An Empirical Examination of the Relationship Between Team Commitment and Conflict Management Orientation in Project Teams

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between team commitment and the conflict management approach of project team members. Project team members completed measures of team commitment and situational conflict management (approach used in the project team). Pearson product moment correlations support the hypotheses that team commitment is positively associated with cooperative conflict management approaches (compromising and problem-solving), and the Williams T2 test supports the hypothesis that the association between team commitment and a problem-solving conflict management approach is significantly greater than the association between team commitment and a compromising conflict management approach. This research highlights the importance of examining the potential influence of team commitment on the process of managing project conflict.