A Contingency Model of Top Management Teams’ Task Conflict and Organizational-Level Outcomes: Evidence for a Curvilinear Relationship

This study assessed the influence of top team conflict on top management team (TMT) cognition (ability and need), strategic decision-making (quality and satisfaction), and differentiating between task conflict and emotional conflict. Participants were from 63 Chinese enterprises (n = 226; female= 45.58%; mean age = 33.5 years, SD = 2.70 years). They completed surveys on TMT cognition, strategic decision-making, and team conflict (task conflict and emotional conflict). Following structural equation modelling, results showed a significant positive correlation between TMT cognition and strategic decision-making performance, not only directly, but also indirectly through a sequential mediation of task and emotional conflicts. However, the indirect pathway is stronger among TMTs with task conflicts than those with emotional conflicts. These findings suggest that when organisations leverage their resource on TMT task conflicts, they will be more likely to be involved in engaging in mutual influence behaviours in their work, and lead the team to achieve a higher level of strategic decision-making performance.

Prior literature reports mixed results relative to the performance outcomes of different types of conflict in top management teams. These conflicting results may stem from the complex interactions between different types of conflict. To address this gap in existing knowledge, we set out to explore the interactions between task, process, and affective conflict in entrepreneurial teams of venture-backed firms. Our data are based on a survey among 240 firms that received investment from Norwegian venture capital funds with a response rate of 25% (59 firms). Our results show that task conflict is positively related to affective conflict and that this relationship is partially mediated by process conflict. Furthermore, we find that team size moderates the relationship between task and process conflict. Our results provide a potential explanation for the previously reported inconsistent results on the outcomes of different types of conflict and suggest that especially nascent entrepreneurs with small management teams should be wary of all types of conflict – also those labeled as ‘functional’ by the prior literature.

Developing Effective Top Management Team at Vietnamese SMEs

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the effects task conflict has on agreement seeking behavior and interpersonal conflict. In addition, it seeks to examine the moderating role of trust on the effects of agreement seeking behavior and interpersonal conflict on the styles of handing conflict, namely, avoidance, collaboration, and third party intervention.Design/methodology/approachUsing a structured survey instrument, this paper gathered data from 252 senior executives from Mainland China and analyzed these using the regression technique to see how interpersonal trust between executives moderates the relationship between conflict and conflict response mechanisms. The study also investigates the relationship between task and relationship conflict as well as agreement‐seeking behavior among Chinese executives in Mainland China.FindingsResults show that the presence of interpersonal trust among executives affects the conflict responses for the benefit of organization. The results show that task conflict in top management teams is positively related to relationship conflict and negatively related to agreement‐seeking behavior. The data support the view that intra‐group trust moderates the relationship between agreement‐seeking behavior and collaborating responses such that high‐trust groups will have greater collaboration than low‐trusting teams. Results also support that intra‐group trust moderates the relationship between agreement‐seeking behavior and third party responses such that high‐trust groups will have greater third‐party responses than low‐trusting teams.Research limitations/implicationsSelf‐report measures may have some inherent social desirability bias. Despite this potential weakness, this study examines Chinese executives and therefore provides insights into top management team literature.Practical implicationsThis study contributes to both practicing managers as well as to strategic management literature. This study suggests that administrators need to focus on interpersonal trust while dealing with the outcomes of task and relationship conflict.Originality/valueAlthough the study is related to Chinese executives, the findings from the study, that task conflict has its affect on interpersonal conflict and agreement‐seeking behavior, contribute to the strategic decision making literature.

Task conflict is usually associated with effective decisions, and relationship conflict is associated with poor decisions. The 2 conflict types are typically correlated in ongoing groups, however, which creates a prescriptive dilemma. Three explanations might account for this relationship--misattribution of task conflict as relationship conflict, harsh task conflict tactics triggering relationship conflict, and misattribution of relationship conflict as task conflict. The authors found that intragroup trust moderates the relationship between task conflict and relationship conflict in 70 top management teams. This result supports the "misattribution of task conflict" explanation. The authors also found a weak effect that is consistent with the argument that tactical choices drive the association between the 2 conflict types. We infer that trust is a key to gaining the benefits of task conflict without suffering the costs of relationship conflict.

