Name: Cooper Drose

Master’s Thesis Proposal Meeting
Date: Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Time: 1:00 PM
Location: Click here to join the meeting

Meeting ID: 237 507 214 745

Passcode: 5vHiKP

Advisor:
Keaton Fletcher, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Thesis Committee Members: 

Keaton Fletcher, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)
Christopher Wiese, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Jamie Gorman, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)

Title:  Conflict in Teams: An Episodic Approach to Assessing the Mediation of Conflict Behaviors on the Relationship Between Personality and Team-Level Outcomes

Abstract: Conflict management behaviors have long been studied as critical components in successful teams because they may help to enhance the positive and mitigate the negative outcomes associated with conflict (DeChurch et al., 2013). Oftentimes, however, researchers evaluating conflict behaviors have assessed conflict as a static construct. Recent research has called for a more dynamic understanding of conflict (De Wit et al., 2012; DeChurch et al., 2013); this study serves to answer this call by evaluating conflict as an emergent phenomenon using the IMOI model (Ilgen et al., 2005) and an episodic methodological approach. It is first hypothesized that certain personality characteristics serve as predictors of initial conflict management behaviors in teams. Then, I call upon the Conservation of Resources (COR) (Hobfoll, 1989) theory to assert that in order to preserve and protect resources, individuals will use certain conflict management behaviors based on previously exhibited behaviors of the self in conjunction with behaviors of others within the team. And finally, I propose that greater overall use of certain conflict management behaviors will have a significantly negative/positive impact on team-level outcomes. By analyzing conflict management behaviors using an episodic approach, this study provides teams researchers with a more nuanced understanding of conflict and in-depth approach for studying dynamic constructs within teams.