Conflict Is Good

A large body of literature has investigated teamwork processes, both independently and related to other aspects of group functioning, such as group composition, effectiveness and teamwork quality. Most research to date show that teamwork processes are highly correlated and in general have a positive effect on team outcomes. Marks and colleagues define teamwork processes as members' interdependent acts that convert inputs to outcomes through cognitive, verbal and behavioral activities directed toward organizing task-work to achieve collective goals. Hoegl and Gemuenden use the term teamwork quality to describe the quality of group interaction processes, implying both the interpersonal interactions (communication) as well as task related processes (e.g., coordination and planning).

The overlaps and the commonalities between the elements of different classifications of interaction processes, the differentiation between task related processes (such as goal setting, planning, monitoring and coordination) and interpersonal interaction processes (such as conflict management, affect management and motivation) covers most of the taxonomies of teamwork processes. All these process variables are strongly associated with the quality of communication within groups. Communication is an important process both for task related processes as well as interpersonal interaction processes in that a good quality of communication is associated with better task-related processes (better planning activities and a better coordination), and more effective interpersonal interactions. In order to develop more parsimonious models of teamwork quality, the following dimensions were considered: planning (the process of dividing the general group task in sub-tasks and distributing them among the group members), coordination (the synchronization of the group members' actions and the progressive evaluation of the way in which these specific integrative activities are being done) and communication (the exchange of information between group members) as the most studied variables in relation to group composition.