The conflict between top managers has been identified as a key factor of team process of top management teams (TMTs). This study examined the influence of team conflict on firm performance and attempted to understand how team process influences firm performance. Based on the investigation of 107 Chinese hotels, cognitive and affective conflict was found to be in correlation with TMTs' decision quality and firm performance. The relationship between team conflict and decision quality was negatively significant, which indicates that the positive influence of conflict was not confirmed in China.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how different conflict-handling approaches moderate the relationship between conflicts and TMT as well as firm performance by adopting the Thomas terminology. Design/methodology/approach CEOs, TMT members, and lower-level employees of 200 firms in the telecommunication industry in Mainland China were surveyed. Survey data collected from 123 CEOs, 442 TMT members, and 894 employees and archival data of firm performance were matched for hierarchical regression modeling (HRM) analyses. Findings Results show relationship conflict reduces team cohesiveness and both relationship and task conflicts are negatively related to firm performance. With relationship conflict, the results show using compromising approach could help reduce its negative effects on TMT cohesiveness and firm performance; but avoiding either type of conflict will undermine both team and firm outcomes. Accommodating approach does not have significant moderating effect on conflict-outcome relationships. Research limitations/implications The study reveals some interesting insights, but it does not include any contextual variables such as firm culture or team norms or climate which are shown to relate to both conflict types and conflict management approaches. Originality/value By examining the interplay between conflict types and conflict management approaches, the paper offers interesting insights into the connection between nature of conflicts, conflict management, employee-rated TMT effectiveness, and objective firm performance.

Does a chief executive officer’s (CEO’s) ability to manage and motivate their direct reports impact firm financial performance? Good or bad, CEO leadership research is increasingly romanticized, leading to investigations of CEO traits as visionary and transformational behaviors at the expense of understanding whether the mundane, everyday management of a top management team (TMT) is important for firm performance. In this article, we developed and tested a model linking CEO performance management behaviors and firm performance through two mediating mechanisms. We hypothesized and found a positive relationship between CEO performance management behaviors and TMT flourishing. TMT flourishing related to TMT overall job attitudes and subsequently firm performance. Additionally, performance management behaviors were related to TMT overall job attitudes via TMT flourishing and performance management behaviors related to firm performance via TMT flourishing and job attitudes. Our analyses were based on a unique sample of 105 CEOs and 519 TMT members (60% response rate for CEOs and 90% response rate for TMT members). These findings provide important research directions for CEO research, performance management, upper echelons, and positive psychology research, highlighting the importance of CEO managerially oriented behaviors to create more optimally functioning environments for the TMT and organization.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to investigate the effect of top management team (TMT) tenure diversity and firm financial performance (return on equity [ROE], return on assets [ROA]), and, second, to examine the moderating effect of TMT average age between TMT tenure diversity and firm performance.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presented results from a quantitative study of 744 TMTs in Japanese manufacturing firms. The multiple hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that TMT tenure diversity had a negative and significant main effect on ROE but not ROA. Furthermore, the results also indicated that the negative relationship between TMT tenure diversity and firm performance was attenuated by having older TMTs.Originality/valueFirst, this paper expands scope of research on TMT diversity, which has hitherto primarily on non-individualistic variables (such as industry setting) by examining the moderating role of an individualistic variable (TMT average age). Second, this paper extended the attempts to apply the age-related theory by considering the role from the viewpoint of group level, namely, TMT average age.

This research employs the upper-echelons perspective to examine the associations between TMT long-term compensation, TMT risk propensity, and firm performance. The moderating effects of environmental dynamism and munificence on the relationship between TMT risk propensity and firm performance are explored as well. Research results based on a large sample collected from top management team (TMT) members in Taiwan show that TMT long-term compensation indeed produces positive effects on firm performance, both directly and indirectly, through the mediation of TMT risk propensity. Moreover, environmental dynamism reveals a negative moderating effect. The study contributes to the upper-echelons perspective by an integrated consideration of TMT compensation, TMT psychological property and their implications for firm financial performance within the broad contexts of business environments.

