Sharing and Group Conflict : Going Beyond Decision Making to Understand the Effects of Information Sharing on Group Information Performance

The relationship between information sharing in groups and group performance is often explained by effects on group decision making. We believe that information sharing can have other group process-related effects. We propose a model of how information sharing in teams affects task conflict, relationship conflict and ultimately team performance as mediated by conflict. Specifically, we predict a negative relationship between information sharing and task conflict, and we expect this effect to be magnified in groups whose work processes are more interdependent. We also predict a negative relationship between information sharing and relationship conflict, but we expect this effect to be minimized in groups with higher general mental ability. We tested our hypotheses on 38 teams of MBA students. These teams competed in a week long case competition where group performance was quantitatively judged by a panel of faculty and industry experts. Data on information sharing, task interdependence, task conflict and relationship conflict were collected via survey during the week of the case competition. While information sharing was found to have the predicted negative relationship with task conflict, the role of task interdependence as a moderator was the opposite of our prediction. The relationship between information sharing and relationship conflict operated as expected, demonstrating that in teams with a lower level of GMA, increased information sharing considerably reduced the level of relationship conflict, while it made no difference in teams with higher levels of GMA