Conflict Asymmetry in Face-to-face and Computer Mediated Teams

Jehn and colleagues (2010) investigated conflict asymmetry (i.e., different perceptions towards conflict) in a face-to-face context from a multilevel perspective and found that both group and individual levels of conflict asymmetry had negative impacts on performance. In this paper, we conducted a conceptual replication of their work to understand how computer-mediation and time may impact previous findings on conflict asymmetry. At the group-level, we observed a three-way interaction suggesting computer-mediation may reduce the negative consequences of conflict asymmetry early in a teams’ lifecycle. At the individual level, we observed a two-way interaction wherein the negative correlation between high task-conflict asymmetry perceptions and satisfaction took time to emerge.