Group Dynamics Past Paper PDF - LSPU 2023-2024

Republic of the Philippines Laguna State Polytechnic University Province of Laguna ISO 9001:2015 Certified Level I Institutionally Accredited...

Republic of the Philippines Laguna State Polytechnic University Province of Laguna ISO 9001:2015 Certified Level I Institutionally Accredited LSPU Self-Paced Learning Module (SLM) Course Group Dynamics Sem/AY First Semester/2023-2024 Module No. 4 Lesson Title Managing Conflicts Week Week 8 – week 9 Duration Date October 7-11, 2024 October 14-18, 2024 Description Conflicts of various types are a natural part of the team process. Although we often view conflict as negative, there are benefits to conflict if it is managed appropriately. People handle conflict in their teams of the in a variety of ways, depending on the importance of their desire to maintain good social relations and to Lesson develop high- quality solutions. Learning Outcomes Intended Students should be able to meet the following intended learning outcomes: Learning Able to manage conflicts in the group. Outcomes Targets/ At the end of the lesson, students should be able to: Objectives Able to manage conflicts in the group. Student Learning Strategies Online Activities A. Online Discussion via Google Meet (Synchronous/ You will be directed to attend in a one-Hour class discussion on using power. To have access to the Online Discussion, refer to this Asynchronous) link: ____________________. The online discussion will happen on September 7 and 14, 2020, from (For further instructions, refer to your Google Classroom and see the schedule of activities for this module) B. Learning Guide Questions: 1. Why is lack of conflict a sign of a problem in a team? 2. What are healthy an dun healthy sources of conflict? 3. When is conflict good for a team? When is it bad for a team? 4. How does the impact of conflict vary depending on the type of conflict? 5. What are the different approaches to conflict resolution? 6. Which approach to conflict resolution is best? Why? 7. What can teams do to prepare for conflicts? 8. How can a mediator help facilitate management of a team conflict? LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: PSY 9- GROUP DYNAMICS  Republic of the Philippines Laguna State Polytechnic University Province of Laguna ISO 9001:2015 Certified Level I Institutionally Accredited 9. What should a team do to create an integrative solution to a conflict? Note: The insight that you will post on online discussion forum using Learning Management System (LMS) will receive additional scores in class participation. Lecture Guide Managing Conflicts *Conflict Is Normal Conflict is the process by which people or teams perceive that others have taken some action that has a negative effect on their interest. Conflict is a normal part of a team’s life. Unfortunately, people have misconceptions about conflict that interfere with how they deal with it. These misconceptions include the following: Conflict is bad and should be avoided. Misunderstandings by team members cause conflict. All conflicts can be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. In a dynamic team, conflict is a normal part of the team’s activity and is a healthy sign. If a team has no conflict, it might be a sign of a problem. A team without conflict might be suffering from unhealthy agreement, have a domineering leader who suppresses all conflict and debate, or perform its task in a routine manner not trying to improve. Teams often do not handle their conflicts very well. Sometimes rather than trying to manage their conflicts, they try to ignore or avoid them. This is called “defensive Offline Activities avoidance.” To avoid a conflict, everyone becomes quiet when a controversy occurs. (e-Learning/Self-Paced) Decision-making problems, such as the Abilene paradox, are in part caused by the desire to avoid controversy. Team members accept what the leader says in order to avoid conflict. The consequences are poor decision making and more problems later in the team’s life. The causes of team conflict change during the team’s development (Kivlighan & Jauquet, 1990). During the initial stage, there is little conflict because team members are being polite and trying to understand everyone’s positions. This gives way to team conflicts about operating rules and status issues as the team sorts out its roles and rules. Once the team becomes task oriented, conflicts arise about how tasks should be performed. Often, the final stages of a project have little conflict because team members are focused on implementing their earlier decisions. The impacts of conflict on a team depend on its stage of development. Many team development theories propose that teams must overcome conflict in the early stages of team development before becoming a cohesive and productive team (Tekleab, Quigley, & Tesluk, 2009). Learning how to successfully manage conflict is an important developmental process for a team. In addition, task conflict is more valuable during the planning stages of a team project than during the implementation stages (O’Neill, Allen, & Hastings, 2013). Conflict during the implementation stage may interfere with the coordination of the team’s activities. It is more appropriate to talk about conflict management than about conflict resolution. Conflict is a normal part of a team’s operation, and some conflicts