Intragroup Conflict Research Articles

The effects of intrapersonal, intragroup, and intergroup conflict on team performance effectiveness and work satisfaction.

Although numerous studies have focused on conflict management, few have considered the effects of unit technology and intrapersonal, intragroup, and intergroup conflict on team performance effectiveness and work satisfaction. The model was tested using a nonexperimental design. Path analysis using multiple regression was used to test the model. The nonrandom sample consisted of 141 nurses employed on 13 inpatient units at a state-supported, 597-bed academic medical center in a southeastern city. Findings indicated that intrapersonal conflict had a direct negative impact on intragroup conflict and work satisfaction. Intragroup conflict had direct negative effects on work satisfaction and team performance effectiveness. Unit technology had a direct negative impact on work satisfaction. Findings have implications for administrators to implement strategies to decrease a stressful work environment and increase team-building activities.

To Tara via Holyhead: The Emergence of Irish Catholic Ethinicity in Nineteenth-Century Christchurch, New Zealand

This paper explores historical processes of becoming in everyday social lives of Irish Catholic immigrants in nineteenth-century Christchurch, New Zealand. My central argument is that newcomers effected a transition to colonial life by creating and sustaining durable social networks based on ethnic ties which transcended pre-existing affiliations and represented a powerful means to domesticate a new environment. The formation of ethnic consciousness was a complex phenomenon shaped by constantly evolving interaction of Old World forms, cultures and expressive symbols with colonial social settings. In Christchurch, ethnic identification turned upon a number of critical factors, including local opportunity structures, patterns of migration, external discrimination and intra-group conflict. Notwithstanding diversity of outlooks and interests among immigrants, religious identification offered a useful resolution of ethnic tensions and traditions, while ensuring continuing vitality of a separate spiritual, educational and social life alongside dominant local system. In this sense, the shortest way to Tara was via Holyhead because it led to development of a shared identity that fused potent elements of Irishness and Catholicity.

Searching for Safety Online: Managing "Trolling" in a Feminist Forum

A common phenomenon in online discussion groups is the individual who baits and provokes other group members, often with the result of drawing them into fruitless argument and diverting attention from the stated purposes of the group. This study documents a case in which the members of an online community--a feminist web-based discussion forum--are targeted by a "troll" attempting to disrupt their discussion space. We analyze the strategies that make the troller successful and the targeted group largely ineffectual in responding to his attack, as a means to understand how such behavior might be minimized and managed in general. The analysis further suggests that feminist and other nonmainstream online forums are especially vulnerable, in that they must balance inclusive ideals against the need for protection and safety, a tension that can be exploited by disruptive elements to generate intragroup conflict.

AN ASSESSMENT AND REFINEMENT OF JEHN'S INTRAGROUP CONFLICT SCALE

Jehn (1992, 1994) developed the Intragroup Conflict Scale (ICS) to measure two theoretically distinct dimensions of conflict: relationship and task conflict. In the years since, the ICS has been widely adopted by researchers as a measurement tool for group conflict. However, limited evidence of the scale's psychometric properties has been published. Following guidelines provided by Schwab (1980) and Hinkin (1995), we assess the construct validity of the scale, using both individual level and group level techniques, and test proposed nomological relationships, using six diverse samples. We conclude that a 6‐item version of the original 9‐item scale best captures relationship and task conflict.

Genetic conflict and conditional altruism in social aphid colonies.

Although kin selection is central to the modern study of social evolution, recent studies of social species have revealed that no simple relationship exists between levels of kinship and sociality. The soldier-producing aphids are unique among highly social animals because, barring movement by aphids between colonies, they occur in clonal groups of genetically identical individuals. Potentially, clonality simplifies efforts to understand social evolution in aphids by obviating issues of intragroup conflict. However, we report here high levels of clonal mixing and conflict in an aphid society. The gall-dwelling colonies of a social aphid species (Pemphigus obesinymphae) are not pure clones, but are invaded by large numbers of aphids from other clones. Intruders behave and develop selfishly once they have invaded a colony of nonkin. They refrain from risky defensive behaviors and accelerate their own development into reproductive rather than defensive stages. This conditionality in the social life of P. obesinymphae reveals complex dynamics and a degree of behavioral plasticity not previously known in aphid societies.

