The advertising agency Positive Impressions lands a large new corporate client. The accounts manager, Julie, assembles a team of 12 people from across the company's many departments to assess and plan how best to serve the client's needs. Weeks pass, and things seem to be going well. Julie holds some off-site meetings at a local brew pub, and as a result, the team members appear comfortable with each other, telling occasional jokes and engaging in friendly competition at the company's foosball table during breaks. Meetings are often productive, with a variety of viewpoints expressed, and while not everyone agrees with every idea, mutual respect within the team is evident, with one small exception. Josephine, from accounting, and Eric, from operations, argue over small details. They typically have heated discussions outside of team meetings, with Eric coming to Josephine's desk to complain about her requests for what Eric perceives as excessive paperwork and unnecessary budgetary constraints. Julie is concerned that the tension between Eric and Josephine might affect the overall productivity of the team. Keeping the concepts behind interpersonal processes in mind, which of the following actions should Julie take?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Task conflict refers to disagreements among members about the team's task. Logically speaking, this type of conflict can be beneficial to teams if it stimulates conversations that result in the development and expression of new ideas. Research findings, however, indicate that task conflict tends to result in reduced team effectiveness unless several conditions are present. First, members need to trust one another and be confident that they can express their opinions openly without fear of reprisals. Second, team members need to engage in effective conflict management practices. In fact, because task conflict tends to be most beneficial to teams when relationship conflict is low, there are reasons to focus conflict management efforts on trying to reduce this aspect of conflict. Third, there is some evidence that task conflict may benefit teams when they are composed in certain ways. For example, task conflict has been shown to be most beneficial to teams comprised of members who are either emotionally stable or open to new experiences. Finally, the benefits of task conflict may be most evident when the conflict is positively skewed, or in other words, when the majority of the members of a team are unaware of the conflict that occurs among a few members of the team.

The Advertising Agency Positive Impressions Lands a Large New Corporate