Measuring task conflicts as they occur: a real-time assessment of task conflicts and their immediate affective, cognitive and social consequences

When two or more individuals with different values, interests, and experiences work together, interpersonal conflicts are inevitable. Conflicts, in turn, can hinder or delay successful task completion. However, certain types of conflicts may also have beneficial effects. The literature differentiates between task conflicts (TCs) and relationship conflicts (RCs). Whether TCs are detrimental or beneficial for performance largely depends on the simultaneous occurrence of RCs. However, the reasons for the differential effects of TCs with and without RCs remain largely unknown. Therefore, we explored the underlying fine-grained mechanisms of the conflict-performance relationship in two studies. We used event-sampling methodology to track employees’ conflicts in the field (study 1) and we examined conflicts in a controlled laboratory setting (study 2). We found that RCs during TCs made participants feel disrespected and thereby increased negative affect. Further, RCs during TCs impaired knowledge gain, which decreased positive affect. In turn, low positive affect explained why TCs with RCs led to poorer performance than TCs without RCs. However, neither of the two studies supported the assumption that high negative affect from RCs during TCs—by itself—had adverse effects on performance. Our results confirm previous findings of the destructive character of RCs during TCs and additionally provide new insights into the nature and complexity of workplace conflicts by introducing positive affect as a missing piece of the puzzle.