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MSL 630

Leading Productive Teams

Belhaven University

Unit 4

 Team Decision Making

 Conflict in Teams

 Everest Simulation

 Quality Time

In Unit Four, the Course Level Competencies are:

 Objective 2.2: Evaluate and research team problems and make

recommendations for change.

 Objective 3.2: Identify key components in developing appreciation

in the workplace.

 Objective 4.1: Demonstrate and articulate decision-making and

problem-solving skills of leaders.

 Objective 4.2: Apply methods for identifying perceptions, emotions,

and non-verbal communication in the workplace.

 Objective 5.1: Demonstrate professional conduct in oral

communication, written communication, and punctuality.

 Objective 5.2: Identify Christian perspectives as they relate to the

course.

Unit 4 Objectives

MSL 630

Leading Productive Teams

Belhaven University

Unit 4.1

 Team Decision Making

 Groupthink

 Unethical Decision Making

Team Decision Making

Decision-making is an integrated sequence of activities

that includes the following steps:

• Gathering, interpreting, and exchanging

information.

• Creating and identifying alternative courses of

action.

• Choosing among alternatives.

• Implementing a choice and monitoring its

consequences.

Team Decision Making, cont.

A variety of decision-making biases plague individual

decision making:

• Framing bias

• Overconfidence bias

• Confirmation bias

• Decision fatigue bias

Individual Decision Making Biases

Demonstrable Task :

• Defined as a task that has an obvious, correct answer.

• Groups perform better than independent individuals on

a wide rage of demonstrable tasks.

• In general, group performance increases over that of

individuals as the demonstrability of the task increases.

– Group to individual transfer is a phenomenon where

individual group members become more accurate

during group interaction.

Individual vs. Group Decision Making

Drawbacks of group decision-making in demonstrable

tasks:

• Groups are much more likely to succumb to the

overconfidence bias, regardless of their actual

accuracy.

• Groups are more likely to exacerbate some

shortcomings displayed by individuals.

Individual vs. Group Decision Making,

cont.

 Group Decision Rules

 Teams need a method by which to combine

individuals’ decisions to yield a group decision.

 The overall objectives of these rules:

• To find the alternative that the greatest number of

team members prefer.

• To find the alternative the fewest members object to.

• Select the choice that maximizes team welfare.

Individual vs. Group Decision Making,

cont.

Groupthink occurs when team members place

decision consensus above all other decision

priorities, including good judgment.

 Three key symptoms of groupthink :

• Overestimation of the group

• Closed-mindedness

• Pressures toward uniformity

Groupthink

The following are lapses in behavior that often accompany

groupthink and thwart rational decision-making:

• Incomplete survey of alternatives

• Incomplete survey of objectives

• Failure to reexamine alternatives

• Failure to examine preferred choices

• Selection bias

• Poor information search

• Failure to create contingency plans

 Lapses in Behavior

Groupthink, cont.

 Reducing Groupthink

Techniques to reduce/avoid groupthink:

• Monitor team size

• Provide a face-saving mechanism for teams

• The risk technique

• Invite different perspectives

• Appoint a devil’s advocate

• Structure discussion principles

• Establish procedures for protecting alternative viewpoints

• Identify a second solution alternative

• Beware of time pressure

Groupthink, cont.

 Situational Triggers

Certain conditions may act as enabling conditions for

unethical behavior :

• Rational expectations model -- people’s own motivations are

to maximize one’s own utility and self-interest.

• False consensus -- tendency for people to believe that others

share their own views, when in fact they do not.

• Vicarious licensing -- people are more likely to express

prejudiced and immoral attitudes when their group members’ past

behavior has established non-prejudiced credentials.

• Desensitization -- person’s normal system of internal checks

and balances is turned off.

Unethical Decision Making

 How to Prevent Unethical Decision Making

 Strategies for remedying or preventing

unethical decision-making:

• Accountability for behavior

• Contemplation

• Eliminate conflicts of interest

• Create a culture of integrity

• Future self-orientation

Unethical Decision Making, cont.

Unit 4.1 Recap

 Ending 4.1 and getting into 4.2

 Conflict

 Relationship, Task, & Process

 Types of Conflict

MSL 630

Leading Productive Teams

Belhaven University

Unit 4.2

 Conflict

 Relationship, Task, & Process

 Types of Conflict

Conflict

 There are three distinct conflict types:

• Relationship conflict:

‒ aka: A-type conflict, emotional conflict, or affective conflict.

• Task conflict:

‒ aka: C-type conflict and cognitive conflict.

• Process conflict:

‒ Involve disagreements based on personal or social issues.

