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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of group conflict norms and task interdependence on individuals' willingness to help others under conditions of task conflict to better understand how group characteristics influence individual helping behavior.Design/methodology/approachA total of 81 university students participate in a scenario study. The scenario has a 2 (task interdependence: high vs low) ×2 (group conflict norm: open vs avoiding) design.FindingsThe results suggest that in groups characterized with open conflict norms and high‐task interdependence members are less willing to help than members in groups with avoiding conflict norms and high‐task interdependence.Research limitations/implicationsThis research implies that helping behavior in high‐task interdependent workgroups is highest when groups have an avoiding conflict norm. Limitations include amongst others discussing the explicit request for help coming from the group used in this study and the external validity of scenario studies.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that managers or supervisors can help to provide circumstances in which task conflict does not prohibit helping behavior.Originality/valueThe paper offers a first step to experimentally investigate how individuals react to intragroup task conflict and the consequence for constructive behavior.

Contemporary organizations are actively striving to achieve a higher level of environmental performance (the extent to which the organization reduces and minimizes its negative impact on the natural environment). This pursuit is not only driven by the need to comply with governmental climate change regulations but also by the desire to gain a competitive advantage. While a limited number of studies have acknowledged the importance of top executives' strategy-making on firms' environmental performance, questions still persist regarding how the role structure of the top management team (TMT) promotes the disclosure of environmental policies, and subsequently enhances firm environmental performance. Based on the attention-based view and resource-dependency perspective, this study aims to examine how TMT functional diversity is beneficial for formulating better environmental disclosures, which in turn, is expected to increase environmental performance. Additionally, we explore the extent to which external resources (i.e., government subsidies) can strengthen this relationship. We employed an archival dataset from 406 Chinese manufacturing firms over a ten-year period (2010–2019) and tested a moderated mediation model. Our findings suggest that greater functional diversity within TMTs positively influences firm environmental performance through the improved environmental disclosures, and this indirect effect is amplified when firms receive higher levels of government subsidies. Our study contributes to the existing literature on environmental governance by demonstrating that (1) functional diversity within the TMT can predict more favorable environmental performance metrics; and (2) government financial support can particularly be a booster for the relationship between TMT environmental disclosures and firm environmental performance.

Relatively little is known about how the composition of individual conflict management styles affects group functioning. This is unfortunate because, specifically in short-term project groups, this conflict management style composition may be pivotal given the strong task focus rather than establishing norms to guide or manage conflict. Therefore, we examined whether conflict style asymmetry within short-term project groups affects the link between intragroup conflict and the performance of groups. Data were collected among short-term project groups and the results suggest that asymmetry in both forcing and the problem-solving conflict management styles moderates the negative effect of task, relationship, and process conflicts on the performance of groups. We offer a discussion of the implications of these findings.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to introduce and test a model of group processes (e.g. conflict), emergent states (e.g. trust), and group context (e.g. connectedness) to better understand the mechanisms that underlie the traditionally negative effects of conflict.Design/methodology/approachA total of 27 workgroups of a Dutch telecommunications company participated in a survey. To assess trust as a mediator between conflict and performance bootstrapping analysis was used. In addition, the moderating role of the three connectedness types was investigated with hierarchical regressions.FindingsThe results suggest that trust partially mediates the effect of task conflict and fully mediates the effect of relationship conflict on performance. Furthermore, trust is less affected by task conflict when group members are highly cognitively connected and less affected by relationship conflict when group members are highly task connected.Research limitations/implicationsThis research implies that task and cognitive connectedness decrease the negative effect of conflict on trust, and hence, performance. Shortcomings include discussing the causality between conflict and trust, and the possibility of different perceptions among group members regarding group phenomena.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that managers can help to provide circumstances in which conflict is not necessarily destructive for intragroup trust and performance.Originality/valueProvides one of the first empirical examinations of the mediating role of trust in the relationship between task and relationship conflict and perceived group performance. Additionally, examines if connectedness (the level of active involvement of group members with each other) buffers the negative effects of conflict on trust.

Wearable technology enables collecting continuous in situ data from multiple people in various modalities, which can enhance team research and support, as the dynamic coupling of signals between interacting individuals (i.e., team coordination dynamics) is believed to reflect underlying processes and states of team functioning and performance. We conducted a systematic review on existing literature to evaluate the prospective use of wearable technology in research and practice. Using the IMOI framework as an organizing tool, our review revealed considerable support linking team coordination dynamics in different modalities to team functioning and performance, but also explicated the field's nascent status.