Intragroup Conflict in Nonprofit Sport Boards

Abstract

Conflict can significantly influence the performance of a group and the attitudes of their members. As with any organizational group, conflict is expected within the boards of nonprofit organizations. The purpose of this paper was to examine the nature of intragroup conflict in nonprofit sport boards, and its impact on perceived decision quality, board member satisfaction, and commitment to the board. Seventy-four provincial sport organization board members were surveyed. The results indicated that task, relationship, and process conflict were negatively related to decision quality, satisfaction, and commitment, and relationship conflict was the most influential variable on all three outcomes. The mediating effect of relationship conflict on the conflict to outcomes associations was also uncovered. The findings have implications for the management of relationship conflict in this context, as well as the management of task and process conflict which may trigger relationship conflict. Several areas for future research are presented.