An Empirical Study of the Mediating Process of the Influence of Conflicts on Team Outcome

In work teams, conflicts among team members are unavoidable and have negative effects on team outcomes. However, the mediating processes through which the influence of these conflicts on team outcomes can be measured has received little attention in previous studies. Based on transactive memory system, this study establishes a theoretical model to show how relationship conflicts affect two team outcomes including team performance and team learning through transactive memory system. Three longitudinal studies were conducted and a sample of 76 teams was collected from six companies of six industries in China. Results show that relationship conflicts have negative effects on transactive memory system, team performance and team learning. Moreover, transactive memory system partially mediates the effects of relationship conflicts on team performance and team learning.