The Relationship Between Task Conflict and Team Learning: the Critical Role of Psychological Safety

Abstract

In an increasingly competitive workplace, the ability to learn from each other is quite critical. Past research has shown that team learning is one of the most important variables to promote team performance. This study describes the relationship between task conflict and team learning, and explores the moderate effect of psychological safety in the relationship. We selected 238 members in 72 self-management teams as participants, and invited them to finish questionnaires. The results indicated that task conflict exerted a negative effect on team learning. Additionally, relationship between task conflict and team learning was moderated by psychological safety. This study implies that task conflict may decline information processing effectiveness, and then showed negative effect on team learning. Besides, it would be useful to integrate psychological safety as one of the design factors which could foster successful team learning.