cannot be fully resolved. The resolution of a conflict depends on the type of conflict. If it is about task issues, the solution is an agreement. Typically, once the agreement is made, it continues LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: PSY 9- GROUP DYNAMICS  Republic of the Philippines Laguna State Polytechnic University Province of Laguna ISO 9001:2015 Certified Level I Institutionally Accredited to operate. If the conflict is about relationship issues, then an agreement, periodic checks on how well the agreement is working, and opportunities to redefine the agreement are needed. This is true because agreements about relationship issues can change as the relationship changes. *Sources of Conflict Conflict may arise from many sources: a) Confusion about people’s positions b) Personality differences c) Legitimate differences of opinion d) Hidden agendas e) Poor norms f) Competitive reward systems g) Poorly managed meetings The difficulty is to determine the source in order to identify whether this is a healthy conflict for the team or a symptom of a hidden problem that needs to be uncovered. If the conflict is about legitimate differences of opinion about the team’s task, then it is a healthy conflict. The team needs to acknowledge the source of conflict and work on resolving it. However, sometimes a conflict only appears to be about the team’s task and in reality is a symptom of an underlying problem. Finding the root cause of the conflict is important; the team should not waste time dealing with only the symptoms of the conflict. Legitimate or healthy conflicts are caused by a variety of factors. Differences in values and objectives of team members, differing beliefs about the motives and actions of others, and different expectations about the results of decisions can all lead to conflicts about what the team should do. These differences create conflicts, but these conflicts have a positive effect on team problem solving and decision-making (Tjosvold, Wong, & Chen, 2014). Through conflict, opposing views are heard, challenges and problems are identified, and new, more creative solutions are developed. Hidden conflicts that are not really about the team’s task may spring from organizational, social, and personal sources. Organizational causes of conflict include competition over scarce resources, ambiguity over responsibilities, status differences among team members, and competitive reward systems. One common type of organizational conflict is the conflict between the team’s goals and the goals of individual team members. This is especially true for a cross-functional project team made up of representatives from different parts of an organization (Franz & Jin, 1995). Hidden agendas (i.e., the hidden personal goals of team members) may lead to conflict in the team that can be difficult to identify and resolve. Gaining agreement about the overall goals of the team and renegotiating team roles can help deal with this type of conflict. Conflict may be due to social factors within the team. A team with a leader who has poor facilitation skills can have poorly run meetings with a lot of conflict. Poor team norms often show up in poorly managed meetings. When meetings are unproductive, conflict may arise because team members are dissatisfied with the team process. Spending time evaluating and developing appropriate norms helps deal with this type of conflict. Conflicts may arise from personality differences or poor social relations among team members. These may be due to grudges stemming from past losses, misinterpretations about another person’s behavior, or faulty communication, such as inappropriate criticism or distrust. These are often called “personality differences,” LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: PSY 9- GROUP DYNAMICS  Republic of the Philippines Laguna State Polytechnic University Province of Laguna ISO 9001:2015 Certified Level I Institutionally Accredited 162 but typically their source is interpersonal. Although team members are disagreeing about issues, the root cause of the conflicts is an unwillingness to agree. However, it can be difficult to determine whether someone has a legitimate disagreement about an issue or is opposed to agreeing for personal reasons. To deal with these sources of conflict, team building and other approaches to improving social relations are important. *Impact of Conflict Conflict may have both positive and negative effects on a team. It can help the team operate better by exploring issues more fully, but it can lead to emotional problems that damage communication. Studies on conflict in work teams show that the impact of conflict depends on the type of conflict, the characteristics of the team, and how the conflict is managed (Jehn, 1995). Benefits of and Problems With Conflict Although people often view conflict as a negative event, conflict in teams is both inevitable and a sign of health. Healthy teams are organized to gain the benefits of multiple perspectives. Team members with these multiple perspectives view issues differently and learn from one another in the process of resolving their differences. Conflict is an integral part of the team process; it becomes unhealthy for the team when it is avoided or viewed as an opportunity to dominate an opponent. The benefits of conflict are that it encourages the team to explore new