GROUP BEHAVIOR, TEAMS, AND CONFLICT

Chapter 13
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Group
Four criteria (Gordon, 2001):
■ The members of the group must see themselves as a unit;
■ the group must provide rewards to its members;
■ anything that happens to one member of the group affects every other
member (corresponding effects); and
■ the members of the group must share a common goal.

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Reasons for joining groups
■ Assignment- employees are assigned to groups.
■ Physical Proximity- people tend to form groups with people who either live or work nearby.
■ Affiliation- to be with other people
■ Identification- desire for identification with some group or cause.
■ Emotional Support- to obtain emotional support (e.g., support groups)
■ Assistance or help- to obtain assistance or help (e.g., study groups)
■ Common interests- because they share a common interest (e.g. psychology club)
■ Common goals- People who join political parties. Their primary purpose is to get a particular
person or members of a particular party elected to office.

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Factors Affecting Group Performance
1. Group Cohesiveness
2. Group Ability and Confidence
3. Personality of the Group Members
4. Communication Structure
5. Group Roles
6. Presence of Others
7. Individual Dominance
8. Groupthink

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1. Group Cohesiveness
Group cohesiveness is the extent to which group members like and trust one another, are
committed to accomplishing a team goal, and share a feeling of group pride.

Factors affecting group cohesiveness

a. Group Homogeneity
– Homogeneous groups: members share the same characteristics
– Heterogeneous groups: members share few similarities
– Slightly heterogeneous groups: a few group members have a different
characteristic from the rest of the group
b. Stability of Membership- the extent to which the membership of a group remains
consistent over time.

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c. Isolation- the degree of physical distance of a group from other groups.

d. Outside Pressure- the amount of psychological pressure placed on a group by

members who are not members of the group.
– Psychological reactance

e. Group Status- the esteem to which the group is held by people not in the
group.

f. Group Size- the number of members in a group.

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f. Group Size
■ Smaller is best for cohesiveness

■ Performance depends on task type

– additive tasks: are those for which the group’s performance
is equal to the sum of the performances by each group member.
– conjunctive tasks: are those for which the group’s performance depends
on the least effective group member
– disjunctive tasks: are those for which the group’s performance is based on
the most talented group member.

■ Social impact theory states that the addition of a group member has the
greatest effect on group behavior when the size of the group is small.

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 Examples of Task Types
Task Type Group Activity

Additive Typing pool

Relay race
Bowling team
Car washing
Disjunctive Problem solving
Brain storming
Golf tournament
Conjunctive Assembly line
Hiking

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2. Group Ability and Confidence
■ Groups with high-ability members perform better (Devine & Phillips, 2001).
■ Similarly, groups whose members are believe that their team can be both
successful both at a specific task (high team efficacy) and at tasks in general
(high team potency) perform better (Gully et al., 2002).

3. Personality of the group members

■ Groups whose members have task-related experience and score high in the
personality dimensions of openness to experience and emotional stability will
perform better than groups whose members do not have these characteristics
(Bell, 2007).

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4. Communication Structure

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5. Group Roles
■ Task Oriented
– offering new ideas
– coordinating activities
– finding new information
■ Social Oriented
– encouraging cohesiveness
– encouraging participation
■ Individual
– blocking group activities
– calling attention to oneself
– avoiding group interaction

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6. Presence of Others
■ Social Facilitation- involves the positive effects of the presence of
others on an individual’s behavior.

■ Social inhibition- involves the negative effect of other’s presence.

■ Audience effects- takes place when a group of people passively watch

an individual.

■ Coaction- the effect on behavior when two or more people are

performing the same task in the presence of each other.

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Performance increases only when the task being performed is easy or well
learned; performance decreases when the task is difficult or not well learned.

Four explanations:
1. Mere presence of others naturally produces arousal.
2. Coacting audience provides a mean for comparison.
3. Evaluation apprehension hypothesizes that judgment by others causes the
differential aspects of social facilitation.
4. Presence of others is distracting to the individual who is trying to perform
a task.

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■ Social loafing- the fact that individuals in a group often exert less individual effort
than they would if they were not in a group.

Three theories why social loafing occurs:

1. Group members realize that their individual efforts will not be noticed, there is little
chance of individual reward.
2. Free-rider theory- when things are going well, a group member realizes that his
effort is not necessary and thus does not work hard as he would if he were alone.
3. Sucker effect- social loafing occurs when a group member notices that the other
group members are not working hard and thus are “playing him for a sucker.”

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6. Individual Dominance

■ By the group leader

■ By a group member

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7. Groupthink
Groupthink- a state of mind in which a group is so concerned about its own
cohesiveness that it ignores important information.
Groupthink can occur when the group:
– is cohesive
– is insulated from qualified outsiders
– has an illusion of invulnerability, infallibility, or both
– believes that it is morally superior to its adversaries
– is under great pressure to conform
– has a leader who promotes a favorite solution
– has gatekeepers who keep information from other group members.