Status hierarchies influence all human interactions, including strategic consensus in top management teams. In this conceptual paper, we articulate why strategic consensus in top management teams is likely to be more a reflection of compliance of low-status top managers with high-status top managers’ judgments than a genuine team’s agreement on the firm’s strategic priorities. We theorize how a firm’s performance can restrain and drive change in status hierarchies, thus impacting the persistence and dissolution of strategic consensus. We also articulate how a culture of dissent can minimize the impact of status hierarchies on strategic consensus. Our model has some implications for examining diversity in top management teams. Scholars have long emphasized the importance of diversity in top management teams, arguing that managers with different backgrounds and viewpoints make firms better equipped to face competitive challenges. However, status hierarchies remind us that if top managers’ ideas and contributions are weighed by their status, organizations might not easily realize the potential benefits of having a diverse top management team.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find out the role of conflicts and conflict management in Top Management Teams (TMTs). Design/Methodology/Approach: Based on the secondary research and literature review a conceptual model for conflict management in TMTs is proposed. 66 reasons for conflicts and 55 conflict resolution techniques are identified for TMTs from literature review. They are ranked based on reference count in the literature. TMT processes interaction is shown pictorially. Findings: Top 5 reasons for conflicts in TMTs identified are value differences, resources, attitudes, structures and trust. Top 6 conflict resolution techniques identified in TMTs are avoidance, compromise, withdrawal, collaboration, confrontation and integration. Research Limitations/Implications: Further empirical research can be done based on the identified top reasons for conflicts and conflict resolution techniques. Also impact of countries and culture can be further be researched. Practical and Social Implications: Based on the findings executive teams can manage the conflicts effectively in organizations. This research is useful for the society in proper management of organizations. Originality/Value: The main contributions of this work are the conceptual model of conflict management in TMTs, TMT processes interaction diagram, top 5 reasons for conflicts in TMTs, top 6 conflict resolution techniques in TMTs, managing conflicts in TMTs and the factors impacting TMT performance.

In this study, we integrate work-family enrichment theory and upper echelons theory to examine how and when chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) original family has impacts on their firm performance. We argue that CEO original family harmony has an indirect effect on firm product innovation performance through CEO family supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB) and top management team (TMT) behavioral integration, which operate in sequence. Additionally, we propose that CEO founder status strengthens the effects of CEO original family harmony. Results of data from 125 CEOs and 568 TMT members in various high-technology industries in China indicated that the positive relationship between CEO original family harmony and firm product innovation performance is serially mediated by CEO FSSB and TMT behavioral integration. Moreover, CEO founder status exacerbates the direct effect of CEO original family harmony on CEO FSSB and its indirect effect on firm product innovation performance. The findings provide insightful theoretical contributions, practical implications, and new research directions for understanding CEO family-work spillover and CEO-TMT interface.

PurposeBased on the team conflict theory and organizational learning theory, this study aims to discuss the two different types of conflicts of the top management team (TMT) on the different mechanisms of exploratory learning behavior of firms, and, based on the perspective of CEO-TMT (CEO – chief executive officer) interface, the different moderating effects caused by different CEO leadership styles are clarified.Design/methodology/approachUsing the sample of 193 firms’ samples with multi-source data, the authors take an empirical test of the theoretical framework.FindingsThe effect of task conflict on exploratory learning behavior was insignificant, and relationship conflict had a positive effect on exploratory learning behavior. However, when CEO’s transformational leadership level was high, or transactional leadership level was low, there existed “bathtub curve” relationship between task conflict and exploratory learning behavior, and the relationship conflict under these conditions strengthened exploratory learning behavior. When CEO’s transactional leadership level was high, or transformational leadership level was low, there existed the inverted U-shaped relationship between task conflict and exploratory learning behavior, and the relationship conflict under such conditions weakened exploratory learning behavior.Originality/valueFirst, the authors challenge the assumption of linear mechanism of task conflict, trying to build the mechanism of curve hypothesis, and the nonlinear explanation might be able to integrate the inconsistent results in the existing literature. Second, according to the inconsistent results of relationship conflict in existing literature, this study takes perspective of the CEO-TMT and introduces CEO leadership behavior as a moderating variable to test the moderating effect of CEO leadership and clarifies the boundary conditions of TMT conflicts.

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the relationship between Chief Executive Officer (CEO) narcissism and firm performance. Further, it examined the moderation effects of CEO duality and top management team (TMT) and board member agreeableness on the CEO narcissism–firm performance relationship.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on survey data from 373 CEOs in the automobile industry in India. The paper used mixed method research where CEO narcissism and TMT agreeableness has been measured using survey instruments, other data such as firm performance has been captured using secondary sources.FindingsThe study confirms that the relationship between CEO narcissism and firm performance is curvilinear, meaning that narcissism can positively impact firm performance to a point, but may become counter-productive or ineffective beyond that. Further, CEO duality and TMT and board member agreeableness significantly impact this relationship.Originality/valueThis paper fulfills an identified need to study how CEO behavior can affect variance in firm performance. The authors discuss theoretical and practical implications and offer suggestions for future research.