Management of Intragroup Conflict

Management Approaches

Leadership in Education and Human Care Organizations

Principals at site-based managed schools

• Effective communication
• Establish mutuality of goals and need

for cooperation through conflict

• Share information
• Demonstrate technical knowledge
• Facilitate solution-oriented discussions

that address conflict between employees

Human Care Professionals

• Burnout (emotional exhaustion) as main contributor to conflict amongst human care professionals
• Human care professionals intrinsically motivated by their success with clients
• Repressive organizational structures stifle success; leads to burnout
• Effective conflict management: develop social cohesion; allow employees autonomy in their development and implementation of interventions

(leiter, 1991)

(Henkin, Cistone, & Dee, 2001)

Positive Effect On Team Performance

Collaborative/Cooperative Approach

Avoidant

Alper et al., (2000), Jehn (1995), Tjosvold (1990), Tjosvold et al., (1992)

Avoidant Approach

• Effective for each conflict type
• Leads to creative solutions
• Increased efficacy
• Increased team member satisfaction

Dominant/Competitive

De Dreu & Van Vianen, 2001)

Accommodate and hope tensions decrease (Gelfand, et al., 2012)

Effective response to relationship conflict

• Takes focus away from task behaviors
• Individuals sensitive to personal values

Collaborative/Cooperative

Dominant/Competitive Approach

Displays of power and coercion to win disputes (Gelfand et al., 2012)

Van de Vliert (1998)

• Passionate arguments lead to high level ideas
• Effective for task and process conflict

Discuss openly and develop solutions that benefit all parties (Gelfand et al., 2012)

Conflict Management in Human Service Organizations

Conflict management and collaborative communication as essential skills and professional entities in Intensive Care Units

(Strack van Schijndel & Buchardi, 2007)

Managerial practices based on communication and collaborative conflict management leads to culture of staff development and high performance in hospital settings

(Minvielle et al., 2005)

How can a collaborative culture be fostered

Strategies continued

Pluralistic Strategies

Establish group norms and processes in anticipation of potential conflicts

• Group processes rather than individual plans
• Assign tasks based on relative strengths rather than seniority or rotation
• Openly discuss purpose and reasoning that leads to decisions

(Behfar et al., 2008)

Strategies that encourage collaboration

Team Debriefs

• Review of specific incident
• Developmental intent
• Active self-learning
• Multiple perspectives

(Tannenbaum & Cerasoli, 2013)

Conflict Types

Relationship Conflict

Interpersonal animosity

(De Dreu & Van Vianen, 2001)

Process Conflict

Task Conflict

What work should be completed? What are our priorities? (Jehn, 1997)

How will we allocate time and resources to meet our objectives? (Behfar & Peterson, 2011)

Intragroup Conflict: Management Approaches and Effect on Team Performance

Based on Jim Harvey's speech structures