The nature and impact of conflict within service coordination teams for children and adolescents with serious emotional and behavioral challenges

While both theory and empirical research regarding work team performance suggests that conflict can play an important role in determining productivity and other outcomes, the impact of conflict on the effectiveness of service coordination teams is not well understood. In this study, the team records and charts of 189 young people maintained by service coordinators in a system of care initiative were analyzed to identify the number of intra-team conflicts, the participants involved in each conflict, the theme of each conflict and their relationship with the likelihood that young people were successful in meeting their treatment goals. Findings indicate that interpersonal concerns and concerns about team member follow-through were the most frequent types of conflict. More important, our analyses suggest that more frequent conflicts significantly increased the likelihood that a child and family team (CFT) was unsuccessful in helping the youth and family achieve the desired treatment goals. The results underline the need for further research on how structure and functioning of services coordination teams impact youth and family outcomes.