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This paper aims to offer an integrative conceptual theory of conflict and reports on the nomological net of team conflict profiles. Specifically, it integrates social self-preservation theory with information-processing theory to better understand the occurrence of team profiles involving task conflict, relationship conflict and process conflict.

The study collected data from 178 teams performing and engineering design tasks. The multilevel nomological net that was examined consisted of constructive controversy, psychological safety and team-task performance (team level), as well as perceptions of learning, burnout and peer ratings of performance (individual level).

Findings indicated mixed support for the associations between conflict profiles and the hypothesized nomological net.

Future research should consider teams’ profiles of team conflict types rather than examining task, relationship and process conflict in isolation.

Teams can be classified into profiles of team conflict types with implications for team functioning and effectiveness. As a result, assessment and team launch should consider team conflict profiles.

The complexity perspective advanced here will allow research on conflict types to move forward beyond the extensive research examining conflict types in isolation rather than their interplay.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between employees’ experience of interpersonal conflict and their engagement in knowledge hiding, according to a mediating effect of their relatedness need frustration and a moderating effect of their narcissistic rivalry.

The tests of the hypotheses rely on three-wave, time-lagged data collected among employees in Pakistan.

A critical reason that emotion-based fights stimulate people to conceal valuable knowledge from their coworkers is that these employees believe their needs for belongingness or relatedness are not being met. This mediating role of relatedness need frustration is particularly salient among employees who are self-centered and see others as rivals, with no right to fight with or give them a hard time.

The findings indicate how organizations might mitigate the risk that negative relationship dynamics among their employees escalate into dysfunctional knowledge hiding behavior. They should work to hire and retain employees who are benevolent and encourage them to see colleagues as allies instead of rivals.

This research unpacks the link between interpersonal conflict and knowledge hiding by explicating the unexplored roles of two critical factors (relatedness need frustration and narcissistic rivalry) in this relationship.