Conflict Exercise Team Dilemma—Group Versus Individual Goals-Individual Vs Group Minded Two pairs won more money than could have been obtained if all team members cooperated. Poorer outcome for all when each pair acted in a self-interested manner. What does it mean to win, beat the other pairs or maximize the profit for all members. Beat other pairs not lose as much as they did. What is exchanged is trust.—Trust violated strike back by faking the re-establishment of trust. Motive to hurt other party—don’t care if hurt yourself.

Factors Emphasize Individual Over Team Goals Individual reward systems—forced distributions Hierarchical arrangements rather than shared power tends to promote individual self-interest. Scarce resources

Stress and uncertainty—can be caused by downsizing—new leadership Status Differences-tends to foster an us Vs them orientation

Factors Emphasize Team Over Team Goals Group level reward systems– tends to enhance collaboration—want other people to do well because it benefits you Common Team Identity-in work place allow frequent meetings, identify people as a team Contract—have people make a social contract-clear team goals and mission-determine best process to achieve the goals

Form Friendships across group members-allow people to have fun together. Engage in non-work activities. Team Stability--Keep the group together for a longer period of time. Allow relationships to develop. Emphasize equal status among team members. Power equally distributed, all members important and share important tasks.

Types of Conflict In Teams (Not Conflict of Interest-Mutually Exclusive Goals) Task, Substantive, Cognitive Conflict,—Involves disagreements about the task itself—debate about the merits of the ideas, plans, types of project to do.. Interpersonal, Relationship, Emotional, Affective Conflict—Reflects anger, tension, friction personality clashes among team members. Not idea based but person based.

Process Conflict—Represents differences among team members about how to do the task, how to share the work load, what team members should do which tasks

Conflict In Groups Interpersonal Conflict When meeting with your team members how frequently did you personally experience: Always Never 1. friction with other group members 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2. personality conflicts with others 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 3. tension with other members 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4. emotional conflict with other members 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 5. anger towards other group

Task-Cognitive-Substantive Conflict Within your group how frequently have there been: Never Always 1. Disagreements about the project 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2. Differences of opinions about the project 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 3. Have a clash of ideas about 4. Conflicts about ideas about the project 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Process Conflict How often do member of your group: Never Always 1. Disagree about who should do what? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2. Disagree about the way to complete a task 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 3. Disagree about the delegation of tasks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4. Disagree about how to do things 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Work Team Effectiveness and Conflict Generally task conflict is seen as beneficial for higher quality solutions- but not simply the more the better. Generally interpersonal conflict is believed to be detrimental to quality solutions. It prevents the group from working effectively together.

Process Conflict—we do not have a lot of information about its impact but limited research that unfair decision processes lead to lower levels of motivation and less commitment.

Ways to Generate and Beneficial Effects of Task Conflict Problem Solving Devil’s Advocacy Cognitive Conflict Better Problem Understanding Better Solutions Assumptions Alternatives Group Processes Evaluation Member Composition Decision Rule Critical Outsiders Minority Opinion Many Alternatives

Interrelationship Among Types of Conflict Task and interpersonal conflict are frequently interrelated. Need to prevent task conflict from bleeding over to interpersonal conflict and interpersonal conflict from bleeding over to task conflict. Also prevent process from bleeding over to task or relationship.

Preventing Relationship and Task Conflict From Emerging .47 Task Conflict Relationship Conflict Task conflict will be more likely lead to relationship conflict when there is low trust in the group. Task conflict will lead to relationship conflict when it is not episodic—attributions involved here about people. Task conflict less likely to lead to relationship conflict if norms of group are to accept conflict—to discuss and talk about issues and feelings ________________________________________________________ Trust—Truth, Integrity, Living up to one’s word, respect for group members competence

Task conflict less likely to lead to relationship conflict if the conflict can be resolved quickly. Task cognitive less likely to lead to relationship conflict if interaction justice present (respect in communications, social account when ideas are not accepted) Task in more likely to result in interpersonal conflict when there are individual rewards and not team rewards.

Process conflict may be more likely to result in interpersonal and task conflict perceptions of unfair treatment—Procedures that are used to make decisions are seen as unfair. Task conflict is more likely to bleed over to interpersonal conflict when disagreement on e.g., task issues or process issues are resolved based on power-based response or rights based- as leader of the team With respect to performance, task conflict that emerges at the beginning and middle of the group is better than at the end of the group