Intra-Individual Conflict and Task Performance in a Multiteam Context: Examining the Structural Elements of Conflict Experience

In this paper, we advance a novel intra-individual conflict cognitive process framework, highlighting two structural elements of conflict experiences: directions (sending vs. receiving) and team boundaries (within-team vs. between-team). Integrating theorizing on cognitive resource allocation, we explain how and why the effect of individuals’ conflict experiences on their task performances hinges upon their self-regulation of attention processes guided by the structural elements of conflict experiences. In Study 1, using data extracted from continuous audio and video streams of paramedics participating in live-actor mass-casualty response exercises, we found that sending within-team conflict and receiving between-team conflict related positively with task performance, whereas receiving within-team conflict related negatively to task performance. In Study 2, we conduct a mixed design scenario-based experiment to examine the underlying mechanisms that drive such effects. Our findings reveal that on-task attentional pull was a dominant mechanism for a positive sending within-team conflict – task engagement relationship, whereas off-task attentional demands were driving the negative receiving within-team conflict – task engagement relationship. Collectively, we demonstrate that examining the intra-individual microfoundations of conflict in a multiteam context yields unique insights and enables building new theory on when and why conflict is beneficial or harmful.