新产品开发团队冲突价值的制度边界--基于奖励制度的实证研究

Institutional Boundary of the Value for Team Conflicts in New Product Development:An Empirical Study of Reward Systems

开发新产品是企业获取竞争优势的关键,卓有成效的团队冲突管理决定了新产品开发的成败。既有研究认为,团队冲突对新产品开发绩效是一把双刃剑,但忽视了奖励制度对以上关系的作用。为了弥补这个研究空白,本研究从奖励制度视角入手,采用311家受访企业新产品开发团队的调研数据,检验中国企业常用的两类奖励(风险奖励和长期奖励)对认知冲突、情感冲突和团队新产品开发绩效的调节作用。研究发现:风险奖励调节认知冲突和新产品开发绩效的关系,在低水平的风险奖励下,认知冲突促进新产品开发绩效;风险奖励减弱了情感冲突对新产品开发绩效的负向作用;长期奖励调节认知冲突和新产品开发绩效的关系,在高水平的长期奖励下,认知冲突促进新产品开发绩效。与理论预期不同,研究结果显示,长期奖励对情感冲突与新产品开发绩效关系的调节作用不显著。本研究从奖励制度视角入手,拓展了团队冲突和绩效关系的边界条件,为企业研发部门与人力资源部门协同促进企业发展提供重要启发——对认知冲突较高的“新”团队,适合采取长期奖励;对情感冲突较高的“老”团队,适合采取风险奖励。

New Product Development(NPD)is a major driving force to gain and sustain competitive advantage.Effective team conflict management determines the success of new product development.Prior research reveals that team conflicts are double-edged swords for new product development performance.Although prior research has explored how to help teams manage conflicts to promote constructive effects and inhibit negative effects of team conflicts on groups or organizations,prior research under-valued the potential role and effects of reward systems.To address this research gap,based on reward systems perspective,we propose that the relationship between cognitive(affective)conflict and new product development performance is moderated by reward systems.Using the empirical data of 311 NPD teams,this research explores the moderating effects of rewards(risk-sharing rewards and long-term rewards)in the relationship between team conflicts and new product development performance.In alignment with our expectation,we find that:(1)the relationship between cognitive conflict and new product development performance is moderated by risk-sharing rewards.This relationship is positive when risk-sharing rewards are low.(2)Risk-sharing rewards weaken the negative effects of affective conflict on new product development performance.(3)The relationship between cognitive conflict and new product development performance is moderated by long-term rewards.This relationship is positive when long-term rewards are high.Countering to our expectation,long-term rewards have no moderating effect on the relationship between affective conflict and new product development performance.This research enriches the research on team conflicts and team performance based on reward systems perspective.This research proves the importance of the coordination between the R&D department and the human resources management department to the development of team and the organization.Specifically,long-term rewards are beneficial to“new team”with much cognitive conflict,and risk-sharing rewards are beneficial to“old team”with much affective conflict.This research also discusses the theoretical contribution and practical implication.