approaches, motivates people to understand issues better, and encourages new ideas (O’Neill et al., 2013). Controversies bring out problems that have been ignored, encourage debate, and foster new ideas. When opposing views are brought into the open and discussed, the team makes better decisions and organizational commitment is enhanced (Cosier & Dalton, 1990). When conflict is dealt with constructively, it stimulates greater team creativity. For this to happen, team members must be willing to participate in the conflict resolution process. Conflict can have negative effects on a team by creating strong negative emotions and stress, interfering with communication and coordination, and diverting attention from task and goals. Conflicts can destroy team cohesion, damage social relations, and create winners and losers, inevitably becoming a source of conflict in the future. One factor that determines whether a conflict will have a positive or negative effect is the emotional intensity of the conflict (Todorova, Bear, & Weingart, 2014). Mild task conflict occurs when teams debate, express differences of opinions and are willing to disagree with each other, while intense task conflict occurs when team members clash or argue about differences of opinion and criticize each other. Intense task conflicts sometimes lead to relationship conflicts. Intense conflicts can have negative effects on the team even when the conflicts remain task oriented because they discourage further communication within the team. Whether conflicts are productive or unproductive also depends on how the team tries to resolve its conflicts (Witeman, 1991). Productive conflicts are about issues, ideas, and tasks. The team typically tries to resolve productive conflicts in a cooperative manner. LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: PSY 9- GROUP DYNAMICS  Republic of the Philippines Laguna State Polytechnic University Province of Laguna ISO 9001:2015 Certified Level I Institutionally Accredited The team takes a learning approach to the conflict. Unproductive conflicts are about emotions and personalities. The team typically tries to resolve these conflicts with one side trying to dominate the other. In productive conflicts, team members focus cooperatively on solving the problems. Conflict Management The way a team manages the conflict process determines whether the conflict is constructive or destructive to the team (DeChurch, Mesmer-Magus, & Doty, 2013). The conflict management style a team uses can be either cooperative or competitive (Somech, Desivilya, & Lidogoster, 2009). The cooperative style focuses on developing collaborative solutions that are good for the individual and the team, while the competitive style focuses on what is good for the individual. The cooperative style encourages communication and the exploration of alternative approaches to solving problems, while a competitive style discourages communication. Constructively managing conflicts requires team members to openly express their views, listen and understand the positions of other team members, and then try to integrate the opposing opinions into an agreement (Tjosvold, et al., 2014). An open and supportive communication environment allows the team to resolve their differences without disrupting the relationships within the team (Tekleab et al., 2009). Even resolving relationship conflicts can help the team to better understand and appreciate each other. The development of trust among team members helps to prevent task-related conflict from leading to relationship conflict. The primary precondition for constructive controversy to operate is that team members believe that they are in a cooperative relationship where team members are committed to helping each other satisfy their goals. Teams can benefit from task conflict when they have a high degree of trust and psychological safety (DeDreu & Weingart, 2003). To use conflict constructively, teams need to cultivate an environment that is open and tolerant of diverse viewpoints, where team members feel free to express their opinions and have the ability to resist pressure to conform to the team (Ilgen, Hollenbeck, Johnson, & Jundt, 2005). They need to develop cooperative work relationships so that disagreements are not misinterpreted as personal attacks. A “constructive controversy” uses communication styles that focus on issues and ideas and not on personal criticism (Tjosvold, 1995). Conflict Resolution Approaches The conflict resolution approaches available to teams vary, depending on the team members’ desire to be assertive and cooperative. Because team members have long-term relationships with one another, they should try to use a collaborative approach to conflicts whenever possible. Two Dimensions of Conflict There are several ways people and teams can try to resolve conflicts. The approaches they take depend on their personalities, their social relations, and the particular situation. The types of conflict resolution approaches can be analyzed using the following two dimensions: distribution (concern about one’s own outcomes) and integration (concern about the outcomes of others) (Rahim, 1983; Thomas, 1976; Walton & McKersie, 1965). In other words, people in a conflict can be assertive and try to get the most for themselves, or they can be cooperative and concerned with how everyone fares. These two dimensions are independent and lead to the creation of five different approaches to conflict resolution (Figure 7.1): LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: PSY 9- GROUP DYNAMICS  Republic of the Philippines Laguna State Polytechnic University Province of Laguna ISO 9001:2015 Certified Level I Institutionally Accredited 1. Avoidance. This approach tries to ignore the issues or denies that there is a problem. By not confronting the conflict, team members hope it will go away by itself. 