The influence of team emotional intelligence climate on conflict and team members' reactions to conflict

Abstract

The authors seek to advance research on conflict and emotions by integrating features of conflict, reactions to conflict, and team emotional intelligence climate. They tested hypothesized links between variables with data collected from 528 employees in 97 organizational teams. Results revealed that teams with less-well-defined emotional intelligence climates were associated with increased task and relationship conflict and increased conflict intensity. In addition, team emotional intelligence climate, especially conflict management norms, moderated the link between task conflict and destructive reactions to conflict. Implications for future research and practice are discussed. © 2008 Sage Publications.