Chapter 12 Flashcards
make up the structure and activity of organizations.
Teams, committees, task forces, work units, and other groupings
recent trends in organizational teamwork
team-based organization; team-based management
Practical applications; emphasize the use of teams and the importance of communication
high-performance work systems; high-performance organizations (HPO) (391).”
influence communication, conflict among members, groups (391)
groups in organizations
Organizational change and improvements
“group processes (quality circles), organizational development interventions (team-building, problem-solving) (391).”
Groups encourage members to conform (391).
“Represent arenas for sharing, communicating (391).”
“Affect the way we view ourselves, how we behave toward people (391).”
“Influence attitudes, acceptance or rejection of new ideas (391).”
Groups in Organizations
Irving Janis (1971) – “groups under stress; major decisions (consensus, commitment; agreement, unanimity) (395).”
‘Mind guards’ – “withholding information, shake group consensus (self-censorship) (396).”
Avoiding groupthink (397).
Groupthink
Gatekeeper – “control flow between units, groups (398).”
Opinion leaders – “[what] form should opinions take (398).”
Liaison roles – “transmit information between two or more groups (398).”
Cosmopolites – “contacts outside organization, bring external information to organization (398).”
Communication Roles
Everett M. Rogers and Rekha Argawala-Rogers (1976):
- Latent conflict. Conditions set the stage and conflict is waiting to happen.
- Perceived conflict. People may sense conflict but may downplay or deny it.
- Felt conflict. Conflict is experienced as discomfort, such as with tension or anger.
- Manifest conflict. Conflict becomes open warfare (figuratively or actually) with a winner and loser. This is the time for intervention; conflict is destructive if not channeled.
- Conflict aftermath. This is the stage after the outbreak when results (or its alternative) are evident. Conflict often breeds more conflict and, when it does, that conflict is likely to take on a life of its own.
Conflict Stages and Modes
Louis R. Pondy (1967) – classification of conflict
○ respond through avoidance (trying to ignore or withdraw from the conflict).
○ accommodation, in which they cooperate and make concessions to the other party’s demands or needs.
○ Compromise involves an exchange of concessions and cooperative responses (without one side being more accommodating than the other).
○ Competing involves simply trying to force, outdo, or defeat the other party, without any appreciable accommodation or concern for its goals and needs.
○ Collaborating occurs when two parties work together to meet both parties’ needs mutually; it differs from compromise in that the two parties do not simply give up on certain goals and values but rather work to find ways to maximize returns for both.
Kenneth W. Thomas (1983) – conflict responses.
“horizontal, vertical (upward, downward); external (outward) – environment (398).”
Communication levels
conflict, competition, differences between subunits, groups (398).”
Horizontal communication
“hierarchical filtering, superior-subordinate relationships (resistance, inattentiveness, misunderstanding, reticence, withholding information) (398).”
Vertical communication
