Access Type

Open Access Dissertation

Date of Award

January 2016

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Management and Information Systems

First Advisor

AMANUEL G. TEKLEAB

Abstract

ABSTRACT

CONFLICT ABOUT CONFLICT: ANTECEDENTS, CONSEQUENCES, AND MODERATORS OF CONFLICT ASYMMETRY IN TEAMS

by

AYSE KARACA

December 2016

Advisor: Dr. Amanuel G. Tekleab

Major: Business Administration

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

The main objectives of this dissertation were to examine the antecedents and consequences of conflict asymmetry from a multilevel perspective and to explore the impact of a contextual factor, team emotional intelligence, on the conflict asymmetry-outcome relationship. In addition, this study also sought to discover if the asymmetry measure used has an impact on the relationships tested and if the effects of conflict asymmetry can be generalizable to other team processes. Hypotheses were tested using 81 self-managed student teams (342 individuals) from a large university in the U.S. The results showed that race diversity positively predicted relationship conflict asymmetry at the team level. However, none of the team characteristics had a significant impact on team task conflict asymmetry. At the individual level, group attachment orientation was found to be positively related to both task and relationship conflict asymmetry. Yet, the findings did not reveal support for the hypothesized effect of negative affectivity on individual conflict asymmetry. In terms of the outcomes of conflict asymmetries, the results demonstrated no significant effect of team relationship conflict asymmetry on any of the team outcomes. On the other hand, team task conflict asymmetry had positive effects on both team satisfaction and commitment, but not on other team outcomes. At the individual level, individual task conflict asymmetry did not significantly influence any of the individual outcomes. The impacts of relationship conflict asymmetry on individual outcomes were not significant either, with the exception of performance and deviance. Regarding the moderating effect of team emotional intelligence, none of the interaction effects were found to be significant at the team or individual level. Finally, the results showed that the asymmetry measure used in the study (subjective vs. objective conflict asymmetry) did not change the results dramatically, with some slight differences. Likewise, the effects of trust asymmetry on team outcomes were slightly different than those of conflict asymmetry.

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