Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the dual effects of task conflict on team creativity and the role of team-focused transformational leadership (TFL) as a key contingency in the task conflict–team creativity relationship. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 325 teams across ten large companies in South Korea. The study tested the hypothesized moderated mediation model using an SPSS macro (PROCESS, Hayes, 2008). Findings Results showed that task conflict is directly and positively related to team creativity and is negatively and indirectly related to team creativity via relationship conflict. Furthermore, the study found that team-focused TFL moderates all paths through which task conflict affects team creativity. Specifically, team-focused TFL enhances the positive direct effect of task conflict and alleviates the negative indirect effects of task conflict on team creativity. Research limitations/implications Although this study could not test the causal chains of the proposed relationships owing to a cross-sectional nature of data, the present research provides theoretical implications for the conflict, leadership and team creativity literatures. The study highlights the role of transformational leadership in the process through which team conflict is managed so as to increase team creativity. Practical implications To capitalize on the creativity-related benefits associated with task conflict, managers will need to pay attention to the role they can play and their leadership that emphasizes collective goals and identity. Managers and team leaders are also expected to intervene in conflict situations to minimize the harmful effect of task conflict that may take place owing to the association between task conflict and relationship conflict. Social implications The findings will have implications for any social contexts where people work together toward common goals. In such contexts, the study emphasizes the role of leadership in teams to use the creative potential associated with different opinions and values regarding what and how work to be completed. Originality/value The study’s examination of the dual paths through which task conflict affects team creativity brings insights into why the impact of task conflict on team creativity has been inconsistent or unclear in past research. This paper also articulates a leader’s role in teams in relation to managing team conflict to increase team creativity.

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We examined the relationship between team task knowledge diversity and team creativity, and the moderating role of team status inequality, with a focus on organizational tenure and rank inequality. By adopting an input–process–output framework, we hypothesized that teams would achieve high levels of creativity when they have a large pool of task-relevant expertise that is differentiated and specialized among team members, but the relationship would be weakened when team members have different statuses. We tested our hypotheses using data from 325 teams of employees at 10 companies in South Korea. Results showed that task knowledge diversity was positively associated with team creativity and a team's status inequality in terms of organizational tenure moderated the relationship in a negative way. Our findings contribute to the literature on team creativity by providing new insights regarding how status inequality, which is almost ubiquitous in workplaces, plays a role in a dynamic team process for creativity.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating effect of discretion and social capital on the relationship between individual perceptions of team conflict and employee-level outcomes. The authors propose that both employee discretion and unit-level social capital influence the negative effects of perceived conflict on employee stress and turnover intentions. They argue that an individual’s perceptions of these central organizational characteristics are likely to alter the consequences associated with conflict and the manner in which individuals respond to it. Design/methodology/approach – This study empirically tests the moderating effects of discretion and unit-level social capital on the relationship between individual’s perception of team conflict and employee-level outcomes. Analysis was conducted with survey data from a sample of health care care providers in 90 units across 20 nursing home organizations. We applied hierarchical linear modeling analyses to test our hypotheses. Findings – Results demonstrate that employee discretion moderates the relationship between perceived task conflict and job stress. Unit-level social capital was shown to moderate the relationship between perceived relationship conflict and employee turnover intentions. Our findings also document a varied moderation effect at low to moderate levels of conflict versus high levels of conflict. This finding suggests that the moderating role of contextual variables is more nuanced and complex than the existing conceptual frameworks acknowledge. Research limitations/implications – This study contributes to the research on conflict and conflict management by extending a multilevel approach to the effect of conflict and by providing new insights regarding the contextual manner in which conflict affects workplace outcomes. Practical implications – The effects of discretion and unit-level social capital on how conflict is metabolized by organizations and their members varied. Contextual factors matter differently for different individual level outcomes. In attempting to manage the consequences associated with workplace conflict, organizations and their managers must consider different contextual factors. Originality/value – This study contributes to the research on conflict and its management in organization by providing new insights regarding the contextual manner in which conflict affects organizational and individual outcomes. This study provides support for the claim that the relational and task-related context under which employees experience conflict affects employee stress levels and the extent to which they report their intentions to leave the organization.

The current study examines the asymmetric effects of dyadic gender composition on the provision of task-related helping behaviors in project teams. We collected 428 observations of dyadic task-related helping behaviors from 149 students in 31 project teams. We tested our hypotheses using a multilevel cross-classified model in which each member interacts with all other members of the project team. The findings indicate an asymmetric pattern of the effects of dyadic gender composition on task-related help contingent on members' perceived expertise and team identification. The results show that women are more likely to provide task-related help to men peers when women's perceived expertise is high. Additionally, men are likely to provide task-related assistance to women peers when the men's team identification is high. The pattern of interactions of perceived expertise and team identification with dyadic gender composition found in the present study suggests that the dyadic gender composition plays out in a more complex way than previously considered, especially due to the status implications of gender. It is important for managers to understand how dyadic gender composition could encourage or discourage an offering of task-related help.