Team Dynamics, Communication, Leadership, and Conflict

Posted on Mar 17, 2025 in Other subjects

Tuckman’s 5 Stages of Team Development

  • Forming: Uncertainty about purpose, structure, and leadership.
  • Storming: Intragroup conflict as members resist constraints.
  • Norming: Group is cohesive with strong group identity.
  • Performing: Group is fully functional and working toward goals.
  • Adjourning: For temporary groups: breaking up.

The Punctuated-Equilibrium Model

  • Phase 1: The first meeting sets the team’s direction. The first phase of team activity is one of inertia.
  • Transition: A transition occurs at the end of the first phase when the team has used up half its allotted time. The transition initiates major changes.
  • Phase 2: A second phase of inertia follows the transition. The last meeting (i.e., the day before the assignment is due) is characterized by markedly accelerated activity.

Roles

The set of expected behavior patterns that are attributed to occupying a given position in a social unit.

  • Role perception: Our view of how we’re supposed to act in a given situation.
  • Role expectations: How others believe you should act in a given situation.

Role conflict: Conflict experienced when multiple roles are incompatible.

Groupthink and Groupshift

  • Groupthink: Group pressures for conformity deter the group from critically appraising unusual, minority, or unpopular views.
  • Groupshift: Group members tend to exaggerate their initial positions when discussing alternatives and arriving at solutions.

Minimizing Groupthink

Strategies to minimize groupthink may include:

  • Limit group size to less than 10.
  • Encourage group leaders to actively seek input from all members and avoid expressing their own opinions.
  • Appoint a “devil’s advocate.”
  • Use exercises that stimulate active discussion of diverse alternatives.

Groupshift or Group Polarization

Group discussions lead members to assume new, more extreme, positions.

Groups often take positions of greater risk or greater caution.

May be due to diffused responsibility or greater comfort level among members.

The Communication Process

  • Sender: Message to be sent – Encoding Message.
  • Channel.
  • Receiver: Message Received – Message decoding.

Then there is feedback.

Barriers to Effective Communication

Filtering, Selective Perception, Information overload, Emotions, Language, Silence, Communication apprehension, Lying.

Leadership Theories

Trait Theories

  • Big Five Personality Framework.
  • Extraversion has the strongest relation to leadership.
  • Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience are also strongly related to leadership.
  • Agreeableness and Emotional Stability are not correlated with leadership.
  • Emotional Intelligence is correlated with leadership; however, this link is under-investigated.

Two conclusions:

  • Traits can predict leadership.
  • Traits do a better job predicting the emergence of leaders and the appearance of leadership than distinguishing between effective and ineffective leaders.

Behavioral Theories

  • We can determine leadership effectiveness by leader behavior, and perhaps train people to be leaders.
  • Behaviors can be taught – traits cannot.
  • Leaders are trained – not born.
  • Two key studies of leadership:
    • The Ohio State Studies.
    • The University of Michigan Studies.

Contingency Theories

  • Fiedler Contingency Model.
  • Effective group performance depends on the proper match between the leader’s style and the degree to which the situation gives the leader control.

Additional Situational/Contingency Theory

  • Path-goal theory: Leader’s job to provide followers with information, support, or other resources necessary to achieve goals.
  • Directive leadership yields greater satisfaction when tasks are ambiguous or stressful. Perceived as redundant by employees with high ability or experience.
  • Supportive leadership results in high performance and satisfaction when tasks are structured.
  • Participative leadership is where the followers are unsure, and they have a locus of control.
  • Achievement-Oriented leadership – Follows possess necessary skills and have a high need to succeed.

Power Sources

  • Legitimate power: Power is based on position and mutual agreement that the power holder has the right to influence another person. “Do it because I’m the boss.”
  • Reward power: Power is based on a person’s ability to control the rewards that another person wants. “Do it because there is something in it for you.”
  • Coercive power: Power is based on a person’s ability to cause an unpleasant experience. “Do it or else.”
  • Referent power: An elusive power based on interpersonal attraction. “Do it because you respect, like, or identify with me.”
  • Expert power: Power is based on a person’s specialized knowledge or skills that another person needs. “Do it because you value my expertise on the matter.”
  • Information power: Access to and control over important information. “Do it because you want access to the information I have.”

Power and Politics

  • Power: A capacity that A has to influence the behavior of B so that B acts in accordance with A’s wishes.
  • Dependence: B’s relationship to A when A possesses something that B needs.
  • The most important aspect of power is that it is a function of dependence.

