There has been no shortage of definitions for the word conflict but common to most is the idea that conflict is a perception. If no one is aware of a conflict, then it is generally agreed no conflict exists. Conflict is a process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected them. Conflict describes the point in ongoing activity when interaction becomes disagreement. People experience a wide range of conflicts in organizations over an incompatibility of goals or disagreements over expectations.

There is no consensus over the role of conflict in groups and organizations. In the past, researchers tended to argue about whether conflict was uniformly good or bad. Such simplistic views eventually gave way to approaches recognizing that not all conflicts are the same and that different types of conflict have different effects. Contemporary perspectives differentiate types of conflict based on their effects. Functional conflict supports the goals of the group, improves its performance, and is thus a constructive form of conflict.

Conflict that hinders group performance is destructive or dysfunctional conflict. A highly personal struggle for control in a team that distracts from the task at hand is dysfunctional.