Article

When Should We Disagree? The Effect of Relationship Conflict on Team Identity in East Asian and North American Teams

Authors
  • Lindie H. Liang
  • Wendi L. Adair
  • Ivona Hideg

Abstract

Along with recent research uncovering distinctly Asian approaches to conflict management, we examine the experience and effect of relationship conflict on team identity in culturally homogeneous North American versus East Asian teams. In a longitudinal field experiment with student teams, we found that East Asian teams, compared to North American teams, experienced more relationship conflict at later stages of team tenure. We further found that, while relationship conflict undermined team identity in North American teams, relationship conflict did not influence team identity in East Asian teams. Our study counterintuitively finds that East Asian teams may be less influenced by relationship conflict than North American teams, despite their relationship maintenance orientation. We present several possible future avenues to unpack the psychological mechanisms underlying the distinct temporal patterns and outcome effects of relationship conflict in East Asian teams and implications for cross‐cultural East Asian and North American teams.

Keywords: relationship conflict, teams/groups, North Americans, East Asians, team identity, time

How to Cite:

Liang, L. & Adair, W. & Hideg, I., (2014) “When Should We Disagree? The Effect of Relationship Conflict on Team Identity in East Asian and North American Teams”, Negotiation and Conflict Management Research 7(4), 282-289. doi: https://doi.org/10.34891/3nnf-7t20

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Published on
27 Oct 2014
Peer Reviewed