Featured Faculty

Liao, Leo Huiyao（廖輝堯）

Assistant Professor

Research Paper

Team conflict at the core: Exploring the influence of critical team member conflict on team creative functioning

What kind of conflict can spark creativity?

07 November 2024 • 6 mins read

Conflicts are inevitable and can lead to adverse outcomes, but new research suggests ways to harness them for enhanced workplace creativity

By Pan Jingyi, Principal Writer, China Business Knowledge @ CUHK

Conflicts frequently arise in workplaces and are often viewed in a negative light. Nonetheless, different types of conflict can lead to various outcomes, with some instances even fostering improved job performance.

Scholars have long been captivated by the connection between team conflict and creativity. Disputes over resource allocation or problem-solving strategies are proven to stimulate diverse ideas. Meanwhile, others argue that conflicts stemming from personal disputes and emotions can constrain creative output.

team-conflict-creativity — Conflicts frequently arise in workplaces and are often viewed in a negative light.

“Conflicts are so prevalent in teams that managers might not have enough energy and resources to handle all the conflicts that happen,” says Liao Huiyao, Assistant Professor in the Department of Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School. “They have to direct their attention to handling conflicts that are most critical for team success.”

Against this backdrop, Professor Liao conducted a study to find out what kind of conflicts are more crucial for a team to function and the underlying reasons. The study titled Team conflict at the core: Exploring the influence of critical team member conflict on team creative functioning was conducted in collaboration with Brad Harris of École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Paris, Li Ning of Tsinghua University, and Han Yuqing of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The influences of critical members

Professor Liao compares task conflict, which refers to disagreement on viewpoints, ideas, and opinions related to the team’s tasks, and relationship conflict, when friction becomes personal and emotional. He notes that many assume that both task and relationship conflicts impact all team members equally and that different members’ involvement in conflict has the same influence on team functioning, but it’s actually inaccurate. “Conflicts typically occur uniquely and asymmetrically between team members rather than being dispersed evenly across teams.”

“Conflicts are so prevalent in teams that managers might not have enough energy and resources to handle all of them, they have to direct their attention to handling conflicts that are most critical for team success.”

Professor Liao Huiyao

The researchers argue that the effects of conflicts on team function and outcomes depend on where such conflicts reside. “If team conflicts occur between a critical team member and other members, such conflicts are of greater impact on team performance, compared to conflicts that occur among less critical members,” Professor Liao adds.

Critical members in this study are defined as individuals who hold pivotal positions within the team’s operational network. To test their hypotheses, the researchers conducted surveys among 70 new product development teams from a wide range of Chinese high-tech enterprises by paper and email.

Different conflicts lead to various outcomes

In their theoretical model, the researchers posited that task conflict involving critical members positively correlates with creativity through team reflexivity, where members retrospectively analyse their performance and adjust their strategies for better performance in the future.

“Team reflexivity facilitates divergent thinking because it involves intensive information exchange, exploration of dissenting opinions, and scrutinising the status quo,” Professor Liao says, adding that divergent thinking enhances creativity by generating a greater variety of ideas.

However, the researchers initially didn’t discover significant evidence supporting the positive correlation between task conflicts and creativity, as the main analysis showed that task conflicts did not bring about team reflexivity. However, they found a twist in a supplementary analysis.

“The difference between our main and the supplementary analyses was that we identified critical members differently,” Professor Liao explains. In the main analysis, critical members are those occupying central positions within the team, meaning others need to go through them to complete tasks, but critical members in the supplementary analysis are those seen as having great influence by others.

“Our results may suggest that a member’s criticality is determined not only by how central this member is in the team workflow but also by other factors yet to be identified.”

Regarding relationship conflicts, the researchers found they are negatively associated with creativity via diminishing team cohesion. Team cohesion reflects the closeness and connection felt among members, which provides a supportive and safe environment that encourages the open-mindedness and perseverance required for collaborative problem-solving.

“When a team has high cohesion, they stick together and are more likely to support each other and work well as a unit,” says Professor Liao. However, the results indicated that relationship conflicts involving critical members are significantly and negatively related to team cohesion, adversely impacting team creativity.

Shared goals and emotional intelligence matter

Professor Liao and his collaborators also note that the influence of conflicts involving critical members probably depends on other factors. Firstly, they believe that when the team has shared goals, members are more likely to work together to resolve discords and be more creative via team reflexivity. “Shared goals emphasise team members’ mutual interests and, by extension, increase their willingness to consider opposing views and approach task-related disagreements constructively,” says Professor Liao.

Secondly, they argue that the emotional intelligence of critical team members, which involves understanding and managing emotions, can help resolve conflicts within the team, reducing the negative impact on creativity by promoting unity.

The research findings indicate that shared goals accentuate the indirect positive link between task conflicts involving critical members and creativity through reflexivity. Moreover, a team with strong bonds and a sense of unity may be better equipped to handle conflicts involving critical members, thereby lessening the detrimental impact on the creative output.

Choose your team members wisely

Helping critical team members and their colleagues handle conflicts well is essential for managerial insights. Leaders should also ensure that key members don’t take on tasks others can do to prevent unnecessary overlap and potential disputes. “Training programmes aimed at helping individuals regulate emotions and have open-minded discussions may also be useful,” Professor Liao adds.

It’s not uncommon to see task and relationship conflicts coexist. If task conflict is not handled properly, it could lead to relationship conflict. Thus, Professor Liao highlights that it is important to resolve task conflicts constructively, such that members do not take them personally, leading to relationship conflicts.

Having many roles can spark your creativity

Given that shared goals and emotional intelligence are imperative for critical member conflicts for creativity, Professor Liao suggests team leaders can foster shared goals by clearly communicating them to team members. In addition, the leaders should not only design teams based on the functional heterogeneity needed for problem-solving but also work to select emotionally intelligent members.

Finally, Professor Liao notes that this study was conducted in China and that cultural differences may play a role in their findings. “Evidence shows that Chinese, compared to Westerners, often rely more on conflict avoidance approaches in handling task conflict because they prioritise allowing others to ‘save face’. We encourage future tests of our hypotheses in different cultures.”