ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how to set the stage for a positive and amicable team climate and highlights the affective emergent states: psychological safety, trust and cohesion. Affective states are an important prerequisite for long-term team effectiveness. Conflicts can affect this climate - and so it is important to find a way to prevent and handle them. We will learn that there are different kinds of conflicts depending on the issue: relationship conflicts, task conflicts and process conflicts. Functional conflicts advance, enrich and inspire a team. Dysfunctional conflicts in contrast are destructive and have a negative impact on team output as well as on individual well-being. How can positive interpersonal relationships be ensured? Besides the emergent states just mentioned, specific KSAs for conflict management and the team context affect team climate and the emergence of conflicts. To solve problems, preemptive strategies such as team building and team training can be helpful to enhance affective emergent states and KSAs for teamwork and conflict management. In case of existing dysfunctional conflicts reactive strategies of conflict management are needed to solve them in a constructive way, specifically basing on collectivistic or cooperative processes.
