Conflict, Conflict Management and Performance in Virtual Teams

Although conflict is widely acknowledged as critical to virtual teams, little is known regarding the interplay between different types of conflict and the corresponding conflict management styles in virtual teams. This paper examines the influence of relationship as well as process conflict on team performance together with adequate conflict management styles. Using survey and archival data from a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), this study’s findings show that team performance is strongly influenced by conflict and that this relationship is moderated by conflict management style. While relationship conflict negatively influenced team performance, process conflict positively influenced performance. Furthermore, we found competitive conflict management moderated the relationship of process conflict and performance while relationship conflict was moderated by collaborative conflict management. Detailed discussion of the findings is provided in the conclusion of the paper.