Abstract
The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of conflicts (task, process, and relationship) on two outcomes of online discussion teams, satisfaction and face loss, and the effect of facework behaviors on that relationship. A total of 138 participants grouped in teams contributed to an online discussion board debating a controversial topic for a two weeks period. Results suggest that process conflict has a negative influence over satisfaction and that the dominating facework behaviors moderate the relationship between task conflict and satisfaction, and between process conflict and satisfaction. Moreover, in high levels of avoiding facework behaviors, relationship conflict has a positive influence on face loss; in high levels of integrating facework behaviors, process conflict has a positive influence on face loss; in high levels of dominating facework behaviors, relationship conflict has a positive influence on face loss; in high levels of dominating facework behaviors, task conflict has a positive influence on satisfaction; and in high levels of dominating facework behaviors, process conflict has a negative influence on satisfaction. This paper provides evidence of the moderating effect of the facework behaviors in online discussion boards.