24 Group, team and conflict management

Dr. Sulakshna Dwivedi

1.       Learning Outcome

2.       Introduction

3.       Group and Team – Meaning and definitions

4.       Difference between group and team

5.       Types of teams

6.       Group dynamics

7.       Conflict – an overview

8.       Conflict Management

9.       Summary

Learning Outcome

After completing this module the students will be able to:

• Understand the concept of group and team and the difference between the two. To know about various types of teams
• Understand the group dynamics
• Understand an overview of conflict
• Understand various conflict management strategies or styles

2.  Introduction

Since civilizations, individuals have inherent predisposition to be part of a group. Being a social animal, human beings have always had a tendency to socialise with others. There are many reasons for this e.g. security, social needs, and psychological interdependence etc.Therefore, being part of the group is not new but it is there since time immemorial. Various types of groups are there e.g. some people join groups because of their like mindedness; same job; social compulsions etc. Some groups are formal and some are informal groups.

Since organizations are also made up of people and moreover jobs in the organizations are not independent rather interdependent. Hence, due to this interdependency, groups and teams are prerequisite for the proper functioning in the organizations. In Japanese organizations it is very common feature to work in groups/teams. Unlike American society which is considered to be more individualistic one, Japanese have always been giving preference to group culture or family culture. After the success of various Japanese organizations world wide, American organizations also started following teams culture. In this module, we will be focussing on groups/teams, how both are different from each other. Why people join groups? What is group dynamics? What are different types of groups? How groups are formed. What are the advantages and disadvantages of working in groups? A substantial problem that occurs in the group is conflict. What sort of conflicts are there? What are their reasons? How to prevent and cure such conflicts so that groups can work like teams and can become high performance teams? Therefore, an attempt has been made to answer all these questions in this module.

3. Group and Team – Meaning and definitions

Groups and teams are defined by different authors in many ways. One thing common in both is that both are composed by two or more individuals. Both groups and teams are used interchangeably. Let’s see how different authors have defined groups and teams and how both are distinct from each other.

According to Stephen P. Robbins (1999), “Groups are two or more individuals interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular objectives.

According to E.H. Schein

Following are the three conditions that should be satisfied to call any number of persons as group:

1.      People must interact with one another

2.      They must be psychologically aware of one another

3.      They should perceive themselves to be a group.

A Group is a unit of people who interact primarily to share information and to make decisions to help one another perform within each member’s area of responsibility. – Smit (2007)

The focus of above definitions is on:

• Their interaction
• Their interdependency
• Perception that they are part of a group
• And primarily interact to share information.

Different types of groups:

Formal Group

A work group which is specifically created as a consequence of organization’s structure is called formal Group.

Informal Group

A group that is not formally created or determined by the organization rather is the outcome of social needs of group members is called informal group.

Command Group

A group wherein all the group members report to a particular manager (Commander) is called command group.

Task Group

Group which comes into existence to complete a specific task or project is called task group.

Interest Group

These groups come into existence to attain a specific objective with which each group member is connected.

Friendship Group

As they say, “Birds of feather flock together”, on the line to these words some group comes into existence because of their like-mindedness e.g. sr. citizen’s group, Ladies club etc.

Why People Join Groups

• Security: Man is a social animal, hence, to be apart of the group or the society is but natural. People join groups to fulfill their socialization needs and it gives them feeling of security.

• Status: People join the groups to get heightened status e.g. members of particular clubs in big cities are considered to be of upper or elite class. Therefore, whosoever joins the club is considered to be of elite class. Hence it raises the status of group members.

• Self-esteem: By becoming members of certain specialized groups, group members feel honored, respected and they perceive a rise in their self esteem and dignity. Hence, gratification of their self-esteem is the another cause for joining the groups.

•  Affiliation: Some people join groups for fulfilling the need of affiliation. These people have strong need for association or relationships. To be in good relationships with others is one of their needs other than status, power etc.

