Seeing Differently From Others: The Impact Of Relationship Conflict Asymmetry and Realization On Team Performance

Past research on team conflict has taken for granted that conflict is a collective phenomenon and members of the same team are assumed to have similar conflict experiences. Recent research has begun to question this assumption and opened a dialogue regarding the possibility of conflict asymmetry among members. The present research continues this dialogue by examining the effects of relationship conflict asymmetry on performance and the moderating effect of realization of relationship conflict asymmetry. In a study of student teams, I find that relationship conflict asymmetry is beneficial for team performance and that this effect is stronger in teams who realize that others may have a different perception of conflict than oneself. Realization is not predictive of performance in teams with low relationship conflict asymmetry.