‒ Involve disagreements about the work being done.

‒ Disagreements center on task strategy and delegation

of duties and resources.

Relationship, Task, & Process

Relationship, Task, & Process, cont.

There are three conditions under which greater task conflict

can enhance team productivity:

 Impact on Performance

• Tasks are sufficiently complex.

• When the team member can process information.

• When conflict is expressed in an appropriate manner

when it emerges.

Relationship, Task, & Process, cont.

• Relationship conflict interferes with the effort people

put into a task because members are preoccupied

with reducing threats, increasing power, and

building cohesion rather than working.

 Impact on Performance

• Groups that have high levels of trust among their

members during the early stages of group

development are buffered from experiencing

future relationship conflict.

Relationship, Task, & Process, cont.

 Power and Conflict

Team power refers to the control of resources that

enables a team to influence others in the organization.

 The type of conflict behavior (constructive vs.

destructive) in a team depends on:

• The power of the team.

• The likelihood that power determines

success or failure for the team.

Relationship, Task, & Process, cont.

 Global Culture and Conflict

• Differences exist among global cultures about

conflict.

• When it comes to task conflict :

– Both Americans and East Asians

believe in addressing conflict

proactively.

– Americans are more likely than East Asians

to join a talented group that is know to have

high relationship conflict.

• When it comes to relationship conflict :

Relationship, Task, & Process, cont.

 Global Culture and Conflict, cont.

• Linguistic-related challenges in multicultural teams

increase the likelihood of relationship conflict.

• American culture is considered to be largely individualistic

cultures whereas Asian cultures are seen as collectivistic.

• Given differences in cultural styles of expressing

conflict, teams are well served to discuss differences

and engage in cross-cultural training.

Relationship, Task, & Process, cont.

 Proportional and Perceptual Conflict

• Proportional conflict occurs when team members

have different ideas about the amount and types of

conflict that exist in their group.

• Perceptual conflict refers to the extent to which there is

agreement, or lack thereof, in terms of whether team

members perceive conflict.

Types of Conflict

 Conflict States vs. Conflict Processes

• Conflict states are shared perceptions among

members of the team about the intensity of

disagreement over tasks or relationships.

• Conflict processes are members’ interactions

aimed at working through task and interpersonal

disagreements.

• Conflict contagion refers to how interpersonal

conflict can spread to others and lead to conflict

escalation.

Types of Conflict, cont.

 Distributive vs. Procedural Conflict

• The method of how to best allocate rewards in an organization.

Distributive fairness:

• Concern for how a person is treated by others,

particularly authority figures.

Procedural fairness:

• Employees who regard their organization to be market-

focused tend to be interested in the distributive fairness of

their organization.

• Employees who regard their organization to be bureaucratic

tend to be interested in the procedural justice of their

organization.

Types of Conflict, cont.

 Equity, Equality, and Need

There are several different methods for allocating

scarce resources:

• Equity method -- prescribes that benefits (and

costs) should be proportional to team members’

contributions.

• Equality method -- prescribes that all team

members should suffer or benefit equally, regardless

of input.

• Need method -- prescribes that benefits (and costs)

should be proportional to members’ needs.

Types of Conflict, cont.

 Minority and Majority Conflict in Teams

Benefits of minority representation in teams:

• Cognitive activity in group increases

• Increase in message scrutiny

• Divergent thinking and consideration of

multiple perspectives

• Better decisions are made

• Gain more original/creative ideas

Types of Conflict, cont.

 Work-family Conflict in Teams

• Work-family conflict (WFC) is stronger for

people who are demographically dissimilar to

their team in terms of sex and number of

dependents.

• WFC at the work-group level leads

to WFC at the individual level.

• When team members feel they

have support from the team, WFC

is reduced.

Types of Conflict, cont.

Unit 4.2 Recap

 Ending 4.2 and getting into 4.3

 God’s View on Conflict

 Conflict Management

 Quality Time

MSL 630

Leading Productive Teams

Belhaven University

Unit 4.3

 God’s View on Conflict

 Conflict Management

 Quality Time

God’s View on Conflict

Think about how you respond to

conflict.

What is your initial reaction when

conflict shows up?

God’s View on Conflict, cont.

Instead of running, we need to be

seeking.

The Author and Prefecture of our

faith teaches us how to handle

conflict.

God’s View on Conflict, cont.

What does God have to say about conflict?

2 Timothy 2:1-5:

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ

Jesus. 2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence

of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be

qualified to teach others. 3 Join with me in suffering, like a good

soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No one serving as a soldier gets

entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his

commanding officer. 5 Similarly, anyone who competes as an

athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing

according to the rules.