2. Accommodation. Some team members may decide to give up their position in order to be agreeable. They are being cooperative, but it costs the team the value of their opinions and ideas. 3. Confrontation. Acting aggressively and trying to win is one way to deal with a conflict. However, winning can become more important than making a good decision. 4. Compromise. One way to balance the goals of each participant and the relations among the teams is for everyone to “give in” a little. 5. Collaboration. When both sides of a conflict have important concerns ,the team needs to search for solutions that satisfy everyone. This requires both cooperativeness and respect for others’ positions. Managing Team Conflicts Teams can prepare for conflicts by creating an environment that allows for dealing with conflicts without creating emotional and relationship problems. Mediators or facilitators can help teams to manage their conflicts by controlling communications and building trust. Virtual teams often require facilitators and face- to-face meetings to manage conflicts. Managing conflicts requires using negotiating tactics to find solutions acceptable to all sides of the issue. Preparing for Conflicts Teams often try to ignore or avoid conflicts rather than addressing them. This strategy allows the conflict to grow, and sometimes task conflicts become relationship conflicts because they have not been resolved. The negative emotions from these unresolved conflicts disrupt trust, hurt communications, and make the conflicts harder to resolve. Teams should take a more proactive approach to conflict management by preparing for conflicts. Preparing for conflicts means developing approaches to identify conflicts in early stages and creating an environment that supports constructive controversy so that disagreements can be expressed. Because people try to avoid conflict, problems within a team often go unspoken and unaddressed. Teams need to create a communication climate where members feel safe to raise issues and voice disagreement (Kayser, 1990). Leaders need to facilitate team meetings in a manner that encourages participation from all members. In addition, teams should regularly conduct group process evaluations to help identify problems and periodically set aside time for task and social reflexivity sessions to identify unresolved issues and team process problems (West, 2004). Facilitating Conflicts Successful conflict management requires developing trust among participants (Ross & Ward, 1995). If members on one side trust members on the other side and believe everyone wants a fair solution, they are better able to negotiate a solution. Many conflict reduction approaches are designed to build trust among the parties in a conflict. For example, in a study of bargaining through email, allowing participants to engage in a “get acquainted” telephone call before the bargaining session increased chances of reaching an agreement by 50% (Nadler, Thompson, & Morris, 1999). Virtual Team Conflicts LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: PSY 9- GROUP DYNAMICS  Republic of the Philippines Laguna State Polytechnic University Province of Laguna ISO 9001:2015 Certified Level I Institutionally Accredited Virtual teams, or teams that interact primarily through communications technology, may have more conflicts and more problems resolving conflicts (Hertel, Geister, & Konradt, 2005). Conflicts are more likely to occur in virtual teams because miscommunication is more likely to occur. This is especially true for emotional issues because people are not very good at communicating emotions in writing and the increased anonymity of communications technology may encourage more uninhibited emotional communications. Once conflicts start in virtual teams, they have a tendency to escalate (sometimes called “email wars”) because the miscommunications build with each message. Not only are conflicts due to miscommunication more likely to occur in virtual teams, but they are also harder to resolve. Virtual teams often have less developed social relations and group cohesion, which makes resolving social issues more difficult. Also, there is less pressure toward agreement in virtual teams, so team members are less willing to accommodate the views of other team members. The ability to send messages to all team members and others increases the number of participants in the conflict. When conflicts escalate in virtual teams, the first step in managing the conflict is to stop sending electronic messages advocating your position or expressing your emotions. These messages are often misinterpreted, so they do not help to resolve the conflict. In many cases, the team leader needs to intervene and facilitate the resolution of virtual conflicts to prevent them from continuing. Since the core of the problem is often miscommunication, a face-to-face meeting is often necessary