1. Teamwork and Conflict in Group Settings
CHAPTER 9
Teamwork and Conflict
in Group Settings

2. The prosocial / antisocial dimension
Prosocial Behavior
Antisocial Behavior
Helping Cooperation /Teamwork Competition Conflict Violence
Often perceived as Often perceived as
non-zero sum games zero-sum games
“win-win” “win-lose”

3. Prosocial behavior: helping others and the organization
Intervention: to blow the whistle or not?
Antisocial versus prosocial whistle blowing
Reasons for not intervening: fear of retaliation and ostracism, diffusion of responsibility, the costs of intervening, accepting others’ inaction as defining a “social reality”
Increasing intervention: leadership, atmosphere supporting intervention, procedures that protect those who intervene, emphasis on self-corrective teamwork and group decision making

4. Prosocial behavior: helping others and the organization
Helping behavior: do we care?
Factors influencing helping: empathy, informal norms, relationship issues that develop both inside and outside the work context
Mood and helpfulness: positive mood, empathic and prosocial orientation (trade-off between empathic concern and personal distress)

5. Organizational citizenship behavior: being a good citizen
Organizational citizenship behaviors: altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship*, courtesy*, civic virtue
Factors that motivate organizational citizenship behavior
Job satisfaction: perception of continuing fair treatment
Cohesiveness and courtesy
Individual differences: personality, values, and personal norms
*Defined a bit differently than in other contexts.

6. Organizational citizenship behavior: being a good citizen
Spontaneous behaviors (organizational spontaneity)
Helping one’s coworkers
Protecting the organization’s interests
Making constructive suggestions
Developing oneself as an asset to the organization
Spreading goodwill and boosting morale
Facilitators: job satisfaction, internalization of the organization’s goals and values, positive mood, membership in cohesive work groups

7. Teamwork in functional and cross-functional teams
Team productivity
Functional and cross-functional teams
Quality circles
Self-managing teams: semi-autonomous, control their own work assignments, responsible for a particular task or product, present opportunities to learn multiple job skills
Optimizing self-managing teams: motivation, person-task matching, experimentation, task variety, development of interpersonal skills and self-management skills

8. Teamwork in functional and cross-functional teams
Innovation in work teams
Moderate levels of diversity in knowledge and experience
Support at all levels for innovation
Constructive and insightful conflict resolution (criticize ideas, not people)
Innovative thinking styles
Leaders who encourage innovation
High levels of reflexivity
Some degree of experience and maturity as a team

9. Teamwork in functional and cross-functional teams
Team effectiveness
Participative management
Group cohesiveness
Group structure and training
Feedback and rewards
Goals and performance norms
Complementarity of skills and experience

10. Conflict: its causes, management, and effects
Interdependence: information dependence, need for agreement, outcome interdependence
Informational conflict: differences of opinion
Conflict avoidance: self-deception and self-censorship, majority rule, unanimity rule, compromise
Conflict reduction: normative influence, informational influence, compromise, rejecting the “deviate”
Conflict creation: seeking diverse perspectives, “devil’s advocate,” minority influence, cognitive versus personal/emotional conflict

11. Informational conflict can be associated with three different reactions
Avoidance
Differences of opinion
Informational conflict
Reduction
Creation

13. Conflict: its causes, management, and effects
Interdependence: information dependence, outcome interdependence
Informational conflict: differences of opinion
Conflict avoidance: self-deception and self-censorship, majority rule, unanimity rule, compromise
Conflict reduction: normative influence, informational influence, compromise, rejecting the “deviate”
Conflict creation: seeking diverse perspectives, “devil’s advocate,” minority influence, cognitive versus personal/emotional conflict

14. Conflict: its causes, management, and effects
Personal conflict: opposing interests
The problem of limited resources: the zero-sum game
Reward structures: conflict built into the system
Interpersonal conflict: grudges, faulty attributions, faulty communication, inappropriate criticism

15. Personal conflict can be associated with three different reactions
Avoidance
Opposing interests
Personal conflict
Reduction
Creation

16. Conflict: its causes, management, and effects
Managing personal conflicts
Conflict avoidance: type of group (token, mutual admiration, chosen, inner-circle), doing nothing, pre-emptive policies
Conflict resolution: bargaining (avoiding threats, making meaningful concessions), third-party intervention (mediation and arbitration), establishment of superordinate goals
Conflict creation: to address inequities and unfairness, to clear the air and normalize relationships

17. Intra-group Attraction
Conflict avoidance and type of group
Low
High
Token group
Mutual admiration
group
Chosen group
Inner-circle
Low
Outside Respect
High

18. Conflict: its causes, management, and effects
Managing personal conflicts
Conflict avoidance: type of group (token, mutual admiration, chosen, inner-circle), doing nothing, pre-emptive policies
Conflict resolution: bargaining (avoiding threats, making meaningful concessions), third-party intervention (mediation and arbitration), establishment of superordinate goals
Conflict creation: to address inequities and unfairness, to clear the air and normalize relationships

19. Conflict: its causes, management, and effects
Major effects of conflict
Negative effects: negative feelings, impaired communication, impaired coordination, shift to autocratic leadership, negative stereotyping, in-group versus out-group mentality
Positive effects: bringing problems out into the open, consideration of new ideas and approaches, careful consideration of information, improved relationships, closer monitoring of performance
These positive effects are achieved only when conflict is carefully managed or controlled

20. Conflict: its causes, management, and effects
Culture and conflict management
Harmony: strive for consensus, unanimity
Confrontational: argue and debate until you resolve it
Regulative: set up rules and procedures to resolve it

21. Conflict management styles: variations across cultures
Harmony
Confrontational
Regulative
Emphasis
Reason, fairness
Rules, equality
Competitiveness
Low
High
Expression of negative emotions
Suppression
Expression
Behavior
Avoidance
Confrontation and compromise