Conflict management in a virtual team

Virtual team members are geographically dispersed and reveal cultural diversity. Thus, conflict in a virtual team emerges more frequently than in a general team. The purpose of our study is to find the possibility of the indirect managing of conflict via the mediating role of the frequency of communication. This research examines the mediating role of communication frequency in virtual teams. Task conflict increases communication frequency, while relationship conflict decreases communication frequency. Increasing communication frequency by task conflict cannot mediate performance. Communication frequency can mediate the relationship between relationship conflict and performance. To avert a decrease in performance, virtual teams make efforts to formalize managerial structures or working procedures to coordinate opinions and activate communication by building team members´ relationships in an effort to improve team performance. This study shows that functional and dysfunctional outcomes by conflict type are possible through the mediating role of communication frequency.