Conflict and Trust : A Study of the Dynamics between Intra-Team Conflict and Trust Over Time

We advance research in the area of conflict and trust. Specifically, we seek to extricate the effects of conflict on trust and the process by which trust might be built in the face of conflict. To do this, we conducted a longitudinal observation of five student work teams over ten weeks. Using Bales’ Interaction Process Analysis (IPA) to analyze the data, results showed time as the key driver in the transformation of the interplay between conflict and trust. Specifically, task conflict is linked with knowledge base trust, relationship conflict is linked with identification based trust and process conflict is linked with calculus based trust. Additionally, analysis revealed that knowledge exchange, problem solving, positive social emotional communication and disclosures are crucial in building trust in the face of conflict. Implications for theory, method and practice are discussed