The role of emotion and emotion management in destructive and productive conflict in culturally heterogeneous workgroups

One of the major challenges facing organisations in the 21s t century is the management of culturally heterogeneous workgroups (CHWs). Although the diversity literature suggests that diverse workgroups can be more innovative and better problem solvers than homogeneous groups, it also acknowledges that diverse workgroups often fail to achieve this potential because of task and emotional conflict. The kinds of conflict that are generated in CHWs and leader and member responses to them lack thorough documentation in the literature. In this paper, we examine the emotions experienced with conflict in diverse workgroups and the ways in which group members and leaders respond to conflict-related emotions.