The effects of unit morale and interpersonal relations on conflict in the nursing unit.

Health care organizations face major changes, and these changes are likely to increase conflict in organizations. Although numerous studies have focused on conflict management, few have considered causes and effect of conflict in nursing units. The investigation tested a structural equation that examined the relationships among individual and contextual variables and intragroup conflict, job satisfaction, team performance effectiveness, and anticipated turnover. The nonrandom sample consisted of 141 nurses employed on 13 inpatient units at a state-supported, 597-bed academic medical centre in a southeastern city. Intragroup conflict was higher on smaller units with a higher ratio of RNs to total staff. Intragroup conflict was not associated with satisfaction with pay or anticipated turnover. In the final model, the unit morale and interpersonal relations dimension of team performance effectiveness was negatively associated with intragroup conflict and anticipated turnover, and positively associated with satisfaction with pay. High perceptions of unit morale and interpersonal relations buffered the effect of unit size and skill mix on intragroup conflict. Goodness of fit statistics indicated a good fit of the model to data. The findings have implications for nursing educators and administrators, and provide direction for future research.

The Dynamic Nature of Conflict: A Longitudinal Study of Intragroup Conflict and Group Performance

The Dynamic Nature of Conflict: A Longitudinal Study of Intragroup Conflict and Group Performance

Editorial

Editorial

Effects of intra‐group conflict on packaged software development team performance

Abstract. Data from 40 packaged software development teams are used to test a path model that relates three antecedents, the presence of intragroup conflict and the level of conflict management to software development team performance. Findings indicate that a combination of the team's characteristics, team member characteristics and existing levels of intragroup conflict accounts for nearly one‐half of the variance between the best and worst‐performing teams. Furthermore, the level of conflict management moderates the relationship between existing levels of intragroup conflict and performance. These results highlight both the complexity of the social processes of packaged software development and the value of this perspective for gaining insight on software development performance.

MAXIMIZING THE BENEFITS OF TASK CONFLICT: THE ROLE OF CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

Intragroup conflict research has shown that task conflict can improve group outcomes, but it has not addressed how groups ensure that the positive aspects of task conflict are realized. This study examines the influence of group conflict management on group effectiveness, as well as the moderating role of group conflict management on task conflict—group outcome relationships. Results of a field survey of 96 business school project groups indicated that the use of agreeable conflict management in response to task conflict was associated with greater group satisfaction. Results examining group conflict management as a moderator showed that the relationship between task conflict and group performance was positive when conflict was actively managed and negative when it was passively managed. Similarly, task conflict improved group satisfaction when managed with agreeable behavior, and harmed satisfaction when neutral or disagreeable behaviors were used. Results from this work provide an important first look at how group conflict management behaviors directly impact group outcomes and affect task conflict—group outcome relationships.

Research Note: Group Decision Making Using Knowledge-Based Systems— An Experimental Study

The authors present results of their preliminary study of the value of a knowledge-based system (KBS) on the effectiveness of group decision making in a business gaming environment. The authors developed a KBS that provided recommendations to the experimental groups regarding the quality of their decision making. The experiment involved 24 groups with 3-4 members per group. Twelve groups used the KBS in their decision making. The remaining groups were control groups. In KBS groups, the authors detected no significant effect on intragroup conflict, but found marginally increased group performance and decreased group member satisfaction and confidence with the decisions of their groups.