to resolve the misunderstandings. Negotiating Conflicts Negotiation or bargaining is a process where two sides that are engaged in a conflict exchange offers and counteroffers in an effort to find a mutually acceptable agreement. One of the most important dimensions in understanding how negotiation works in conflict resolution is whether participants have a win-win or a win- lose perspective (Walton & McKersie, 1965). A win-lose perspective is based on the belief that what is good for one side is incompatible with what is good for the other (Thompson & Hastie, 1990). With a win-win perspective, participants believe a solution that satisfies both sides is possible. The goal of managing team conflicts is to develop integrative, win-win agreements that are beneficial to both sides. Integrative agreements are more rewarding than compromises and improve ongoing relationships among parties (Pruitt, 1986). The keys to developing integrative agreements are focusing attention on interests rather than positions and developing trust and rapport between the conflicted parties. LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: PSY 9- GROUP DYNAMICS  Republic of the Philippines Laguna State Polytechnic University Province of Laguna ISO 9001:2015 Certified Level I Institutionally Accredited Performance Tasks PT1 Team Leader’s Challenge The high school in your town has been having problems. Recently, the number of gangs at school has increased. Acts of vandalism and juvenile delinquency are also increasing. Although there have not been any major outbreaks of violence, stories in the media of violence in other communities have raised concerns among parents. The school board created a committee of teachers, administrators, students, and concerned parents to develop proposals for dealing with problems at the local high school. You are the leader of this committee. The meetings started with polite sharing of ideas, but tensions soon became apparent. The four groups had very different ideas about the degree of seriousness of the problem and appropriate solutions. Polite criticism of ideas shifted into cynical asides and finally into heated attacks. As people became more emotional, the negative comments became more personal. You are aware that some of the participants have fought over other school issues in the past. How can you (the leader of the committee) reduce the negative emotions in this situation? How do you build trust among the groups? What can be done to negotiate agreement among the four groups? Understanding Directed Assess Rubric for Narrative Essay Writing (PT 1) CATEGORY 4 3 2 1 Sequence Retells story in Retells story in Retells story with Retells story out of correct sequence sequence with 2-3 several omissions, sequence. leaving out no omissions. but maintains important parts of sequence of those story. told. Connections/Transitions Connections Connections Connections The story seems very between events, between events, between events, disconnected and it is ideas, and feelings in ideas, and feelings in ideas, and feelings in very difficult to figure the story are the story are clearly the story are out the story. creative, clearly expressed and sometimes hard to expressed and appropriate. figure out. More appropriate. detail or better transitions are needed. Role Shifting Shifts roles smoothly Shifts roles pretty Tried to do role Did not attempt role almost all the time. It well. It is usually easy shifting, but it shifting. It was very is very easy for the for the audience to wasn\'t very difficult for the audience to tell tell which character successful. It often audience to tell which character is is speaking was hard for the which character was speaking. audience to tell speaking. which character is speaking. LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: PSY 9- GROUP DYNAMICS  Republic of the Philippines Laguna State Polytechnic University Province of Laguna ISO 9001:2015 Certified Level I Institutionally Accredited Knows the Story The storyteller The storyteller The storyteller The storyteller could knows the story well knows the story knows some of the not tell the story and has obviously pretty well and has story, but did not without using notes. practiced telling the practiced telling the appear to have story several times. story once or twice. practiced. May need There is no need for May need notes once notes 3-4 times, and notes and the or twice, but the the speaker appears speaker speaks with speaker is relatively ill-at-ease. confidence. confident. Acting/dialogue The student uses The student often The student tries to The student tells the consistent voices, uses voices, facial use voices, facial story but does not facial expressions expressions and expressions and use voices, facial and movements to movements to make movements to make expressions or make the characters the characters more the characters more movement to make more believable and believable and the believable and the the storytelling more the story more easily story more easily story more easily interesting or clear. understood. understood. understood. Created at http://rubistar.4teachers.org/ Learning Resources Daniel Levi, Group Dynamics for TEAMS (5th edition) California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, SAGE Publications, Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: PSY 9- GROUP DYNAMICS