• Power: To have authority to hire and fire and to be in charge of decision making body is the need of power. To fulfill this need and to enjoy power, people become part of command group, committee groups and such other groups which fulfill their power needs.

•  Goal Achievement: Some people have their individual goals and seek the company of those who have the similar goals or organizations where their personal goals can be achieved by integrating with organizational goals. Achievement is the major orientation in these individuals e.g. by joining ISRO, NASA etc. an ambitious young astronomer fulfills his achievement orientation as well as organization’s goals.

According to Burkel-Rothfuss (1985) groups play the following roles:

• Information management Problem-analysis
• Executive
• Gate keeping (Ensure equal participation by all the group members) Climate building

A team is a unit of interdependent individuals with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose and set of performance goals and to common expectations, for which they hold themselves accountable.-–

Key takeaway in this definition of team is:

• Interdependency
• Complementary skills
• Common purpose
• Common expectations Team accountability

4.Difference between group and team

5.   Types of teams

Over the years, increasing competition stemming from the global and technological nature of markets has forced organizations to adopt different team types

1. Functional Team: Team which is composed of group members who hail from the same functional group like HR team, Finance team, Production team etc.
2. Cross functional Team: In this type of teams, group members come from different functional groups e.g. a team of different functional areas.
3. Virtual Team: Virtual teams are sometimes referred to as Geographically Dispersed Teams (GDTs).These teams make innovative use of communication technology. These teams adopt an organization design that ameliorates global operations. Because people from different cultures, countries are part of team, therefore, this type of teams has the ability to capture the strengths of diverse people.
4. Self Managed Team: In self managed teams, no particular member is to play a specific role rather every member is a generalist and in rotation they have to play all the roles. As in there is no single leader in the team which is managing the whole team rather each group member has to take a role of leader in rotation.

5.1 Advantages of Team work

1. Synergy
2. Team promotes creativity and innovation
3. As teams are more cohesive hence better understanding among members.
4. In team environment, members become self-motivated
5. Team satisfies both individual and team goals.

5.2  Problems in Teams:

Although a team is always more effective than groups but sometime certain problems can crop up with group members due to change (excess) in some inherent properties of team. Some of the common problems are:

• Group conformity: A usual problem may be that group members are forced to change their attitude, beliefs and behaviours because they are forced to conform to group standards or follow the rules (norms) set by the group which are implicit. These norms may be related to performance, appearance, social, allocation of resources etc.

• Social loafing: The tendency to loaf around or to remain unoccupied or reducing efforts towards group performances as there is no individual accountability. This tendency may be conscious or unconscious but definitely reduce the effectiveness of group.

• Groupthink: Sometime group becomes so cohesive that group members take decisions on the basis of majority viewpoints therefore objective appraisal of issues is ignored over unanimity. Hence rationality takes back seat in adherence to majority viewpoints.

• Intergroup conflicts (Over-bounding): Excessive cohesiveness cause another problem which is called over-bounding whereby group members become so cohesive that they don’t want any sort of interaction or interference by another group members. Hence, this creates a wall between their group and other group members which lead to intergroup conflicts.

• Ollieism: This is a variation in group think. This is a phenomenon whereby in order to please their leader, group members transgress the group norms and take illegal actions or trudge an unethical path. As in group think objective appraisal (sense of good or bad) is ignored, in ollieism, members take their illegal actions or unethical behaviour as correct behaviour because they think that it make their leader happy.

6. Group Dynamics

Group dynamics means forces and exchanges among group members that are responsible for their formation, structure, system, decision making, communication, process etc. and the overall working which has influence on individuals, groups and organization as a whole.

6.1The Five-Stages Model of Group Development

The forming–storming–norming–performing model of group development was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965, Adjourning stage was added in the year 1970 who said that these phases are all inevitable in order for the team to nurture, confront challenges, and deliver results.

Forming Stage

The first stage in group development is distinguished by much dubiousness. Here group members meet with each others and there are activities like icebreaking, introductions and opening up with each other.

