The effect of team conflict and task type on team knowledge sharing through transactive memory system

Author

Chen, Zhenjiao ; Leung, Kwok

Author_Institution

Sch. of Manage. & Econ., Beijing Instn. of Technol., Beijing, China

fYear

2010

fDate

16-18 April 2010

Firstpage

492

Lastpage

496

Abstract

Previous research indicated that task conflict benefits knowledge sharing (KS), whereas relationship conflict damages it. However, little is known about the underlying process by which the two types of conflicts affect KS. By integrating conflict theory and transactive memory system (TMS) theory, this paper presented a mediational model to test whether two types of conflict have different effects on team KS through TMS. Besides, this study also examined whether task type moderates the proposed mediational processes. Results of a study of 386 employees in 76 teams show that task conflict has positive effects on team KS through TMS. More interestingly, it is found that the task conflict-TMS-KS sequence only significant when task type is nonroutine rather than it is routine. Relationship conflict has a negative effect on team KS through TMS. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Keywords

knowledge management; organisational aspects; team working; TMS theory; conflict theory; mediational model; relationship conflict; team conflict type; team knowledge sharing; team task type; transactive memory system; Decision making; Knowledge management; Memory management; Production; Resource management; System testing; Technology management; KS; TMS; relationship conflict; task conflict; task type;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Information Management and Engineering (ICIME), 2010 The 2nd IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Chengdu

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-5263-7

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-5265-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICIME.2010.5477964

Filename

5477964