1. Reframing Organizations, 5th ed.

2. Interpersonal and Group Dynamics
Chapter 8
Interpersonal and Group Dynamics

3. Interpersonal and Group Dynamics
Interpersonal Dynamics
Emotional Intelligence
Management Styles
Group & Teams in Organizations

4. Interpersonal Dynamics
Managers spend much of their time in relationships
Three recurrent questions regularly haunt managers:
What is really happening in this relationship?
Why do other people behave as they do?
What can I do about it?

5. Interpersonal Dynamics (II)
Argyris and Schön’s theories for action
Espoused theory: how individuals describe, explain, or predict their own behavior
Theory-in-use: the program that governs an individual’s actions

6. Interpersonal Dynamics (III)
Argyris and Schön’s theories for action
Model I Theory in use
Model I Assumptions
Problem is caused by others
Unilateral diagnosis
Get person to change
Model II Assumptions
Emphasize common goals
Communicate openly
Combine advocacy with inquiry
The Perils of Self-Protection

7. Model I Theory-in-use Core values (governing variables)
Action strategies
Consequences for relationships
Consequences for learning
Define and achieve your own goals
Design and manage unilaterally
You’re seen as defensive, inconsistent, selfish
Self-sealing
Maximize winning, minimize losing
Own and control what’s relevant to you
You generate defensiveness
Single-loop learning
Avoid negative feelings
Protect yourself
You reinforce mistrust, conformity, avoiding risk
Private testing of assumptions
Be rational
Unilaterally protect others
Key issues become undiscussable
Unconscious collusion to avoid learning

8. Model I Assumptions Problems are caused by the other person
Since they caused the problem, get them to change
If they refuse or defend, that proves they caused the problem
If they resist, intensify the pressure, protect them (to avoid discomfort), or reject them
If you don’t succeed, it’s their fault; you’re not responsible

9. Model II Assumptions Focus on common goals, mutual influence
Communicate openly, test beliefs publicly
Combine advocacy with inquiry

10. Advocacy & Inquiry Figure 8-1: Advocacy and Inquiry. Advocacy Inquiry
High
Low
Assertive
Integrative
Passive
Accommodating
Advocacy
Inquiry

11. Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence: awareness of self and others, able to deal with emotions and relationships (Salovey and Mayer)
A Management Best-seller: Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence
EI more important than IQ to managerial success
Individuals with low EI and high IQ are dangerous in the workplace

12. Management Styles
Lewin, Lippitt and White: autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire leadership
Fleishman and Harris: initiating structure vs. consideration of others
Myers-Briggs Inventory
Introversion vs. extraversion
Sensing vs. intuition
Thinking vs. feeling
Judging vs. perceiving

13. Management Styles (II)
“Big 5 Model”
Extraversion (enjoying other people and seeking them out)
Agreeableness (getting along with others)
Conscientiousness (orderly, planful, hard-working)
Neuroticism (difficulty controlling negative feelings)
Openness to experience (preference for novelty and creativity)

14. Groups and Teams in Organizations
Informal Roles
Informal Group Norms
Interpersonal Conflict in Groups
Leadership and Decision-Making in Groups

15. Informal roles
Informal role: an unwritten, often unspoken expectation about how a particular individual will behave in the group
Individuals prefer different roles: some prefer to be active and in control, others prefer to stay in the background
Individuals who can’t find a comfortable role may withdraw or become troublemakers
Individuals may compete over the same role (for example, two people who both want to run things), hindering group effectiveness

16. Informal group norms
Informal norm: unwritten rule about what individuals have to do to be members in good standing
Norms need to align with both the task and the preferences of group members
Norms often develop unconsciously; groups often do better to discuss explicitly how they want to operate

17. Handling Interpersonal Conflict in Groups
Develop skills
Agree on basics
Search for interests in common
Experiment
Doubt your infallibility
Treat conflict as a group responsibility

18. Leadership and Decision-making in Groups
How will we steer the group
Leadership in the essential, but may be shared and fluid
Leaders who overcontrol or understructure produce frustration, ineffectiveness

19. Summary Employees bring social and personal needs to the workplace
Individuals’ social skills or competencies are a critical element
Though often frustrating, groups can be both satisfying and efficient