Storming Stage

The second stage in group development is distinguished by clash of viewpoints and conflicts

Norming Stage

After the storming stage, the third stage in group development is norming whereby settling down process starts and group develop guidelines and standards of acceptable behaviour and members comes into the mode of understanding each others’ stance and close relationships begin blooming.

Performing Stage

After norming stage, the fourth stage in group development is performing where group actually starts performing.

Adjourning Stage

When the ultimate objective is achieved then in the final stage the group wind up their activities and move towards next project or assignment.

7.   Conflict – an overview

Conflict is the natural incongruity between the objectives of two or more individuals or groups. Organizational conflict is a state of disagreement caused by the actual or perceived resistance of needs, values and interests between people working together.

The dictionary meaning of “conflict” is a struggle to resist or overcome; contest of opposing forces or powers; strife; battle, a state or condition of opposition; antagonism; discord. A painful tension set up by a clash between opposed and contradictory impulses.”

“Conflict is a process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affects, something that first party cares about”.– Stephen P. Robbins (1999)

In simple terms, conflict is opposition and difference between individuals and groups in the organization.

According to Louis R. Pondy (1967):

There are four ways to describe the conflict:

1. Antecedent condition of conflictful behavior such as scarcity of resources or policy differences.
2. Affective states of individuals involved such as stress, tension, hostility, anxiety etc.
3. Cognitive state of individuals: that involves perceptual awareness of conflictful situation.
4. Conflictful behavior: ranging from passive resistance to over aggression.

7.1  Transitions in Conflict thought:

• Traditional View: All conflicts are bad and harmful and must be avoided.
• Human Relations View: Conflict is natural and inevitable outcome of any group.
• Interactional View: Some conflict is necessary for a group to perform effectively.
• Functional View: Conflict supports group goals and improves its performance.
• Dysfunctional View: Conflict prevents a group from achieving its goals.

A conflict exists whenever people are in disagreement and opposition. It is a situation when the interests, needs, goals or values of involved parties interfere with one another. It refers to the existence of some sort of clash.

7.2 Types of conflict

Functional Conflict:

A conflict that assists the group goals and improves performance by utilizing constructive criticism is called functional conflict. That means this is the optimum level of conflict that is absolutely necessary for effective working of a group and, hence, good for organization too. This type of conflict promotes group cohesiveness because group member release their tensions as they think analytically. A constructive competition breeds among group members and they share their weaknesses, strengths and concerns. Hence, all the group members unitedly take the problems head on and find collective solutions and take quality decisions. Moreover functional conflict promotes creativity, innovation and productivity etc.

Dysfunctional conflict:

These types of conflicts come in the way of group goals and hamper the group performance. They do more harm than good to the organization. These are actually bad to the organization due to their severity and graveness because they create a climate of distrust, dissatisfaction and tensions. This brings divergence in personal and organizational goals. Due to these malaises of dysfunctional conflict, many employees leave the organization.

7.3 CAUSES OF CONFLICT

• Adverse working conditions
• Goal difference
• Harassment
• Inadequate training
• Inapt use of resources
• No Level playing field
• Personality differences
• Poor communications
• Poor Management
• Scarce resources
• Structural change
• Surfeit competition
• Unjust treatment
• Vague responsibility and authority
• Wrong placement of employees

7.4  Level of conflict in the organization:

 

Fig.1: Levels of Conflicts

Intra Individual or Individual Level conflict:

The sources of these conflicts can be

Frustration:

When an individual fails to achieve his goal because motivational drives of an individual are blocked before reaching the goal, he becomes frustrated. Frustration in turn creates conflict in the individual and he uses various defense mechanism e.g. fixation, withdrawal, aggression or compromise. This is one of the intra individual conflict as individual here is more in conflict with his own goal rather with some other person.

