Draft 2a: Collaboration and Conflict in Three Workplace Teams' Projects

Abstract

This chapter extends previous research published in 2016 which looked into the embedding contexts of networks of small firms, principally in the EU , and the means by which collaboration between small to medium enterprises (SMEs) was supported inside national and regional clustering structures and incubators initiated in collaboration with university researchers and government agencies. The current chapter drills down further to explore the processes at the level of individual firms analysing and describing how group and individual conflict and/or collaboration was generated or sustained within teams in three different case organizations. In other words, the chapter looks at micro level details of conflict and collaboration as well as the observed socio-emotional dynamics observed. The three organizations were involved with executive education programs and the authors were able to access reflective diaries for 2004 to 2012 enabling the authors to triangulate notes taken with interview data and observations used for this chapter.