TYPES OF CONFLICT AND TEAM EFFECTIVENESS IN HOSPITAL

Abstract Purpose: Although conflict has traditionally been considered destructive, recent studies have indicated that conflict management can contribute to effective teamwork. The present study explores conflict management as team effectiveness in hospitals. The authors examined how the contextual variables (task conflict, relationship conflict) are related to team effectiveness in hospital team managers. Research Design: Data were collected from 35 hospital manager teams (including team coordinators and team members) at 40 hospitals in Tehran, Iran. Results: Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrate, as expected, a positive relation between relationship conflict and team effectiveness and a negative relation between task conflict and team effectiveness. In addition, there are positive relations between the types of conflict and team effectiveness. Finally, a team's conflict management was partially mediated by the combination of task and relationship conflict and team effectiveness. Conclusions: The present results provide additional empirical support for the notion that conflict management can be considered team effectiveness. The study should serve to encourage hospital administration researchers to focus more attention on characteristics of organizational and team context as related to team conflict management and team effectiveness. Keywords: relationship conflict, task conflict, team effectiveness, hospita