Hierarchy Conflict: Causes, Expressions, and Consequences
研究团队中关于影响力排序的层级冲突，发现亲社会动机的成员会以更建设性的方式表达冲突，从而提升团队绩效，而非仅出于自利动机。
Hierarchy conflict, a dispute among members over the rank order of influence in the team, often impairs team processes and outcomes. The current literature often operates from the assumption that self-interest must be high when team members engage in hierarchy conflict. Building on interdependence theory, we propose that hierarchy conflict may also occur when members have a more prosocial motivation, leading to a more constructive expression of the hierarchy conflict and more positive effects on team performance than hierarchy conflict instigated by members with a more proself motivation. Specifically, we argue that the extent to which a team member is more driven by prosocial (versus proself) motivation heightens the threshold and lowers the frequency for engaging in a hierarchy conflict and that more prosocially motivated team members express their challenge of the hierarchy more directly and with less intensity than more proself-motivated members. This sets in motion a hierarchy conflict exchange that is more constructive and helps teams perform better compared with hierarchy conflict instigated by proself motivation. Our theory complements and extends the current study of the causes, expressions, and consequences of hierarchy conflict in teams across multiple levels of analysis and helps redirect the focus of how hierarchy conflict is viewed in the literature.