Ben: Regarding conflict, the good conflict is constructive. It is caused by role playing differences and invilves analyzing ideas, questioning solutions and providing alternative viewpoints. It is this type of conflict within groups that increases productivity, clears out bad ideas, and betters the quality of the decision reached by the group. Conflict stimulates individual involvement through group discussion, and therefore tends to build group cohesion. According to Cragen and Wright, "We have already indicated that a great deal of conflict in groups is inevitable. In fact, conflict is necessary for groups to be successful (Cragan 213)."

Janessa: Gretchen, Gretchen…video clip now.

[Video Clip: Forrest Gump]

Gretchen: Forrest's mom challenges the public school system to allow her son to enroll rather than accept a decision she feels is wrong.

Chris: Bad conflict is the result of individual differences among group members. These differences may be tolerated until a situation arises where these strong feelings of dislike are expressed at the front of the issue at hand. If dwelled upon, it creates tension between group members, draws attention away from the task, and results in a loss of productivity.

[Video Clip: Empire Records]

Gretchen: Personal attack amongst friends signifies bad conflict.

The first signpost to look for is the amount of understanding and agreement between group members. Especially in the first few group meetings, group members should ask lots of questions so that everyone understands the group’s goals. It is essential that everyone agree on the group’s goals so that everyone is working in the same direction. Groups need to avoid agreeing to everything, because that produces poor work, but general concensus is necessary to move forward.

The second signpost is the formation of group roles. Each of the roles must be played by the person best suited for that role. Group members must avoid stereotyping each other and must look at each member’s qualities. The group will produce the best work when each member is performing the role he or she is best suited for.

The third signpost of group communication quality is the level of interpersonal trust and empathy in a group. Every member must do a fair share of the work, and they must do it on time. Group members cannot work together when they cannot trust each other to do what they say they will. Each member of the group must be able to empathize with other members. Self-disclosure and social interaction help members empathize because members reveal things about themselves. This also builds trust, because members are revealing things about themselves that are personal.

Gretchen: The first factor which influences the level of group conflict is the degree of differences in professional consciousness states. Differences in professional consciousness states create group conflict because they are the source of opposing viewpoints on what is best for the individual, the group, and the company that the group is working for. There are five professional consciousness states described by the text. They include:

A burnout is a member who has put in his or her dues in the past and has worn out all their energy. At one time or another this member contributed a significant amount and has since then tired themselves to the point of no longer caring. Most often the group appreciates their past efforts so there is no big struggle to make the burnout work harder. The group just accepts the member without expecting professional
consciousness.

Cragan and Wright: " He or she is just putting in his or her time until
retirement."

[Clip from Burk interview]

[Audience involvement]

Each group will get a quote and your job is to identify which professional consciousness state is being represented.

Chris: "I came into work the other day one minute late and my boss ripped into me. I think he is out to get me. He has never forgiven me for wearing J. Crew to work that one day. Maybe I should go apply there, they know how to treat their employees."

Ben: "I just bought 500 new sows. I had the biggest pig at last years state fair and I'll do even better this year."

Cori: "Bill, is there anything I can do for you? Oh, OK. Do you want me to fax that for you? Anything else? Oh, OK. I'll be up in a minute!"

Male infidelity is more likely to cause conflict among American couples than among Southern European couples.

Individualist vs. collectivist cultures

In Japan it is important that you not embarrass the person with whom you are in conflict.

In the United States we are direct ad open about what we desire.

African-American females use more direct controlling strategies.
European American women used more problem-solution-oriented conflict management styles.

Blame becomes a vicious circle where one person blames another for an event and in order to get back at that person, the second person will blame the first for another event.

"If you spent half as much time changing the ways you respond in conflict situations as you do trying to figure out who is at fault, most of your troubles would soon vanish (Stewart 460)."

"Since most of the time adversaries are not willing to accept blame, even when all evidence points toward them, it is largely a futile exercise trying to figure out who is at fault. Of course, it is helpful to determine the causes of disastrous situations for the purpose of not repeating the same mistakes and learning from these failures, but only when the focus is on enlightenment rather than assigning guilt (Stewart 460)."

[Chris personal disclosure]

I had a girlfriend a few months ago and I broke up with her. It was basically because there was no communication whatsoever and I figured I was about to get the ax, so I just got it over with. I didn't blame her at all. I knew I could easily place the blame on her, but I knew it would just piss her off if I told her. I pretty much took all the blame for it. She wouldn't talk to me still, but I still didn't blame her. Eventually I talked to one of her friends, who told me she was completely torn apart by the breakup. Then the friend talked my ex into talking to me and we talked. I think she was completely scared about being blamed because she is one of those people who won't admit when she's wrong, and she knew she was wrong. I also knew a good portion of what happened wasn't her fault, but was a product of circumstances. So I avoided blaming her and now we are at a point where we talk about every day. We'll never get back together, but we were able to salvage the friendship because I didn't blame her.

Groupthink is the tendency of a group to reach consensus prematurely; before alternative ideas are discussed or current ideas are reevaluated.. This phenomenon, common in small work groups, is generated when team members want to get along above all else and ideas are accepted without careful consideration of pros and cons. This quest for unanimity results in the withholding of critical information and the lack of effective group discussion and productivity.

[Powerpoint slide]

"It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it." (Jeseph Joubert).

[Tucker Video]

"This is the most essential step in the entire process of managing conflict (Devito 299)."

Look for win-win solutions and avoid win-lose solutions.

The first way is to conduct a team building rally. This creates a team building situation by way of a gathering of members with music, banner making, speakers on team building, and activities that show a collective pride and group action. Ben recently attended one of these. We will let him fill us in on what this entails.

[Ben's personal disclosure]

Ben: I worked for Kirby Corporation selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door the summer of 1998. Our office was new, so we only had a few dealers working there. We went to an organizational rally in Toledo, Ohio about two weeks after I had started working there. There were people from three states there, there was a total of over 1000 people. We sang Kirby songs, they gave away lots of money, presented prizes for people who had made lots of sales last month, and showed us the prizes for next month, including three new Beetles. It was really inspiring to see all of those Kirby people, especially coming from such a small office. It really got us fired up and ready to go out and sell some more. I was the only salesperson to make it through the whole summer without quitting, and I think that the rally had a lot to do with it.

The first of these is to encourage ideational conflict or conflict that stimulates the group with new ideas better than the old ideas.

Secondly it is important to assist in the development of the central negative role.

In order for everyone to air their ideas in the group Cragan and Wright also suggest guarding against leader domination of ideas.

The consciousness raising also must stay in stable limits.

They suggest examining the pros and cons of every idea.