**1. Introduction**

"Teams are pervasive in today's world" [1]—and they are needed. Collaboration and teamwork are required, more so today than in the past, to handle today's complex problems [2]. Today's complexity comes from dramatic structural changes to organizations and governments such as globalization, global competition, workforce diversity, and continual innovations [3]. Also, deMattos et al. [3] highlighted the information revolution and the creation and destruction of organizations as contributors to this complexity.

Within the complexity literature, complexity results from the "inter-relationship, inter-action, and inter-connectivity of elements within a system" [3], among elements that make up the

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system (micro-level), and among different systems (macro-level). In the organizational science's literature, organizations are viewed as being complex adaptive systems (CAS) that are a composite of the "interconnected whole" [4]. West [2] identified the growth of this complexity due to, in part; the digital revolution, the increasing diversity as a result of interconnectedness and globalization, the interconnectedness within and across entities, the need for inclusion, and a growing demand in the need to belong amongst these interconnections [2]. Aghina et al. [5] highlighted advances in technology and connectivity as reasons why organizations needed to create "new forms of engagement within and across organizational boundaries" (The evolving organizational challenge). Also, organizations must learn to become competitive in these new "rapidly emerging 'ecosystems'" that involve multiple organizations and business sectors.

Cohen and Bailey [9] used the terms team and group interchangeably, noting that the field of management typically refers to teams, whereas academic literature typically uses the term group. We will consider teams and small groups as being synonymous to one another for this

Complex Adaptive Systems: Adapting and Managing Teams and Team Conflict

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Kozlowski and Ilgen [10] defined teams as: "Complex dynamic systems that exist in a context, develop as members interact over time, and evolve and adapt as situational demands unfold". Gibson [11] described a group as a social aggregation with meaning, with a limited number of interacting people, and with shared objectives. Relating to the shared objectives, Cohen and Bailey [9] noted that some groups have different degrees of *groupness* (or sharedness), where teams with high degrees of groupness are more independent compared to groups with lower

Teams are composed of individuals working on interdependent tasks which contribute to the overall task objective of the collective. The first identifier of a team is the interdependency of individual members working toward a common goal. Second, team members are required to interact to combine each team member's interdependent portion of the overall task. In combining each individual effort into a composite representative of the team's output, team members must interact with one another. This interaction involves shared responsibilities in which authentic communication [12] is a requirement. Finally, a team must also be adaptive as indicated by Cohen and Bailey [9]. Today's knowledge economy presents complex dynamic problems to which teams need to adapt. Although adaptability may not be an initial requirement for a team, if a team is to remain successful in a "dynamic, shifting, and complex

The literature on team performance or team effectiveness has grown into essentially 9 core processes (**Figure 1**). One example of this expansion is in the addition of conflict to this list of core processes. Weaver et al. [13] did not include conflict in their list of core processes whereas Dinh and Salas [14] and Salas et al. [1] included conflict. All-in-all the current literature presents a total of nine core processes that need to be considered when participating in, or managing, highly effective teams: coaching, cognition, cohesion, collective efficacy, collective identify, communication, conflict, cooperation, and coordination. Definitions for each of

Among these core processes, Dinh and Salas [14] differentiated between internal and external dynamics. Internal dynamics include a team's core processes, or emerging states, whereas external dynamics are composed of influencing conditions. Emerging states include the processes of coaching, cognition, communication, conflict, cooperation, and coordination [1, 14]. Influencing conditions (**Figure 2**) include context, composition, and culture. Definitions for these influencing conditions are also provided in **Table 1**. Within these six emerging states, Dinh and Salas [14] and Salas et al. [1] included the processes of collective efficacy and collec-

book chapter.

degrees of groupness.

environment" [10], it must learn to be adaptive.

**3. Team effectiveness: 9-Cs**

these processes are provided in **Table 1**.

tive identity as part of the cooperation process.

Driving and managing these interconnections are collaborative entities, teams and small groups. In today's workplace, teams have become the common collaborative entity. West [2] highlighted this point by stating that "teamwork is ubiquitous in modern organizations". Keller and Meaney [6] reported that research conducted by McKinsey & Company showed executives were "five times more productive when working in one [high-performing team] than they are in an average one [team]".

In placing teams as CAS [7, 8] that manage and operate in these emerging ecosystems, teams become one of the antecedents or predictors to an organization's survival. To provide successful high-performing teams, organizations must be able to facilitate the factors that lead to a team's effectiveness. These factors are known as the 9-Cs in which team conflict is one of these factors. These concepts are important to understand when managing and facilitating teams, especially when it comes to managing team conflict. This chapter is divided into four sections. The first section discusses teams, what they are, what are the 9-Cs of team effectiveness, team transitions, team failure mechanisms, and team leadership. The second section looks at CAS and how teams and small groups are considered CAS and what this means to the organization and the larger emerging ecosystem. Also, team conflict will be positioned within these CAS as a key factor that should be considered in any team and organizational system. Next, this chapter reviews traditional organizational conflict models from the literature. Following, the discussion moves to reviewing the literature on traditional intragroup conflict and newer, emerging, intragroup conflict types. Next, this chapter previews different conflict management models and techniques that could be used for managing teams and, more specifically, team conflict. In conclusion, this chapter introduces adaptive leadership as one potential leadership style to implement when dealing with complex adaptive systems and intragroup conflict in today's complex and global environment.
