Abstract
Studies have shown that constructive controversy, which is the open-minded discussion of diverse views, contributes to team effectiveness. However, there are few studies on the conditions that facilitate constructive controversy. This study explores the antecedents of constructive controversy from both team interdependence (cooperative goals) and team personality composition perspectives. Sixty customer service teams from a call center of a large mobile communication service provider in China participated in the study. Results further document that cooperative goals predict to constructive controversy. Agreeableness diversity was also found to be an antecedent of constructive controversy, and this effect was moderated by team agreeableness level: The higher the team average agreeableness, the stronger the positive association between agreeableness diversity and constructive controversy. Results were interpreted as suggesting that both cooperative goals and team agreeableness composition can develop constructive controversy in work teams in China and possibly in other cultures.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 139-153 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Asia Pacific Journal of Management |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2010 |
Funding
This work has been supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, (Project No: Grant No. LU3404/05H) to the third author. This paper is also supported by NSFC China, No. 90924007 and China 973 Project No. 2010CB731406, to the fourth author. Z.Wang(*). K. Shi (*) Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences & Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected]
Keywords
- Constructive controversy
- Cooperative goals
- Team agreeableness composition