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A strong relation between task and relationship conflict has toxic impact on teams and poses a high-risk factor in startup organizations. The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating role of conflict behavior and related coping strategies on the relationship between task and relationship conflict in startup teams.

The authors conducted surveys among 100 Dutch and German startup members (Study 1) and 75 Belgium startup members (Study 2). In Study 3, 75 startup members completed weekly surveys in 11 consecutive weeks.

Both Study 1 and 2 show that the positive association between task and relationship conflict is buffered by problem-solving conflict behavior while this relationship is amplified by the use of avoiding strategies in startup teams. Similarly, the results of Study 3 show that individual and team-level problem-focused coping over a period of 11 weeks buffers the association between task and relationship conflict during this period, while individual disengagement coping potentiates it.

This study adds to the literature on conflict management and entrepreneurship by studying conflict behavior as a moderator in the association between task and relationship conflict in startup teams. Moreover, it takes a comprehensive perspective by including coping strategies conceptually related to conflict behaviors at both individual and teamlevel, as moderators in this relationship. The results of this study provide practical recommendations for entrepreneurs on how to prevent conflict escalation via conflict-oriented behaviors and more general coping strategies.

The relationship between job satisfaction and performance is a topic that has been intriguing scholars and managers for a long time. With the flourishing of positive psychology, it has been called the happy-productive worker thesis. New concepts led to new results but still divergent. This study aims to understand the past 20 years of research on the topic, also called the holy grail of the organizational sciences, helping to unwrap conclusions so far.

Bibliometric analysis was performed with R statistical tool’s support, complemented by content analysis, based on studies from three major databases between 1999 and 2019. The empirical studies were analyzed according to the constructs used, shedding light on when the happy-productive worker thesis is more likely to be confirmed.

Results show a variety of constructs and instruments used to operationalize the constructs. This lack of convergence accounts for a large part of the general inconclusiveness of the topic. Indicated research gaps can be useful to both academics and practitioners.

Only studies declared as related to the happy-productive worker thesis were considered.

Managers can benefit from considering the findings as a basis for decision-making regarding investments in employee happiness at work, focusing on the aspects of happy constructs that lead to productive criteria.

The application of mixed methods, complementing the bibliometric with thorough content analysis, provided a more detailed overview of current knowledge about the topic, helping to disentangle different concepts that were treated as similar. Thus, it is possible to understand in which situations happy workers are really more productive.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate the Team Influence Relations Scale (TIReS), a new instrument to measure the relation of influence in a team that overcomes a predominating individual approach to influence in teams. The TIReS stems from the concepts of team subjectivity and deinfluentization that perceive influence as a collective phenomenon in a triangular influence model.

In the first study the authors subjected the data, gathered from 280 employees from Polish private sector companies, to the principal axis factoring analysis, yielding 12 best-fitting items loading on two factors (i.e. meaning reduction and space offering). In the second study the authors employed confirmatory factor analyses to test data from 784 workers from private sector organizations in Poland.

The results yielded a six-factor structure for the TIReS (root mean square error of approximation=0.077, comparative fit index=0.93, NNFI=0.91, standardized root mean square residual=0.073) with two sub-dimensions for each influence source in a team (i.e. the individual, the leader, the team as a whole). The results provide evidence for the internal consistency reliability of the TIReS (Cronbach’s α ranging from 0.87 to 0.93 for TIReS factors) and its satisfactory criterion-related validity.

The TIReS addresses a gap in currently available questionnaires to measure the relation of influence in teams considering three sources of influence in a team. The importance of team influence relations measurement is discussed.