Research Within the Instrumental Perspective
Studies from this perspective primarily focus on the relationship between conflict and workgroup performance. At the most basic level, these studies emphasize outcomes, including performance, member satisfaction, and group viability.
Most studies conceptualize the conflict-outcome relationship as more complex than simple independent and dependent variables. These studies include moderators such as diversity or mediators such as conflict management style. The common theme in this literature is that the effect of conflict on outcome variables depends on how the workgroup manages conflict. The following sections first review studies that examine antecedents of conflict and general outcomes of workgroup conflict. In the sections subsequent to these, two common variables that a number of studies have used as either moderators or mediators are discussed: (1) diversity and (2) technology. Finally, we review a developing stream of research using network conceptualizations and methods to study workgroup conflict.Table 12.1 Three Perspectives on Workgroup Conflict
| Instrumental | Developmental | Political | |
| Sources of conflict | Premeditated, strategic activity to achieve one’s goals | Challenges that arise during key phases or junctures in a group’s development | Dominant groups/ members who oppress subordinate groups/ members |
| Productive conflict | Helps the group accomplish its goal | Resolves problems, move to higher stage of development | Surfaces and challenges power imbalances, enables multiple voices |
| Research focus | Group performance | Group’s progress through developmental stages | Power bases and deep processes underlying power bases, ideologies |
| Public versus private conflict | Public conflict | Private conflict | Private conflict |
| Rational versus nonrational conflict | Rational conflict | Nonrational conflict | Rational conflict, though sometimes blinded by dominant paradigm |
More on the topic Research Within the Instrumental Perspective:
- Research Within the Instrumental Perspective
- Toward Integration and Cross-Fertilization
- Workgroup Conflict and Network Analysis
- Reflections on Instrumental Research on Workgroup Conflict and Communication
- Perspectives of Conflict in Workgroups
- Reflections on Developmental Research and Workgroup Conflict
- Research Within the Political Perspective
- Workgroups have become one of the most ubiquitous elements of 21st-century organizations—from project teams to boardrooms.
- Managing conflict is time-consuming and inevitable.
- Conflict in Virtual Teams
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