Isabel Cristina Dórdio Dimas ²

Paulo Renato Lourenço ³

José Miguez ⁴

Resumo: Contrariando as abordagens tradicionais do conflito intragrupal, que consideram este fenómeno negativo para o desempenho, as perspectivas mais recentes sublinham as suas potencialidades ao nível da inovação e da criatividade das equipas de trabalho. Os estudos empíricos desenvolvidos têm, no entanto, encontrado poucas evidências para a funcionalidade do conflito.

O presente artigo procura contribuir para uma melhor compreensão das relações entre o conflito, as estratégias de gestão de conflitos e o desempenho grupal, por um lado, bem como da forma como os conflitos são vividos e geridos ao longo do desenvolvimento grupal, por outro. Participaram no nosso estudo 68 equipas de trabalho do departamento de produção de 8 organizações do sector industrial que desempenhavam tarefas com um baixo nível de complexidade. Os resultados revêlaram que o conflito centrado no desenvolvimento das tarefas se relaciona negativamente com o desempenho e que a utilização de estratégias integrativas se assume como a única abordagem aos conflitos com um impacto positivo nos resultados das equipas de trabalho. As análises realizadas permitiram também concluir que a emergência de conflitos é diferente, ao longo do desenvolvimento grupal.

Para testar o padrão de resultados encontrado, importa realizar novos estudos com equipas cujas tarefas requeiram uma elevada coordenação de esforços e remetam para resultados caracterizados por uma elevada imprevisibilidade.

Palavras­‑chave: conflito intragrupal, estratégias de gestão de conflitos, desempenho, níveis de desenvolvimento.

(Re)Thinking intragroup conflict: performance and group development

Abstract: Against the traditional perspective of intragroup conflict, that viewed this phenomenon as negative to group performance, the recent approaches argue that conflict stimulates creativity and the innovation of workgroups. Nonetheless, the empirical studies developed didn’t find support to the positive effect of conflict in­‑group functioning.

In this paper we try to contribute to a better understand of the relationships between conflict, handling conflict strategies and group development. We analyze, also, the way conflicts are lived and managed along the group temporal moments.

Sixty­‑eight workgroups from the production department of eight industrial companies agreed to participate in this study. All workgroups performed non­‑complex tasks.

Results revealed that task conflict is negatively related with performance and that integrating is the only strategy of handling conflict with a positive effect on the workgroups results. Our analysis suggests also that the emergence of intragroup conflict is different along the group temporal moments.

Other studies are necessary with teams that performed complex and non routine tasks to test the pattern of results found.

Key‑words: intragroup conflict, conflict management, performance, group development.

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¹ A correspondência relativa a este artigo deve ser endereçada a Isabel Cristina Dórdio Dimas, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Coimbra, e-mail: idimas@mail.fpce.uc.pt. Os autores gostariam de agradecer às empresas que colaboraram na presente investigação. Este estudo foi financiado pela Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, através do Programa Operacional Ciência e Inovação 2010 (n.º da bolsa: SFRH/BD/16172/2004).

² Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Coimbra.

³ Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra.