Conflict management between and within teams for trusting relationships and performance in China PAUL S. HEMPEL 1 * , ZHI-XUE ZHANG 2 AND DEAN TJOSVOLD 3 1 Department of Management, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong 2 Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Beijing, China 3 Department of Management, Lingnan University, Hong Kong Summary Trusting relationships are increasingly considered vital for making teams productive. We propose that cooperative management of conflict can help team members to be convinced that their teammates are trustworthy. Results from 102 organizations in China support the theorizing that how teams to manage conflict with each other affects within-team conflict management. Specifically, cooperative conflict between teams helps teams to manage their internal conflicts cooperatively that strengthens trust that in turn facilitates team performance. Results provide support for managing conflict cooperatively as a foundation for trusting, productive relationships in China as well as in the West. Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Introduction Researchers in the West have joined those in the East in arguing that developing trusting relationships is key to understand organizational dynamics as well as promoting organizational productivity (Gersick, Bartunek, & Dutton, 2000; Kostova & Roth, 2003; Kramer & Tyler, 1996; Lewicki & Wiethoff, 2000; Rousseau, Sitkin, Burt, & Camerer, 1998). Strong, trusting relationships are expected to underline such critical areas as productive teamwork and effective leadership (Dirks, 2000, 1999; Hui & Graen, 1997). However, developing these relationships in teams can be quite challenging. Team members must cope not only with their own leaders and colleagues but also with the demands and behaviors of other teams. This study argues that incompatible activities within teams can be handled in ways that help team members to strengthen their trusting relationships (De Dreu, Weingart, & Kwon, 2000; Lovelace, Shapiro, & Weingart, 2001). Longitudinal studies have shown that conflict influences trust, which in turn has an effect upon performance (Langfred, 2007). This study proposes that it is the way in which conflict is managed that influences trust within teams. How conflicts affect trust is a particularly significant issue within China where the data for this study were collected. Chinese people value trusting relationships very much but are wary of conflict and rely on conflict avoidance (Kirkbride, Journal of Organizational Behavior J. Organiz. Behav. 30, 41–65 (2009) Published online 15 May 2008 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/job.540 * Correspondence to: Paul S. Hempel, Department of Management, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. E-mail: mghempel@cityu.edu.hk Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 2 April 2007 Revised 19 March 2008 Accepted 6 April 2008