Conflict is inevitable in any organization or within a group of people, especially due to differences in thoughts and personalities. Conflict is always perceived negatively, and many people strive to avoid or mitigate it to reduce the risk of failure. Besides, many people believe that conflict is detrimental to teamwork because it reduces team performance and collaboration significantly. Nonetheless, conflict can be advantageous, primarily when it is perceived positively. It can be used to enhance interdisciplinary teamwork and collaboration, resulting in increased performance ( Rubenfeld & Scheffer, 2015) . Groups or teams can positively use relational and task conflicts to promote interdisciplinary teamwork and collaboration.
Interdisciplinary teamwork and collaboration cannot be effective when individuals do not trust one another, and they do enjoy a beneficial relationship. Unfortunately, teams cannot be cohesive, especially in the initial stages, without going through relationship conflicts. Therefore, in order to create a cohesive group, team leaders, as well as members, should be encouraged to engage in relational conflict, which often results in trust and development of a useful relationship. Conflict should be used in interdisciplinary teamwork and collaboration to allow members to share conflicting ideas and thoughts ( Maltarich et al., 2018) . At the same time, to enhance the effectiveness of interdisciplinary teams, relational conflicts should be used to encourage group learning. Specifically, relational conflict should be used to learn about the interests and needs of individual members of interdisciplinary teamwork, which is essential in building a cohesive and collaborative team ( Maltarich et al., 2018) . No team can succeed in achieving the set goals and objectives if it does not solve relationship issues in the initial stages, which explains why relational conflict is essential in teamwork.
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Also, task conflicts can be used to promote interdisciplinary teamwork and collaboration by encouraging open and productive discussions. Even people always agree on tasks to be performed to achieve certain objectives, and there are instances when they disagree due to various reasons such as different ideologies and modes of doing things ( Maltarich et al., 2018) . However, to encourage interdisciplinary teamwork, disagreement on tasks should be encouraged. Task conflict can be used to promote creativity and innovation in groups or teams because every member will be determined to make his views and thoughts known. Hence, task conflict can facilitate critical thinking in teams ( Rubenfeld & Scheffer, 2015) . Consequently, multidisciplinary teams may end up with many alternatives to a given problem or issue. Task conflict ensures that every view of a team member is understood and listened to. Also, task conflict leads to collaboration due to increased trust and interpersonal relationships ( Maltarich et al., 2018) . Like relational conflict, task conflict can also promote group learning. An interdisciplinary team that can overcome task conflict and positively use it can successfully achieve the set goals and objectives. Thus, task conflict can be beneficial to a group of people.
Therefore, conflict can be used positively to enhance interdisciplinary teamwork and collaboration, leading to long-term success. Nonetheless, to reduce the negative effects of conflicts, people should view it positively, especially in terms of its benefits to teams or groups. Although conflict may be destructive, it should not be avoided because it influences the future success of interdisciplinary teamwork and collaboration significantly. However, teams should avoid unnecessary conflicts, particularly those that are highly detrimental to the success of groups. Conflicts in teams should be based on constructive disagreements that are beneficial to members. The conflict has both negative and positive implications for teams and collaboration.
References
Maltarich, M. A., Kukenberger, M., Reilly, G., & Mathieu, J. (2018). Conflict in teams: Modeling early and late conflict states and the interactive effects of conflict processes. Group & Organization Management , 43 (1), 6-37.
Rubenfeld, M. G., & Scheffer, B.K. (2015). Critical thinking TACTICS for Nurses: Achieving the IOM competencies (3rd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
