©2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved Chapter Eleven Interpersonal Behavior.

©2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved

Chapter Eleven

Interpersonal Behavior


Introduction

Almost every working relationship will produce some degree of conflict across time.

Whether conflicts are destructive (dysfunctional) or constructive (functional) depends on the attitudes

and skills of participants.


The Nature of Conflict

An interpersonal process that can arise from disagreement over almost anything

• Managers spend about 20 percent of their time dealing with conflict

• Lack of interpersonal skills can derail even the most promising career

Levels of Conflict

• Intrapersonal• Interpersonal• Intergroup


Sources of Conflict

Interpersonal conflict arises from:

• Organizational change• Different sets of values• Threats to status• Contrasting perceptions• Lack of trust• Personality clashes• Incivility


A Model of Conflict

Conflict varies in the:

• Speed of its emergence• Degree of its predictability

If conflict will be harmful, managers must apply a conflict resolution strategy to:

• Prevent it• Diminish it• Remove it


Conflict Outcomes


Conflict Outcomes

Conflict outcomes are a product of the participants’ intentions as well as their strategies

Resolution Strategies

• Avoiding• Smoothing• Forcing• Compromising• Confronting

Only the confronting strategy is truly a

resolution approach


Conflict Resolution Preferences

Research evidence suggests that:

• Males and managers prefer the forcing approach• Females rely on other tactics, including

collaboration• Employees prefer avoiding, smoothing, or

compromising• Each party tends to mimic the style of the other• Confrontation is used in performance appraisals;

compromise is used on issues involving personal habits and mannerisms


Negotiating Tactics

To resolve conflict in a win-win fashion:• Select a neutral site• Arrange seating in a comfortable fashion• Prohibit observers• Set deadlines to force a resolution• Set minimum and optimum goals in advance• Gather data thoroughly• Listen carefully• Focus on issues, not personalities• Separate facts from feelings• Search for areas where concessions are possible


Assertive Behavior

Assertiveness

• Expressing feelings• Asking for legitimate changes• Giving and receiving honest feedback• Asking another to change an offensive behavior• Comfortably refusing unreasonable requests• Being direct, honest, and expressive• Feeling confident• Making others feel valued


Power and Politics

Power is the ability to influence other people and events.


Types of Power

Five Bases of Power

• Personal power• Legitimate power• Expert power• Reward power• Coercive power


Organizational Politics

Political skill consists of:

• Being socially astute• Having interpersonal influence• Creating useful networks• Expressing sincerity

Pros and Cons

• Can help attain promotion or sell proposal• Can gain personal visibility• Can be self-serving, manipulative, and deceivful


Organizational Politics

Many managers agree that…

• Politics is common in most organizations• Managers must be good at politics to succeed• Politics becomes more important at higher levels• Politics can detract from organizational

efficiency

Traditional power sources no longer work

• One can influence others through mutually beneficial exchanges


Influence and Political Power

Steps to increase your influence…

• Treat the other party as a potential ally• Specify your objectives• Learn about other’s needs, interests, and goals• Inventory your own resources to identify

something of value to offer• Assess your relationship with the other person• Decide what to ask for and what to offer• Make the actual exchange that produces a gain

for both parties


Tactics to Gain Political Power

NetworkingSocial exchangeForm alliancesBecome identified with a higher authorityControl informationGive service selectivelyAcquire power and status symbolsGrab power from othersJoin or form interest groups


Tactics to Gain Political Power

Political Power

• Comes from support of key individuals/groups• Arises from the ability to work with people and

social systems to gain allegiance and support

Self-Monitors

• High self-monitors are better at using organizational politics than are others

• Low self-monitors are more insulated from social cues, behave as they wish, show less concern for making a positive impression


Impression Management

Protecting self image while intentionally affecting another’s assessment


Impression Management

Common Impression Management Strategies

• Personal competence and high performance• Meeting commitments or solving a crisis• Sending positive nonverbal cues• Appropriate and/or edited self-disclosure• Self-promotion based on results, along with

name dropping• Ingratiation activities• Exaggerating skills and achievements• Attributing one’s problems to others


Chapter 12 - Types of Groups

Formal

• Established by the organization• Have a public identity and goal to achieve

Informal

• Emerge on the basis of common interests, proximity, and friendships

Temporary

• Committee or task force

Permanent


Nature of Informal Organizations

An informal organization is a network of personal and social relations

• Not established by the formal organization• Arises spontaneously• Tends to remain small in size• Can be internal or external to the organization

Informal power attaches to a person

• Formal power attaches to a position

The formal manager and informal leader are usually two different persons


Informal and Formal Group Differences

Item Informal Org. Formal Org.