Goal conflict

Approach –Approach conflict:

This conflict occurs when an individual approaches two or more goals which are equally lucrative but mutually exclusive so choosing one out of them creates conflicts for an individual.e.g. after graduation an individual gets a job in a bank and on other hand gets an opportunity to do MBA from prestigious Management institute. In this situation both goals seems to be lucrative but there is conflict of choosing one.

Approach-Avoidance conflict

This conflict occurs when an individual approach a goal which has negative as well as positive characteristics. So on one hand side he wants to approach it because of the positive characteristics and on the other side he wants to avoid it because of one of its negative feature. This puts an individual in dilemma and creates approach- avoidance conflict. For example, an individual got promotion but has been transferred to some far off place, now the indidividual wants promotion but not at the cost of transfer. Therefore he is facing approach –avoidance conflict. This is one of the most difficult conflicts an individual can have because decision making is really tough here.

Avoidance- Avoidance conflict:

This type of conflict arises when an individual come across two or more negative but mutually exclusive goals. Negative goal imply that both are equally unattractive and undesirable alternatives. In this situation, the individual wants to get rid of both the goals and alternatives. For example, if the person has to do decide whether to go to the doctor (‘He hates to go to doctor’-(avoid) for relieving his pain (avoid) or to attend some boring society meeting (avoid).Then deciding out of these unattractive goals creates conflict for the individual.

Role conflict

• Role ambiguity: When role expectations are vague, these creates role ambiguity.
• Intersender role conflict: This arises when role senders send expectations which are in conflict with each other.
• Intrasender role conflict: This type of conflict arises when a person is assigned to do a job which is well beyond his capabilities, resources and time.
• Self-role conflict: Sometime the role assigned to an individual is in conflict with his value system and to perform that role is a matter of frustration.
• Role overload: When there are lot many expectations and individual feel overloaded and is not able to cope up with so many expectations.

Interpersonal Level Conflict

Lack of Information Individual differences Incongruity of role

Intergroup Level conflict

• Lack of consensus
• Struggle for resources
• Divergent  goals
• Perceptual differences Status fight
• Mutuality of tasks

Organizational Level conflict

All above discussed conflicts are within the organizational settings and come under the purview of organizational Level conflict. Conflicts at individual level, group level or inter group level are all built-in conflicts at organization level conflict.

8. Conflict Management

Conflict management is the process of reducing the dysfunctional aspects of conflict while enhancing the functional aspects of conflict. It is the process of identifying, strategizing and managing the conflicts fairly, and efficiently.

8.1  Preventive Measures:

• Job rotation of individuals Less shared resources
• Lesser interdependence More coordination
• Reorganization of groups Super ordinate goals
• Trust Building measures

8.2 Curative measures:

K.W. Thomas and R.H. Kilmann prescribed five styles of resolving the conflicts which are as follows. The Fig.2 Dimensions of Conflict handling Intentions presents on X-axis ‘concern for self’ from low to high. Low concern for self represents unassertive behavior and high concern for self depicts Assertive behavior. In handling interpersonal conflicts how much an individual is concerned for others is depicted on Y-axis from low to high. Low concern for others represents uncooperative behavior and high concern for others represents cooperative behavior. Five conflict handling styles are as follows.

Fig.2: Dimensions of Conflict handling Intentions

Source: K. Thomas, “Conflict and negotiation processes in organizations”, In Robbins S.(1999), Organizational Behavior (PHI)

Avoiding Conflict Style

• Also known as withdrawing. In this style an individual has low concern for his own needs (Unassertive) and others’ needs (uncooperative)
• Belief: Conflict is evil, unwanted or boorish. It should be delayed or avoided Not paying attention to the conflict and not taking any action to resolve it
• ‘Lose-Lose’ situation is created because conflict is not resolved.
• When to use?
• Conflict is inconsequential
• Holding a low power position
• Damage an important relationship No time to resolve the conflict