God’s View on Conflict, cont.

 In 2 Timothy God reminds us to:

1. Be Strong in His grace.

2. Apply the things He has said.

3. Know that Christ has suffered as we

have, so we are called to join Him.

God’s View on Conflict, cont.

With the Lord as your Leader, the

challenge becomes how you apply

this training to your Walk in

managing conflict.

So where do you need growth?

 Conflict Modes

• According to Thomas, people can take at least

five courses of action when they find

themselves involved in conflict.

• Conflict modes courses of action

• For an illustrative example of a business

conflict and its solution

Conflict Management, cont.

 A Contingency Theory of Task Conflict

and Performance in Teams

• De Dreu and Weingart developed a model that views

team performance as a function of the following elements:

– Type of task conflict

– The conflict management style

– The nature of the task performed by the group

• The amount of conflict in a group is a direct

determinant of team performance and individual

well-being.

Conflict Management, cont.

 Investment Model of Conflict

The EVLN model of conflict argues that people can take one

of four approaches when confronted with conflict:

• Exit -- formally separating from a relationship and often ending all

contact.

• Loyalty -- when people passively wait and hope that things in the

relationship will improve.

• Voice -- discussing problems, investing in mutually-agreeable

solutions, and showing a willingness to change.

• Neglect -- when people ignore the other party and are passive.

Conflict Management, cont.

The Five Languages of

Appreciation in the Workplace By Dr. Gary Chapman & Dr. Paul White

Conflict Management, cont.

Personal, focused time and attention with their

supervisor is highly affirming for some. But others enjoy

different types of time — “hanging out” with their

coworkers, working together as a team on a project, or

just having someone take the time to listen to them. And

the type of time desired can differ significantly depending

on whether it is with colleagues or with their supervisor.

Quality Time

 Behavioral consequence of decision fatigue deal

with spending more money, making harsh

decisions, and avoiding decision-making

altogether.

 A demonstrable task is a task that has an

obvious and a correct answer.

 Conformity is greater when people make difficult

judgments, is greater when the rest of the group

is unanimous, and is greater when people value

and admire their team.

Unit Recap: Hitting the Highlights

 In terms of creating conditions that encourage

ethical decision making in organizations, a

leader must make people accountable for their

behavior, have ethics, and eliminating conflicts

of interest.

 In regard to how accountability affects

organizational decision making, accountability

for outcomes leads to greater escalation

behavior, whereas accountability for process

increases decision-making effectiveness.

Unit Recap: Hitting the Highlights, cont.

 The need to be right is a tendency for a person

to look to the group to seek information on the

reality of a situation. The more team members

who hold a particular opinion, the more right an

answer seems.

 Relationship conflict is best described as

conflict about personalities, often involving

anger and ego clashes.

 Task conflict is best described as tasks and the

work to be done.

Unit Recap: Hitting the Highlights, cont.

 Process conflict centers on disagreements that

team members have about how to approach a

task and who should do what.

 Regarding power and conflict in teams, the term

"team power" refers to the control of resources

that enables a team to influence others in the

organization.

 Groups that have high levels of trust among their

members during the early stage of group

development are buffered from experiencing

future relationship conflict.

Unit Recap: Hitting the Highlights, cont.

Unit Recap, cont. Week Four is the

Everest Simulation.

Week Six is the

Columbia Mission.

 Complete reading assignments

 Read Chapter 4 “The 5 Languages of

Appreciation in the Workplace”

 Read 2 Timothy 2:1-5

 Read Romans 5:3-4

 Review all web links provided

 Complete the Everest Simulation

 Complete writing assignments

 Discuss conflict at your workplace

 Answer discussion questions

 Complete unit quiz

What’s Next?

Chapman, G. D., & White, P. E. (2012). The 5 languages of

appreciation in the workplace: Empowering organizations

by encouraging people. Chicago: Northfield Pub.

The Holy Bible.

Thompson, L. L. (2016). Making the team: A guide for

managers (5th ed.). NY, NY: Pearson.

Weinberg, R. S., & Gould, D. (2012) Foundations of sport and

exercise psychology (5th ed.). Champaign, IL: Human

Kinetics.

References

Image References

Garrett, E. [Digital images].

GIPHY. (2017, July 13). Frustrated Michael Scott GIF -

Find & Share on GIPHY. Retrieved from

https://giphy.com/gifs/7VHV66bRjGRSo

Google Images (2018). Retrieved from

https://images.google.com/

Harvard Business Publishing Education. (2018). Retrieved

from https://hbsp.harvard.edu/library