earticle

영어

As uncertainties grow in the business environment, more and more companies have come to see teams as a basic element of their organizational structure. Though teams play an essential role in helping an organization achieve its goals, the continued interdependence characteristic of teams in performing a task inevitably leads to conflicts among team members. That necessitates the need to discuss conflicts that can undermine team effectiveness and may act as a barrier to helping the organization achieve its goals. A host of researches looking into differential influences relationship and task conflicts have on teach effectiveness have separated positive effects from negative ones, and also have practical implications for conflict management. Yet, these researches on effect relations between task conflict and relationship conflict also came to view various causes of conflicts as dysfunctional relation conflicts, thus ultimately weakening team effectiveness. So, for the purpose of enhancing positive effects of conflicts, situational factors which lessen the effects of task conflict on relation conflict need to be taken into consideration. Yet, empirical research on this is relatively limited. This study views participative safety climate as one of the situational moderating factors that plays an indispensable role between task conflict and relationship conflict in the teams. Participative safety climate, a sense that team members can participate in decision making and can share ideas without fear of ridicule or ostracism, will have a negative moderating effects between task conflict and relationship conflict in the teams. This study has used materials collected from heads of 276 teams to empirically analyze the impact of task conflict on relationship conflict as well as the moderating roles of participative safety climate in the teams. The results of the analysis show that task conflict has had a positive impact on relationship conflict in the teams. In addition, as for the negatively moderating roles of participative safety climate in a relationship between task conflict and relationship conflict in the teams, the greater the participative safety climate, the less the significant effect of task conflict on relationship conflict.Theoretical contributions of this paper are as follow. First of all, this research empirically investigated the relationship conflict and task conflict of the teams in Korean companies. Secondly, the negatively moderating role of participative safety climate on the relationship between task conflict and relationship conflict is empirically proved. Several practical implications are also suggested. First of all, the research finding strongly advises team leaders in organizations to maximize participative safety climate to get away from relationship conflict. While relationship conflict should be prevented, task conflict is not always unfavorable; rather, task conflict would be beneficial if well managed. Secondly, organizations and team leaders should facilitate the participation of team members and communication with them when the organizations, teams are involved in empowerment, role assignment and resource allocation, all of which are reconciling behavior that maximize participative safety climate. Third, participative safety climate that debilitates transference of conflict should be considered as a useful practice of conflict management since it enables team members to understand and appreciate the differences among them. Thus, an organization and its leader should implement and facilitate this climate. Moreover, we emphasize that interpersonal interaction among team members enables team-level goal achievement. Therefore, a firm and its managers should maintain team atmosphere based not on monolithic and oppressive organizational culture but on mutual respect and trust. This atmosphere will attenuate the relationship conflict among team members while it assists in the enhancement of efficient, effective, and adaptive team performance. Based on these research results, limitation of research and directions for future research have been drawn.

한국어

경영환경의 불확실성이 높아지면서, 기업들은 조직구조의 기본단위로 팀을 활용하고 있다. 팀은 조직목표 달성의 필수적 역할을 수행하는 반면, 팀 구성원간의 지속적인 상호작용으로 인하여 필연적으로 팀 구성원간의 갈등을 동반하게 된다. 따라서 팀 효과성을 약화시키고, 조직목표 달성의 방해요인이 되는 갈등에 대한 논의는 필요하다. 관계 및 과업갈등이 팀 효과성에 미치는 차별적인 영향력 연구들은 갈등의 순기능과 역기능을 구분하고, 갈등 관리의 실무적 시사점을 제공하고 있다. 그러나 과업갈등과 관계갈등간의 영향관계를 규명한 연구들은 팀 구성원들이 다양한 갈등 원인들을 역기능적인 관계갈등으로 인식하게 되고 궁극적으로 갈등이 팀 효과성을 약화시킨다고 보았다. 따라서 갈등의 순기능을 강화하기 위하여 과업갈등이 관계갈등에 미치는 효과를 약화시키는 상황적 요인을 고려할 필요가 있으나, 이에 대한 연구는 제한적인 상태이다. 본 연구는 상황적 조절요인으로 참여적 안전 풍토를 규명하였다. 참여적 안전 풍토는 팀 구성원들 간의 상호 조롱 및 멸시 없이 아이디어를 공유할 수 있는 풍토를 조성하므로, 과업갈등과 관계갈등간의 영향관계를 약화시킬 수 있다. 본 연구는 276개 팀의 팀장을 통해 수집한 자료로 과업갈등이 관계갈등에 미치는 영향 및 참여적 안전 풍토의 조절역할을 실증 분석하였다. 분석결과에 따르면, 과업갈등은 관계갈등에 정적인 영향을 주는 것으로 나타났다. 또한, 참여적 안전 풍토의 조절역할을 보면, 참여적 안전 풍토가 높을수록 과업갈등이 관계갈등에 미치는 정적인 영향이 약화되는 것으로 나타났다. 연구결과를 토대로 연구의 시사점과 향후 연구방향을 제시하였다