This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Chapter 8. Building an Effective, Ethical Small Group
The Leader and the Small Group
Leaders spend a great deal of their time in small groups, either chairing or participating in meetings.
Meeting expert John Tropman points out that high-quality management is the product of high-quality meetings that render high-quality decisions.
Groups meet for many different purposes: to coordinate activities, to pass along important information, to clarify misunderstandings, and to build relationships.
When people work in a group, they may feel that their efforts will have little impact on the final result.
Karau and Williams believe that “individuals will be willing to exert effort on a collective task only to the degree that they expect their efforts to be instrumental in obtaining outcomes that they value personally. The motivation in this theory relies on expectancy,
Groupthink Social psychologist Irving Janis developed the label
groupthink to describe groups that put unanimous agreement ahead of reasoned problem solving.
Groups that suffer from groupthink fail to: (a) consider all the alternatives, (b) gather additional information, (c) reexamine a course of action when it’s not
working, (d) carefully weigh risks, (e) work out contingency plans, or (f) discuss important moral issues.
Leaders need to encourage productive communication patterns that enable members to establish positive bonds and make wise ethical choices.
Important communication skills and tactics include comprehensive, critical listening; supportive communication; emotional intelligence, productive conflict management; argumentation, and expression of minority opinion.
Suggestions for improving listening performance in a group setting: Avoid interruptions Seek areas of agreement Search for meanings and avoid arguing about specific words Ask questions and request clarification Be patient Compensate for attitudinal biases Listen for principles, concepts, and feelings Compensate for emotion-arousing words and ideas Be flexible Listen, even if the message is boring or tough to follow
Defensiveness is a major threat to accurate listening.
On the other hand, supportive messages increase accuracy because group members devote more energy to interpreting the content and emotional states of sources.
6 pairs of behaviors that promote either a defensive or a supportive group atmosphere.
Evaluation Versus Description Control Versus Problem Orientation Strategy Versus Spontaneity Neutrality Versus Empathy Superiority Versus Equality Certainty Versus Provisionalism
Raising team EI is an important leadership responsibility, which is accomplished largely through role modeling and establishing norms. Demonstrate our EI as leaders before we can improve
the emotional climate of the group Display emotions that are appropriate to the situation Refrain from hostility Be sensitive to group moods Take the lead in confronting emotional issues
Positive outcomes of substantive (constructive) conflict: Accurate understanding of the arguments and positions of
others in the group Higher-level moral reasoning Thorough problem analysis Improved self-understanding and self-improvement Stronger, deeper relationships Creativity and change Greater motivation to solve the problem Improved mastery and retention of information Deeper commitment to the outcome of the discussion Increased group cohesion and cooperation Improved ability to deal with future conflicts High-quality solutions that integrate the perspective of all
Basic tasks in leading an effective argument 1. Identify just what the controversy is about. 2. Assemble and present your arguments. 3. Back up your claim with examples, personal
experience, testimonials from others, and statistics. 4. Supply reasons or logic for your position. 5. Identify and attack the weaknesses in the positions
of other participants. 6. Members of successful groups catch their errors
and get the group back on track through corrective communication called counteractive influence.
Leaders, then, need to both foster minority opinion and protect dissenters. You can do so by: (1) forming groups made up of members who have significantly
different backgrounds and perspectives, (2) encouraging participation from all group members, (3) appointing individuals to argue for an alternative point of
view, (4) developing two options for group members to evaluate
based on two different sets of assumptions, (5) reminding members of the importance of minority views, (6) creating a group learning orientation which is more focused
on finding better solutions than defending one position or another, and
Suggestions for reducing groupthink: If you’re appointed as the group’s leader, avoid
expressing a preference for a particular solution. Divide regularly into subgroups, then bring the
whole group back together. Bring in outsiders to challenge the group’s ideas. Avoid isolation. Role-play the reactions. Once the decision has been made, give group
members one last chance to express any remaining doubts about the decision.
One of the consequences of mismanaged agreement is continuing to pursue a failed course of action. Social psychologists refer to this tendency as escalation of commitment.
Escalation of commitment is driven by a number of factors. The first is self-enhancement or the need to look good. Sunk costs also drive escalation. Risk seeking is a third factor driving escalation.
Keil and Montealegre offer seven steps to help leaders and groups navigate this process: 1. Don’t ignore negative feedback or external
pressure 2. Hire an external auditor 3. Don’t be afraid to withhold further funding 4. Look for opportunities to redefine the problem 5. Manage impressions 6. Prepare your stakeholders 7. Deinstitutionalize the project