Welcome Back!

1. Welcome Back!

2. Handling Group Conflict: How to Disagree Without Becoming Disagreeable • Define conflictand explain how you feel when involved in a group conflict • Define groupthink and explain its consequences • Distinguish between competitive and cooperative conflict orientations • Identify how to use the conflict grid and the benefits and problems that can result from effective and ineffective handling of group conflict • Identify behaviors that can be used to resolve conflicts effectively

3. Conflict • “Conflict” means different things to different people • Conflict is not necessarily bad, just different • Conflict is, “disagreement over available options caused by seemingly incompatible goals among group members and their thinking that others can keep them from achieving their goals” (p. 373). "In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."                      - Albert Einstein

4. Communication & Conflict Styles Closed Hidden Avoidance/Withdrawal Accommodation Smoothing Compromising (any style) Blind Open Competition Collaborative/ Problem Solving

5. Communication & Conflict Styles • Avoider/Closed – does his or her best to remove his or herself from the conflict • Accommodator/Hidden – overvalues the maintenance of relationships and undervalues his or her own goals • Compromiser – regardless of conflict style, member tries to find a middle ground • Competitive Forcer/Blind – adopts a win-lose orientation in which personal goals are paramount • Problem-Solving Collaborator/Open – adopts a win-win orientation, seeking to satisfy her or his own goals as well as those of others

6. Gender and Conflict • Comparing Approaches • Males • Demanding and competitive • Verbally aggressive • Give orders • Focus on content • Females • Cooperativeness, compromise, and accommodation • More likely to engage in protracted negotiation • Make proposals and give reasons for their positions • Focus on feelings

7. Diversity and Conflict • Cultural values influence attitudes toward conflict • Individualist cultures • Conflict used to air differences • Handled openly and directly • Step along the problem-solving path • Collectivist cultures • Conflict perceived as a threat • Efforts made to suppress it in public • Dysfunctional, distressing, and dangerous

8. Resolving Conflicts • Cooperative vs. Competitive Conflict • Cooperative – willingness to share rewards to resolve conflicts • Seek mutually beneficial way to resolve disagreement • Win-win situation • Competitive– all-or-nothing; must defeat other participants • See winning as a test of personal worth • Win-lose situation • Transform conflict from competitive to cooperative • Effective communication techniques • Role reversal

9. Productive vs. Destructive Results • Productive – all participants are satisfied and believe they have gained something • Cooperative problem-solving methods • Willingness to trust each other • Destructive – all participants are dissatisfied and believe they have lost something • Win-lose encounters characterized by misconceptions and misperceptions; inaccurate, sketchy, and disruptive communication • Hesitancy to trust each other

10. Ethical Management of Conflict • Recognize that conflicts can be settled rationally • Define the conflict • Check your perceptions • Suggest problem solutions • Assess alternative solutions and choose the one that seems best • Try out your solution and evaluate it

11. GROUP THINK

12. Group Think A type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimizeconflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. Group’s need for unanimity overrides individual member motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action

13. Group think occurs… • Critical thinking is not encouraged or rewarded • Members believe that their group can do no wrong (arrogance) • Members are too concerned about justifying their actions • Members often believe that they have reached a true consensus • Members are too concerned about reinforcing the leader’s beliefs Desire for consensus overrides analysis • Group feels secure • Rationalization of decision • Group’s morality • Us vs. Them • Members censor comments • Direct pressure to dissenting members • Gate keeper of disturbing outside ideas or opinions • Can be related to paradigm shift resistance • Silence = consensus

14. What does it like? Symptoms of Group think • Incomplete survey of alternatives • Incomplete survey of objectives • Failure to examine risks of preferred choice • Poor information search • Selective bias in processing information at hand • Failure to reappraise alternatives • Failure to work out contingency plans

15. Challenger & Columbia Explosions

16. Organizational Culture • Shared assumptions, values, beliefs, language, symbols, and meaning systems that hold the organization together. • Patterns of sustained communicative acts or behaviors • Cultures develop over time • Cultures are VERY difficult to change • Requires drastic measures to make impact on organizational culture

17. NASA’s Environment • Shuttle as a bus • Lack of funds • Cancelled flights • Communication between NASA and Morton-Thiokol

18. Shuttle operation • Lack of escape pods • Maintenance

19. How O rings work • Need for a flexible rocket • Failure rate

20. How Cold is Cold • Ice only in the shade or everywhere? • Who is responsible?

21. How is the decision made? • NASA tele- conference • Morton off line

22. Group Think in Action

23. Group Think A type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimizeconflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. Group’s need for unanimity overrides individual member motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action

24. Suggestions to Reduce Group Think • The group leader should encourage critical, independent thinking • Group members should be sensitive to status differences that may affect decision making • Invite an outsider to the group to evaluate the group’s decision-making process • Assign a group member the role of devil’s advocate • Ask group members to subdivide into smaller groups (or work individually) and to consider potential problems with the suggested solutions

25. Consensus • Consensus occurs when all group members support and are committed to a decision •  Consensus should not come too quickly • Some personal preferences may need to be surrendered for the over-all well being of the group • Postpone a decision if consensus cannot be reached

26. Consensus • If two or three group members refuse to change their mind, the rest of the group may decide that reaching consensus is not worth the extra time. Ultimately, if consensus cannot be reached, the group should abide by the decision of the majority. • Remember: If there are members who do not support the decision, they will most likely be less than eager to implement it.

27. The Trust Factor • High Trust equals • High Performance • Low Trust equals • Low Performance

28. Challenger & Columbia Explosions Why do you think NASA still has organizational culture problems that have remained unresolved since the Challenger explosion and became evident again in the current Columbia disaster?

29. Group Discussion Your group is to discuss the problems inherent at NASA and decide how future problems can be avoided at these and other organizations. Consider the following criteria to guide your discussion: • Criteria: • Leadership Styles/Theories • Problem solving vs. Decision Making • Status and Power • Organizational culture • Group Think/Conflict Avoidance • Business Ethics/Accountability

30. Sources • Challenger page by Davinder S. Mahal, 1996 • http://www.jlhs.nhusd.k12.ca.us/Classes/Social_Science/Challenger.html/Challenger.html • Morton Thiokol The Challenger Case • http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca/mgt/DM.case.html

31. End of Presentation