§ Devil’s advocate- one who questions and disagrees with a group.

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Group versus Individual Performance

■ Nominal group- a collection of individuals whose results are pooled

but never interact with one another.

■ Interacting group- a collection of individuals who work together to

perform a task.

Brainstorming- a technique in which ideas are generated by people in a

group setting.

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TEAMS

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Teams
Before calling a group of individuals a team, six factors should be considered:

■ Identification- the extent to which group members identify with the team rather than with other groups
■ Interdependence- the extent to which team members need and rely on other team members.
■ Power differentiation- the extent to which team members have the same level of power and respect.
■ Social distance- the extent to which team members treat each other in a friendly, informal manner.
■ Conflict management tactics- team members respond to conflict by collaborating.
■ Negotiation process- members negotiate in a win-win style.

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Types of Teams
■ Work Teams- consist of groups of employees who manage themselves, assign
jobs, plan and schedule work, make work-related decisions, and solve work-
related problems.

■ Parallel Teams- also called cross-functional teams, consist of representatives from

various departments (functions) within an organization.

■ Project Teams- are formed to produce one-time outputs such as creating a new
product, installing a new software system, or hiring a new employee.

■ Management Teams- coordinate, manage, advice, and direct employees and

teams.

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How Teams Develop
Tuckman (1965) Theory
Four developmental phases that teams typically go through:
1. Forming
– Team members get to know one another
– Everyone is on their good behavior
– Group clarifies its mission
2. Storming
– Disagreement and frustration set in
3. Norming
– Group members work at easing tension
– Acceptance of team leader
4. Performing
– Goals get accomplished

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How Teams Develop
Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (Gersick, 1988)

■ Teams do not go through set stages

■ Basic method of formation
– Develop direction and strategy during first meeting
– Follow this direction for a period of time
– Revise their strategy about halfway thorough the life of the team

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Why Teams Don’t Always Work
■ The team is not a team
■ Excessive meeting requirements
■ Lack of empowerment
■ Lack of skill
■ Distrust to the team process
■ Unclear objectives

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GROUP CONFLICT

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Conflict
Conflict is the psychological and behavioral reaction to a perception that
another person is either keeping you from reaching a goal, taking away your
right to behave in a particular way, or violating the expectancies of a
relationship.

■ Dysfunctional conflict- conflict that keeps people from working together,

lessens productivity, spreads to other areas, or increases turnover.

■ Functional Conflict- conflict that results in increased performance or better

interpersonal relations.

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Types of Conflict
■ Interpersonal conflict
conflict between two people.

■ Individual – Group conflict

conflict between an individual and the other members of the group.

■ Group – Group conflict

conflict between two or more groups.

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Causes of Conflict
■ Competition for resources- occurs when the demand for
resources is greater than the resources available.
■ Task interdependence- arises when the completion of a task
by one person affects the completion of task by another
person.
■ Jurisdictional ambiguity- found when geographical boundaries
or lines of authority are unclear.

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Causes of Conflict
■ Communication barriers
– Physical: separate locations on different floors or in different
buildings.
– Cultural: different languages or different customs.
– Psychological: different styles of personalities.
■ Beliefs
■ Personality

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Types of Difficult People

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Conflict Styles
■ Avoiding style - a person reacts to conflict by pretending that it does not exist.
– Withdrawal- one of the parties removes him/herself from the situation to
avoid the conflict.
– Triangling- occurs when an employee discusses the conflict with a third party.

■ Accommodating style- a person tends to respond to conflict by giving in to the

other person.

■ Forcing style- a person respond to conflict by always trying to win.

⎼ Winning at all costs- one side seeks to win regardless of the damage to other
side.

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■ Collaborating style - a person wants a conflict resolved in such a way that
both sides get what they want.

■ Compromising style - individuals allow each side to get some of what it

wants.
⎼ Negotiation and bargaining- a method of resolving conflict in which two
sides use verbal skill and strategy to reach an agreement.

Measures of Conflict Styles

§ Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory II
§ Cohen Conflict Response Inventory

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Resolving Conflict
■ Prior to Conflict Occurring
– Formal policies
– Employee training
■ When Conflict Occurs
– Employees should try to solve conflict
– Third-party intervention

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Third Party Intervention

■ Mediation
■ Arbitration

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Mediation
■ Mediation is best when:
– parties are rational
– parties want to work out a solution together
– some trust still exists
– there are no time constraints

Arbitration
– same as mediation but use when parties get stuck during mediation
– Types
■ Binding
■ Nonbinding

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