When Conflict Helps: Integrating Evidence for Beneficial Conflict in Groups and Teams Under Three Perspectives

Conflict is inherent whenever employees are required to work interdependently, such as within workplace teams. Yet in the face of such conflict, some teams thrive, whereas others suffer. As team-based tasks continue to increase in popularity, it is imperative that an examination of the underlying boundary conditions be undertaken to better assess under which circumstances team performance improves because of conflict, or the negative effects of conflict are minimized. Therefore, we seek to advance research and benefit practicing managers through a comprehensive review of the research that has examined contingencies in the relationship between conflict and performance in teams in order to better understand when disagreements among team members might improve, rather than harm, team performance. Specifically, we utilize a triumvirate approach to organize our review around 2 foundational theories of team conflict-complexity and information processing-as well as a more recent theoretical advance-the theory of conflict expressions. In doing so, we seek to create a deeper understanding of beneficial conflict by systematically categorizing the empirical and theoretical advances in this line of research while also identifying opportunities for future research.