Effects of conflict types and power style use among health professionals in interdisciplinary team collaboration

Abstract

This research examined the effects of perceived conflict and power style use on interdisciplinary collaboration outcomes in an academic health sciences education project. Fifty-one nurse practitioner students, physician assistant students and first and second year medical students and 16 faculty who participated in the education program, Interdisciplinary Student Community Patient Education Service (ISCOPES) were studied. A comparison group of 50 (non-ISCOPES) students from the same disciplines were recruited $(N=117).$ It was hypothesized that task conflict would positively influence interdisciplinary team collaboration. Additionally, informal power styles were predicted to mediate the effects of task conflict on interdisciplinary team collaboration. Using path analysis to test a collaboration model and using qualitative content analysis from two focus groups, the following results were produced: (1) the ISCOPES experimental student and faculty groups had significantly higher scores in interdisciplinary team collaboration compared to the non-ISCOPES comparison group, (2) there was no significant difference in perceptions of interdisciplinary team collaboration based on discipline, (3) emotional conflict is a stronger negative predictor of lower interdisciplinary team collaboration than task conflict, (4) high levels of task conflict negatively predict interdisciplinary team collaboration, (5) the informal power of goodwill mediates the relationship between task conflict and interdisciplinary team collaboration, (6) the combined power styles of goodwill, authority and discipline positively effect interdisciplinary team collaboration but do not mediate conflict, and, (7) health professional faculty shape student perceptions of collaborative leadership behaviors.