1. Dealing with team conflict

2. Conflict in groups is unavoidable
Individual differences in motives, goals and beliefs means some conflict will always occur
Some conflict is necessary for stimulating creativity and innovation
Too much conflict can lead to group failure or dissolution
Types of conflict
Relationship conflict
Task conflict
Process conflict

3. Conflict is inevitable, but needn’t escalate
Sources of Conflict
Differences in solutions
Difference in standards
Differences in values
Cultural clashes
Control
Misunderstandings
Social loafing
Air-time hogs
Absences
Time Habits
Conflict is inevitable, but needn’t escalate

4. Conflict often escalates
Coalition formation
Negative reciprocity & emotion
Shift from soft to hard negoti- ation tactics
Blame: Attribution to opponent
Argument  commitment to position
Different goals
Conflict
begins

5. Task conflict Features Effects on group performance
Largely depersonalized
Consists of argumentation about the merits of ideas, plans and projects
Effects on group performance
Effective in stimulating creativity
Can improve decision-making outcomes and team productivity
Associated with higher commitment to task and group
Encourages considering issues from different perspectives

6. Relationship/affective/personal conflict
Features
Personal, defensive, resentful
Rooted in anger, personal friction, personality clashes, ego and tension
Not always openly expressed
Effects on group performance
Interferes with the effort people put into a task
Inhibits cognitive functioning
May encourage dismissing the ideas of others
May result in censored and unproductive communication
Reduces team effectiveness

7. From task to person conflict in the HCII
Task disagreement about stages in updating HCII website
Update technology & then outsource new design ($80K)
Update technology, redeploy old design & implement student design ($10K)
Led to entrenched positions & personal attacks

8. Escalation
A: “I asked X to do a migration of the current site, … reimplement our current theme, [and] implement the winning student design... I've asked him to do the second theme so that we can do A/B testing and have something credible with which to compare any new …design…. And [if the] new design takes longer than planned, we'll have a plausible site to present to the world in the meantime.”
B: “I am surprised to hear that you are proposing to bypass the HCII website committee process. ... I cannot approve the move to implement the student design ... without meeting to talk about it further.”
A: “I thought it was worth $2,600 of my discretionary money to have a fallback if a professionally designed site isn't done quickly enough or isn't good enough”
B: “I can't approve the implementation of a re-design at this time, regardless of where the funds come from”
A: “I encouraged this project and agreed to take it on because I thought it was important for the department, but I see continued foot dragging from you With no disrespect, I’ll end by quoting General Patton: lead, follow or get out of the way”
B: “I also hear your frustration with me, and I wish it did not lead you to communicate with me in this manner. It's not respectful nor is it effective.”

9. Disciplining a Teammate
Context: A 12-member, self-managed blue-collar production team doing electronic assembly
Team diverse on race, gender & family composition
Working together for two years
Sharon history:
Two preschool kids (3 & 5)
History of absences for kid-problems
History of lateness (at least once per week)
Incident
Sharon calls in late to announce an absence on a day with short-staffing & high workload
Team meeting to discipline Sharon
Recount history
Threaten Sharon with firing at next offense

10. What did the team do right?

11. What did the team do right? Sets up a team contract
Consensus on values –
Give best customer top priority.
Make sacrifices to support team
Speak candidly at group meetings
Arrive on time
Norms
Work on important customer’s orders first
Arrive at 7AM
Learn all the roles
Rules – Formal, clear rules for behavior
Hold 20-minute meeting each morning, with fixed agenda
Schedule
Task assignment,
Coordination
Problems
Breaks at 9:30 & 1:30
Absences must be announced by 7:15

12. Group Process Agreements Work! Agree in Advance On:
Group goals
Decision processes
Conflict contingencies
Procedure for being absent
What happens when you miss a meeting
Response time for – phone messages
Specified Roles and Responsibilities
Secretary
Client Liaison
Team Leader - means?
Meeting coordination - agenda creator
1) Sisters with an Orange
2) Motorcycle --
3) Professor : attendance is required
student: I must leave for 2 weeks
4) Undergrad group

13. What did the team do wrong?

14. What did the team do wrong?
Focusing on positions & not issues
Coercive talk
Use of “You” language:
Blame: “Do you know what kind of problems you caused us yesterday.”
Use of power as mediation technique
“We wouldn’t have to [monitor you] if you would just follow our rules”
“You won’t be here if it happens again”
Little attempt at problem solving

15. Positions & Interests:
Position: a statement of demands or wants.
Often a solution the persons sees as the only way to solve the problem.
Statement of the outcome the person would like to see.
Often stated as a demand.
Often a win/lose proposal.
First, we need to understand position and interest.

16. Convert positions to Interests:
Interest: a need or concern underlying a position
The motivation that caused the person to arrive at a position
Why a person holds his/her position.
Keep asking why until you get to an interest
Often people lose sight of their interests and become entrenched in their position.

17. What the positions & issues in this case?

18. What the positions & issues in this case?
Team
Need N workers available to handle the load
Need certainty about who will be available
Group members need to feel they aren’t being exploited
Sharon
The job
Flexibility in dealing with family emergencies

19. Conflict resolution as problem solving:
Air all the view points.
Interview everyone & find out what each person wants & why.
State the problem
Combine everyone’s needs into a summary
Use neutral language
Focus on what should be done (not recriminations). Keep going until everyone agrees “If X happens I’ll be satisfied”
Create a solution
Identify a range of possible solutions. Brainstorm
Negotiate over solutions that best meet everyone’s interests
Go to supervisor / authority for help

20. Purpose of a problem statement
To state the problem in terms of the interests of all parties.
To foster collaborative problem solving.
To provide a focus for generating solutions.
Now let’s look at groups and problems in groups. We will start tonight and explore more in the next workshop.

