STUDYING CONFLICT IN WORK TEAMS. A REVIEW OF THE SPANISH SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTION

In the last years, we have observed an increasing interest in the analysis of conflict and work teams' effectiveness. This growing interest is showed by the many articles from Spanish research teams focused on the phenomenon of conflict in work teams. This paper provides a thorough analysis and classification of the literature on conflict at work, stressing the main research streams developed by prestigious researchers in the European and international scope. Our main goal in this review was to identify the most important variables involved in the conflict process in work teams, as well as the practical implications for professionals derived from this literature. To this end, we first focused on the Input-Processes-Output theoretical model, distinguishing between two types of conflict (tasks conflict vs. relationship conflict). Second, we adopted a contingent perspective to examine both positive and negative effects of these different types of conflict. Finally, we provided suggestions for future research on conflict to help the development of studies in this topic still incipient in Spain.