Collective personality fit and diversity – how effective are they in predicting relationship conflict?

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interactive effect of collective personality fit and its diversity on relationship conflict in a team context. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 1,265 employees and their leaders in 110 work teams in a Korean manufacturing company. Findings: The results show that the two-way interaction between collective personality fit and its dispersion affects relationship conflict in teams. The effect of collective fit on relationship conflict was found to be weaker when the dispersion of collective fit is low than when it is high. This study reports that a high level of collective fit dispersion may help resolve relationship conflict in certain conditions, such as when the level of collective fit is high. Practical implications: This paper implies that the diverse perception of fit does not always hamper intragroup consonance, and relationship conflict can be reduced as long as the overall level of collective fit is high. The diverse or heterogeneous personalities of team members contribute unique attributes of each member to the success of the team because some members of a heterogeneous team may play the role of filling the gap left by others. Originality/value: This study argues that collective fit is a new construct, not a simple aggregation of individual fit traits, and the pattern of relationships at the individual level is not replicated at the group level, either conceptually or empirically.