How Task and Person Conflict Shape the Role of Positive Interdependence in Management Teams

A literature-based model defining how task and person conflict modify the relationship between positive goal interdependence and decision-making effectiveness in management teams is presented. The model assumes that positive interdependence fosters effective decision making behaviors only if person conflict interferes with task conflict, but not in cases of one-sided task conflict, one-sided person conflict, or no conflict. Survey results obtained from 102 members of management teams illustrate this complex interactive effect of positive interdependence and type of conflict. The proposed refinement of the classic interdependence paradigm may advance recent theory and research on the role of type of conflict in team decision making.