21. How to form a problem statement:
Ask as question that states the problem in terms of the interest of all parties.
Use positive, inclusive and neutral language.
Make sure that all parties agree that if this question is answered the problem will be solved.
How can we find a way for you to get answers to your questions and for me to finish my work?
How can we both let each other know about work that need to be done?
Use the problem statement as a focus for generating options/brainstorming solutions.

22. Develop a problem statement for Sharon’s case

23. Problem statements Combine Interests to form a problem statement.
“How can we build in flexibility for team members, while still getting the work done?
Not: You must be here on-time or else
“How can we get the work done, when one of our members has to miss work?”
“How do we make the work fair?”
Not: As the programmer, it is your job to do x
“How can we waste less time in meetings and get everyone’s input?”
(Not: Choose btw voting and discussion)
“How can we get the best website, while reducing cost & uncertainty?”
Not: Choice student design versus contract out.

24. Conflict resolution as negotiation
What works?
Problem solving behavior, such as giving or requesting information about a party’s priorities among the issues, encourages high joint benefit.
Prosocial motivation (resulting, for example, from positive mood or the expectation of future interaction with the other party) encourages problem solving and high joint benefit and discourages contentious behavior, but only when resistance to yielding is high
What doesn’t
Contentious behavior, such as making threats or standing firm on one’s proposals, encourages failure to reach agreement or, if agreement is reached, low joint benefit.
Conceding makes agreement more likely but favors the other party’s interests.

25. OLI course on conflict management
Userid: robertekraut
Pass: .oli%1234

26. Methods of conflict resolution

27. What are you? Conflict Style Accommodating Avoiding Assertive
Use the accompanying sheets “Conflict styles” and “self – test on “conflict management”
Scoring and interpreting your management style.
While they are filling that out, use big postits to place around the room, have folks split up into groups.
Answer:
Advantages and disadvantages of your style?
Accommodating
Avoiding
Assertive
Compromising
Collaborating

28. Conflict management approaches
Accommodating – You cooperate to a high-degree. May be at your own expense and work against your goals, objectives, and desired outcomes. 
Avoiding –  You simply avoid the issue.  You aren’t helping the other party reach their goals ot assertively pursuing your own. 
Competing – This is the “win-lose” approach.  You act assertively to achieve your goals, without seeking to cooperate with the other party, and it may be at the expense of the other party.   
Compromising –“lose-lose” scenario where neither party really achieves what they want.  This requires a moderate level of assertiveness and cooperation.  The trap is to fall into compromising as an easy way out, when collaborating would produce a better solution.
Collaborating – Win-Win. You & partner with the other party to achieve both of your goals.  Requires a high-degree of trust and reaching a consensus can require a lot of time and effort to get everybody on board and to synthesize all the ideas.

29. Conflict style questionnaire
Thomas, K.W. and R.H. Kilmann, 1974, The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, Tuxedo, NY: XICOM, Inc.

30. Conflict resolution as negotiation
Look for integrative, mutual gain solutions (win-win)
Look for trade-offs rather than dividing a fixed pie
Reveal your interests
Understand your partner’s interests
Logroll
Benefits
Best solution for the group (Pareto optimum)
Integrative solution strengthens the relationship between parties, because they are mutually rewarding
Cooperate in expanding the pie & then, if necessary, compete in dividing it
Suboptimal: Competition (maximizing difference), Avoidance, Compromise & Accommodation
Pareto efficiency, or Pareto optimality, is a central theory in economics with broad applications in game theory, engineering and the social sciences. Given a set of alternative allocations and a set of individuals, a movement from one alternative allocation to another that can make at least one individual better off, without making any other individual worse off is called a Pareto improvement or Pareto optimization. An allocation of resources is Pareto efficient or Pareto optimal when no further Pareto improvements can be made.

31. I Messages/ Assertion Messages:
I FEEL /get/ am… frustrated
WHEN… you talk while I am talking.
BECAUSE… What I am saying is important and I want you to hear it.
I messages are a clear, assertive, and non-threatening way of telling another person how you feel when something happens, and why.

32. Assertion Message Guidelines
Assertion Message Should:
Focus on you
Describe the specific behavior or situation that is a problem to you
Describe the impact on you or the group of the behavior or situation
Communicate your interests or needs
Describe your feelings (I feel…, I get…, I am…)
Be addressed to the person with whom you are in conflict
Moving from anger to assertion.
Take a deep breath.
Sometimes it is as simple as taking a deep breath, other times you may need to leave the room. When you are in an intense meeting, excuse yourself at the earliest time and go to the bathroom for a ‘silent’ scream or get a break in to take a quick walk around the block.

33. Assertion Message Guidelines
Assertion Message Should NOT:
Focus on the other
Blame or criticize
Assume the other person has the same understanding of the situation
Name Call
Assume the other person knows how you feel
Generalize
Moving from anger to assertion.
Take a deep breath.
Sometimes it is as simple as taking a deep breath, other times you may need to leave the room. When you are in an intense meeting, excuse yourself at the earliest time and go to the bathroom for a ‘silent’ scream or get a break in to take a quick walk around the block.