General nature Unofficial Official

Major concepts Power, politics Authority, responsibility

Primary focus Person Position

Leader power Given by group Delegated by mgmt

Behavior guidelines Norms Rules and policies

Sources of control Sanctions Rewards, penalties


Informal Group Emergence

Informal organizations emerge from within the formal structure

This combination can have unexpected results

• Employees act different than required• Employees interact with different people or with

different frequency• Workers may embrace a different set of

attitudes, beliefs, and sentiments than expected

The combination of required and emergent behaviors makes it hard to predict employee performance and satisfaction


Member Status and Informal Leaders

Causes of informal status are infinite

• The person with the largest amount of informal status becomes its informal leader

The informal leader

• Models and explains key norms• Helps build and sustain group cohesiveness• Uses the high esteem of this position to balance

the additional responsibilities

Informal groups often overlap

• May be several leaders of varying importance


Identifying and Rewarding Informal Leaders

Informal leaders have distinct behaviors

• Acting as spokesperson• Being the center of attention• Offering well-received wisdom and guidance

Informal leadership can be a form of job enrichment

• Provides variety in the workday• Offers feeling of greater significance• Satisfies social needs


Identifying and Rewarding Informal Leaders

One Primary Leader

• Several persons may be informal leaders, but one is primary

Cautions

• An informal leader doesn’t always make the best formal leader

• Informal leaders are typically rated as “quarrelsome” but not “sensible”


Monitoring Informal Organizations

Network Charts

• Focuses on feelings expressed or behaviors exhibited


Formal Groups

Managers feel that time spent in group meetings is a significant time waster

• A source of confusion and misinformation• An excuse for indecision

Factors contributing to negative attitudes

• Participants withhold their true feelings• Negative mindset that “meetings don’t work”• Missing or incomplete information• Meetings are poorly run• Viewed as end result, not means to an end


Committees

Specific type of group meeting in which members in their group role have the authority to handle the problem at hand

• Usually one vote per member• Workers and supervisors are equals• Can be difficult to adjust from normal work

roles and relationships


Systems Factors to Consider

Group sizeCompositionAgendas (surface and hidden)

• Critical to the success of a committee meeting

Leadership roles (task and social)


Effective Surface Agendas

Agendas should:

• Specify the date, time, and place of the meeting• Indicate a primary purpose for the meeting• List presenters and time allotted for presentation

and discussion• Help the group focus on decisions• Have room for new items to be added• Address items in priority order• Identify the date, time, and place of the next

meeting


Facilitating Meetings

Commonsense Practices• Consider who should be present, and when• Consider who does not need to be there• Select a good site for the meeting• Use technology• Give appropriate credit to those who

participated, and drawing out those who didn’t• Use open questions• Balance serious discussions with fun• Summarize progress, identify unresolved issues,

make assignments for the future


Structured Approaches

Brainstorming

Nominal group technique

Delphi decision making

Dialectic decision methods

Group decision support system


Brainstorming

Participant Guidelines

• Generate as many ideas as possible• Be creative, freewheeling, and imaginative• Build upon, extend, or combine earlier ideas• Withhold criticism of others’ ideas

Underlying Principles

• Deferred judgment• Quantity breeds quality


Nominal Group Technique

Group exists in name only, with minimal member interaction

• Members are brought together and given a problem

• Solutions are developed independently• Ideas are shared in a structured format• Brief time is allotted for clarification questions• Members individually designate their solution

preference via secret ballot• The group decision is announced


Delphi Decision Making

A panel of relevant people is chosen

Questionnaires are sequentially distributed to the respondents, who do not meet face-to-face

Written responses are summarized and fed back to members

Participants make another decision based on the new information

The process is repeated until responses converge satisfactorily


Dialectic Decision Making


Group Decision Support System

Uses computers, decision models, and technological advances to:

• Remove communication barriers• Structure the decision process• Direct the group’s discussion

Pros and Cons

• Higher quality decisions• Little known about effects on member

satisfaction, participants’ sense of involvement, or balance of task and social roles needed


Consensus: A Key Issue

Is consensus necessary?

• It may become the paramount goal• Frustrates members who have to keep discussing

a subject long after their minds are made up• Situation is a waste of time and an

embarrassment to dissenters• Can delay worthwhile projects unnecessarily

Most employers do not expect unanimity for committee decisions



Ideas for Reaching Consensus

• Conduct a straw poll• Suggest a supermajority vote• Ask members to withdraw controversial

proposals or concerns, or stand aside to let the group proceed

• Create a subgroup and empower it to make a decision

• Distill concerns into major groups to pinpoint patterns of problems

• Expedite closing of discussion via a “go around”



Facilitation Skills• Help the group attain success• Maximize efficient use of time• Help group feel satisfied with its efforts• Encourage separation of idea-getting from

idea-evaluation• Generate multiple solutions• Avoid personal attacks• Attain balanced contributions from members• Piggyback on other’s ideas• Identify criteria for judging potential solutions


Weaknesses of Committees

Slowness and expensivenessGroupthinkPolarizationEscalating commitmentDivided responsibility


Weaknesses of Committees

Symptoms of Groupthink

• Self-censorship of critical thoughts• Rationalization that what they are doing is

acceptable to others• Illusion of invulnerability• Reliance on self-appointed mind-guards• Illusion of unanimity without testing for it• Stereotyping others outside the group• Illusion of morality• Pressure on dissidents to give in and conform

©2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved Chapter Eleven Interpersonal Behavior.

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