Accommodating Conflict Style

• Also known as smoothing. In this style an individual has low concern for his own needs (Unassertive) and high for others’ needs (cooperative)
• Attempt to resolve the conflict by passively giving in to the other party
• Allowing other parties to satisfy their concerns while neglecting your own
• ‘Lose-Win’ situation is created as you try to please everyone
• When to use?
• You want to be a follower
• Maintaining relationship is more important Limited time to resolve the conflict

Competing Conflict Style:

• Also known as competing. In this style an individual has high concern for his own needs (Assertive) and low for others’ needs (uncooperative)
• Attempting to resolve the conflict by using aggressive behaviour to get your own way
• Using formal authority or other power that you possess, you try to satisfy your own needs at the expense of others
• ‘Win-Lose’ situation is created as you pursue your own concerns despite the resistance of other party
• When to use?
• Unpopular but necessary decisions are to be made on some important issues Commitment by others to proposed action is not crucial to its implementation Maintaining relationships is not critical
• A quick resolution is required and using force is justified As a last resort it is urgent to resolve a long-lasting conflict

Compromising Conflict Style

• Also known as negotiating. In this style an individual has moderate concern for his own needs (assertiveness) and others’ needs (cooperation)
• Moderate in and Belief: Middle route should be found to resolve the conflict situation with concern for personal goals as well as relationships
• Attempting to resolve the conflict by identifying a solution that is partially but not completely satisfactory to both parties
• ‘I win some – you win some’ situation is created as there are gains and losses for each conflicting party

When to use?

• Complex and critical issues
• Parties are at par with each other in terms of power Solution will be temporary
• Time is short.

Collaborating Conflict Style

• Also known as problem solving. In this style an individual has high concern for his own needs (Assertive) and others’ needs (cooperative)
• Based on open and honest communication
• Attempting to resolve the conflict with the best solution that is agreeable/satisfactory to all parties
• Applicable when both parties desire to solve the problem and are willing to work together toward mutually acceptable solution. ‘Win-Win’ situation is created.

When to use?

• Consequential issue that requires an optimal solution Sufficient time is available
• Consensus and commitment of other parties is important
• It is required to address the interests of multiple stakeholders
• A high level of trust is present and a long-term relationship is important

9. Summary

Conflicts are inevitable. Be it intra individual, interpersonal or organizational conflict, a manager should manage conflicts effectively rather than avoiding them. To manage them, a manager needs to probe the reasons and magnitude to get at the source of a problem. In the process of resolving conflicts, preventive and curative methods should be properly used with their pros and cons in mind. If conflicts go unattended can lead to wastage of energy, resources and strained relationship which will ultimately result in lower productivity and inefficiencies.

Few important sources to learn more about Group, team and conflict management:

• Forster, J., Higgins, E. T., & Idson, L. C. (1998). Approach and avoidance strength during goal attainment: Regulatory focus and the “goal looms larger” effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 1115-1131.
• Hellriegel, Don, Slocum, John W. and Woodman and Richard W. (1998) Organizational behaviour. Thomson South-Western.
• Ivancevich, Konopaske and Matteson (2008).Organizational behavior and management New Delhi: Tata McGrawHill
• Lewin, K. (1935). A dynamic theory of personality. New York: McGraw Hill.
• Mc Shane, Steven L, Glinow, Mary Ann Von & Sharma, Radha R. (2008). Organisational Behaviour. New Delhi: Tata McGrawHill
• Miller, N. E. (1944). Experimental studies of conflict. In J. M. Hunt (Ed), Personality and the behaviour disorders. (Vol 1.). New York: Ronald.
• Mohr, L. B. (1982). Explaining Organizational Behavior. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
• Newstrom, John W.( 2007) Organizational behaviour-Human behaviour at work. New Delhi: McGrawHill
• Robbins, Stephen P., Judge, Timothi A. and Sanghi, Seema (2012).Organizational Behaviour. New Delhi: Prentice Hall India
• Weiner, B. (1980). Human motivation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.