Chapter 2 Concepts Flashcards
Team vs. Group
Team: shared leadership, individual responsibility, collective work-products, performance measured by the results and quality of work-products, cooperates
Group: strong leader, individual accountability, individual work-products, performance measured by results of work-products, delegates
Advantages of working in teams:
Having more information Stimulating creativity A system of checks Engaging in a better decision making process Division of labor Motivation
Leadership Styles:
Transformational
Transactional
(Kind of): Assigned Emergent Authoritarian Laissez-faire Democratic
Transformational
Lead through inspiration; motivate not reward or punish; participation in the greater ideal is its own reward
Transactional
Offer followers concrete exchanges; money, grades, or power
Assigned
Externally appointed
Emergent
Arises over time as the team members begin to view one person as the leader
Authoritarian
The head of the group has the ultimate say; no consideration of what the group wants
Laissez-faire
Allows workers high freedom in determining what they will do; hands-off
Democratic
Leaders incorporate input from the group before making a decision
Team Roles
Task leader Socio-emotional leader Tension releaser Information provider Central negative Silent observer
Task leader
Appointed or emerged; strong analytical skills; can effectively synthesize the ideas of other group members and make decisions
Socio-emotional leader
In tune with others’ emotions; paying attention to nonverbal signals; well liked and supportive; good cop to task leader’s bad cop
Tension releaser
Lightens the mood during a tense discussion; funny; hard for them to not pull the group off track
Information provider
Previous experience with the topic or enjoys researching; shared among several members
Central negative
Person who plays the devil’s advocate; can be annoying, but important so the group won’t overlook important details; needs to remember to be respectful
Silent observer
May not speak much but the team should make sure to ask for their opinion; can be introverted or not informed on the topic or yielding to senior members
Types of conflict
Procedural
Role
Interpersonal
Ideational
Procedural conflict
When teams agree on a common goal but disagree on the process for achieving the goal
Role conflict
Conflict over who is or should be the leader; when there is a misunderstanding about who is responsible for a certain task or when someone doesn’t do their assigned task
Interpersonal conflict
Occurs based on clashing communication, work, or personality styles
Ideational conflict
Occurs when teammates have different ideas for what topics to include of what topics should be given priority; natural occurrence and can be useful; pros and cons
Conflict management styles
Competing Accommodating Avoiding Compromising Collaborating
Competing
Win/lose; argues until one wins; assertiveness over cooperation
Accommodating
Lose/win; letting the other party have their way; can create a passive aggressive climate
Avoiding
Lose/lose; uncomfortable with conflict; the conflict is not resolved and both parties lose
Compromising
Partial win/lose for both parties; moderate in assertiveness and cooperativeness; middle ground that partially satisfies both parties
Collaborating
Win/win; not the easiest because it’s both assertive and cooperative; fully engaging with the other person and understand each other’s needs to work together to satisfy everyone
Decision-making processes
Consensus: pursues agreement among most members while combining critical thinking, collaboration, cooperation, and communication
Why is consensus good?
It is useful for complex issues that don’t have 2 or 3 simple solutions
Promotes critical discussion that can lead to creativity and stronger decisions
Prioritizes cooperation over competition within the group
Drawback of consensus
Groupthink: coming to a conclusion without critical thinking or evaluation of alternatives
How to avoid groupthink:
Promote divergent thinking
Consider alternatives
Vote anonymously
Reduce stress
Promote divergent thinking
Don’t limit your options too soon; members should be rewarded for ideas during the first half of the project
Consider alternatives
Designate a devil’s advocate
Vote anonymously
It’s scary to go against the group
Reduce stress
Start projects early and create calm environments
Two key components of consensus:
Openness
Provisionalism
Openness
Ideas are freely expressed without fear of rejection
Provisionalism
Opinions and preferences are only temporary; can change your mind if a better option comes around
Consensus practices:
Common ground
Go around the room
Yes, if
Angel’s advocate
Common ground
State a goal shared by the whole team
Go around the room
Take a break to ask each person his or her thoughts
Yes, if
Ask people if they would agree with the idea IF this or that was done; uncovers reasons for objection
Angel’s advocate
Important for people who are against a plan of action to say what they like about it