Influence Tactics

Influence Tactics (What You Might Do)

I Want A Better Mark Scenario

  • Rational persuasion: Use of logic, facts & data.
  • Inspirational appeals: Appeals to your values, and beliefs.
  • Consultation: Asking for others’ input to make them part of the solution.
  • Ingratiation: Flattery & friendly before making a request.
  • Personal appeals: Appealing to loyalty & friendship.
  • Exchange: Offering favors or benefits in exchange for support.
  • Coalition tactics: Building the group.
  • Pressure: Demands, threats & reminders to get someone to do something.

Political Skill

The ability to influence others in such a way as to enhance their own objectives.

Types of Political Activity

  • Attacking or blaming others.
  • Using information.
  • Managing impressions.
  • Building support for ideas.
  • Praising others.
  • Building coalitions.
  • Associating with influential people.
  • Creating obligations.

Impression Management

  • The process by which individuals attempt to control the impression others form of them.
  • Researchers have compared applicants who use two distinct approaches in job interviews:
    • Self-promotion: Promoting one’s accomplishments.
    • Ingratiation: Complimenting the interviewer and finding areas of agreement.

Individual Factors Contributing to Political Behavior

1. Traits that encourage political action:

  • High self-monitors.
  • Internal locus of control.
  • High need for power.

2. Situational influences leading to illegitimate political actions:

  • Lower organizational investment.
  • Greater number of perceived alternatives.
  • Greater expectations of success.

The Conflict Process

Stage 1: Potential Opposition

  • Communication: Barriers exist – Too much or too little.
  • Structure: Group size, age, diversity – Organizational rewards, goals, group dependency.
  • Personal Variables: Personality types – Emotionality.

Stage 2: Cognition and Personalization

  • The potential for conflict is actualized.
  • Parties “make sense” of conflict by defining it and its potential solutions.
  • Emotions play a major role in shaping perceptions.
  • Perceived conflict: Awareness needed for actualization.
  • Felt conflict: Emotional involvement – parties experience anxiety, tension, frustration, or hostility.

Stage 3: Intentions

Decisions to act in a given way.

Inferred (often erroneous) intentions may cause greater conflict.

Five conflict-handling intentions:

  • Competing, Collaborating, Avoiding, Accommodating.
  • Compromising.

Stage 4: Behavior

Annihilatory conflict: Overt efforts to destroy the other party, Aggressive physical attacks, Threats and ultimatums, Assertive verbal attacks, Overt questioning or challenging of others, Minor disagreements or misunderstandings.

Stage 5: Outcomes

Functional Outcomes:

  • Improves decision quality.
  • Stimulates creativity and innovation.
  • Encourages interest and curiosity.
  • Problems are aired.
  • Accepts change and self-evaluation.

Dysfunctional Outcomes:

  • Group is less effective.
  • Reduces cohesiveness and communications.
  • Leads to the destruction of the group.

Conflict Styles

Types of Conflict

  • Task conflict: Work content and goals.
  • Relationship conflict: Interpersonal relationships.
  • Process conflict: How the work is done.

Loci of Conflict

  • Dyadic conflict: Conflict between two people.
  • Intragroup conflict: Conflict occurring within a group or team.
  • Intergroup conflict: Conflict between groups or teams.

Characteristics of Organizational Culture

  • Innovation and risk-taking: Employees are encouraged to be innovative and take risks, i.e., Apple.
  • Attention to detail: Employees are expected to exhibit precision, analysis, and attention to detail, i.e., Four Seasons.
  • Team/Family orientation: Work activities are organized around teams rather than individuals, i.e., Toyota.
  • Stability: Organizational activities emphasize maintaining the status quo in contrast to growth, i.e., government.
  • Outcome orientation: Focuses on results or outcomes rather than on technique and process. Achievement, i.e., sales.
  • People orientation: Management decisions consider the effect of outcomes on people within the organization, i.e., Google.
  • Aggressiveness: Win at all costs; competition within is good, i.e., Twitter (now).

Lewin’s Planned Change Model

Kurt Lewin

Unfreezing: Provide rationale for change – Create minor levels of guilt/anxiety about not changing – Create a sense of psychological safety concerning change.

Moving: Provide information that suspects proposed changes – Bring about actual shifts in behavior.

Refreezing: Implement new evaluation systems – Create minor levels of guilt/anxiety about not changing – Implement new hiring and promotion systems.

Forces for Change

  • Nature of the workforce: More cultural diversity – Aging population – Many new entrants with inadequate skills.
  • Technology: Faster, cheaper, and more mobile computers – Online music sharing – Deciphering of the human genetic code.
  • Economic shocks: Rise and fall of dot-com stocks – Record low-interest rates – Turbulent financial markets.
  • Competition: Global competitors – Mergers and consolidations – Growth of e-commerce.
  • Social trends: Internet chat rooms – Retirement of Baby Boomers – Rise of discount and “big box” retailers.
  • World politics: Global financial crises – Opening of markets in China – Government shakeups around the world – Extreme weather.