0001
11
Active > passive
Negative active > positive passive
12
Summary of Findings
• Positive-active emotions are the most prevalent in
team conflict situations
• Different emotional profiles for different types of
conflict (task, process vs. interpersonal)
• Enough evidence to begin studying effects of conflict
emotion on team performance across types of conflict
13
Progress in Research Stream
• Study 1: How do team members experience conflict?
– Both positive and negative emotions? YES
– Both active and passive emotions? YES
– Different emotions during task, process, and interpersonal conflict?
YES
• Study 2: What role do conflict emotions play in collaboration
and performance?
– Currently collecting data
• student multidisciplinary software/product development teams
• Continuing care facility (independent living through nursing home)
• Study 3: How does the process differ across cultures and when
people from different cultures interact?
– Design and conduct this study in the next 18 months
14
Next Steps:
Conflict Emotions and Culture
• Does the circumplex hold across cultures? Do
emotions cluster according to pleasantness and
activation the same way in other cultures?
• What are the links between conflict types and
emotions in other cultures?
• How do conflict and emotions interact to influence
collaboration, cooperation, and team performance
within and across cultures?
• What are the dynamics of emotion in conflicts?
15