Effects of Cognitive and Affective Conflict Between Hotel's Top Managers on Firm Performance in China

Abstract

The conflict between top managers has been identified as a key factor of team process of top management teams (TMTs). This study examined the influence of team conflict on firm performance and attempted to understand how team process influences firm performance. Based on the investigation of 107 Chinese hotels, cognitive and affective conflict was found to be in correlation with TMTs' decision quality and firm performance. The relationship between team conflict and decision quality was negatively significant, which indicates that the positive influence of conflict was not confirmed in China.

高管团队冲突被认为是测量团队运作过程的核心变量之一。本文通过分析高管团队冲突与企业绩效的关系，来揭示高管团队对企业绩效影响的内在机理。基于中国107家中高档星级酒店企业高管团队的数据，发现认知冲突和情绪冲突对企业绩效的影响是通过团队决策质量实现的，认知冲突、情绪冲突对团队决策质量有显著的负向影响。这种负向关系表明中国文化对冲突的积极作用是予以排斥的。

Keywords:

• Top management team
• conflict
• decision quality
• hotel performance

Keywords:

• 高管团队
• 冲突
• 决策质量
• 企业绩效

Acknowledgments

This study was carried out on the basis of my doctoral dissertation. The author thanks Professor Bao Jigang for his supervision, the hotels that participated in my investigation, and the managers who allowed me to interview them.