Intragroup conflict

Ancient Eristic The term eristic, which is thought to originate with Plato, describes a dispute or quarrel. Stasis The Politics of Aristotle (of Stagira) uses the term stasis a political conflict, translated by some modern authors as civil war (which though is an analog) occurring within city-states of ancient Greece. This increase in interest in studying intragroup conflict may be a natural corollary of the ubiquitous use of work groups and work teams across all levels of organizations, including decision-making task forces, project groups, or production teams. == Antecedents ==

There are a number of antecedents of intragroup conflict. While not an exhaustive list, researchers have identified a number of antecedents of intragroup conflict, including low task or goal uncertainty, increased group size, increased diversity (i.e., gender, age, race), lack of information sharing, and high task interdependence. ==Types==

The American Psychological Association determines the existence of three such intra-conflictual problems in team organisations: process, relationship, task. == Measuring ==

Jehn developed the Intragroup Conflict Scale (ICS) to measure two types of intragroup conflicts (i.e., task and relationship conflict). The ICS consists of eight 7-point Likert scale items which assess intragroup conflict. This scale has been applied in a number of contexts including decision making groups and groups in the moving industry. Furthermore, this scale has high construct and predictive validity. == Group outcomes ==

Effects of intragroup conflict on group performance or outcome is moderated by a number of factors including the context under which it is examined and the type of outcome. According to one study, task conflict has a less negative relationship (and at times even positive) with group performance and outcomes than believed previously. The results of the study also showed that intragroup conflict is not always negative or detrimental to group performance; for example, task conflict has been related positively to group performance and outcomes when such conflict occurs in management groups. == See also ==