A Transactional Theory of Within‐Group Conflict

Transactional models of social evolution emphasize that dominant members of the society can be favored to donate parcels of reproduction to subordinate members in return for cooperation. I construct a formal theory of intragroup conflict within the framework of transactional models by determining the maximum extent to which colony members can be selfish without destabilizing the group. The difference between the maximum value of the subordinate's fraction of group reproduction that the dominant can tolerate before ejecting the subordinate and the minimum value required by the subordinate to stay and cooperate peacefully in the group defines the "window of selfishness," which in turn predicts the frequency of within-group conflict. The window of selfishness tends to increase with increasing group reproductive output, increasingly harsh ecological constraints on solitary breeding, and, counterintuitively, increasing relatedness between subordinate and dominant. Increasing fighting ability of the subordinate can either widen or narrow the window of selfishness, the latter being most likely when ecological constraints on group living are strong. Although increasing relatedness is predicted to increase the rate of within-group aggression, the mean intensity of an aggressive act should decline, as predicted by the general theory of honest signaling between relatives and the tug-of-war models of within-group selfishness. In the bidding game, in which multiple dominants bid for the services of a subordinate, the window of selfishness is predicted to have zero width. A zero-width window of selfishness and low conflict also are predicted for saturated N-person groups, that is, groups whose total output is a concave function of group size and in which the dominant is not favored to admit additional subordinates. The model's predictions are compared to empirical evidence and to predictions of alternative models of intragroup aggression, including the value-aggression model and the pure tug-of-war model.

What You Bring to the Table: Transference and Countertransference in the Negotiation Process

While there is a large body of work devoted to interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup conflict, little has been written about the dimension of the intrapersonal or intrapsychic conflict in the negotiating process. This article introduces the psychodynamic concepts of transference and countertransference and describes how these phenomena play a role in the negotiation situation. By describing the negative transference and how this gives rise to resistance, the author presents an explanation of what works and why in negotiating. The model is then applied to different current models of negotiation, and considers the implications for the organization of the negotiating team and team leadership. With a knowledge of transference and countertransference, the psychodynamic model may provide another perspective that can be used to understand the negotiation process.

Managing differences in information technology

Organisations continue to make major financial investments in Information Technology (IT). Deriving the benefits from IT has proved to be challenging, and frustrating to organisations. The changes required have been substantial. IT requires technical, structural, and social changes to be effective. Less and less reliance is placed on formal control systems. Communications, interpersonal skills, and the management of differences are becoming more important. Alienation, conflict, and anxiety in the IT environment are the focus of this empirical study. Data were collected from 125 knowledge workers from different organisations. This study tests the effects of these constructs on usefulness and satisfaction of systems. Alienation and anxiety have been found to be negatively related to conflict. However, the interactionist view of conflict is supported. Conflict is positively related to both IT usefulness and satisfaction. Further, intragroup conflict is consistent with the ease of use and efficiency of systems. In contrast, interpersonal and intergroup conflict influences satisfaction. Based on these results, recommendations are made for managing IT conflict to enhance performance of knowledge workers.

The Social Psychology of Inter- and Intragroup Conflict in Governmental Politics

Conflict within and between groups is a pervasive part of bureaucratic political life. Bureaucratic structures divide individuals into groups such as agencies, departments, bureaus, and committees. These structures are optimal for accomplishing complex tasks with broad implications. The interests, however, of such groups and their individual members are rarely perfectly aligned, so the same interdependence that facilitates productivity in bureaucratic settings also makes conflict inevitable.

Software development: Processes and performance

This paper presents data that describe the effects on software development performance due to both the production methods of software development and the social processes of how software developers work together. Data from 40 software development teams at one site that produces commercial software are used to assess the effects of production methods and social processes on both software product quality and team performance. Findings indicate that production methods, such as the use of software methodologies and automated development tools, provide no explanation for the variance in either software product quality or team performance. Social processes, such as the level of informal coordination and communication, the ability to resolve intragroup conflicts, and the degree of supportiveness among the team members, can account for 25 percent of the variations in software product quality. These findings suggest two paradoxes for practice: (1) that teams of software developers are brought together to create variability and production methods are used to reduce variability, and (2) that team-level social processes may be a better predictor of software development team performance than are production methods. These findings also suggest that factors such as other social actions or individual-level differences must account for the large and unexplained variations in team performance.

A COGNITIVE FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING DEMOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES IN GROUPS

Recent research on group demography demonstrates that an increase in demographic diversity has both positive and negative effects on group effectiveness. These studies have linked increased group diversity with an increase in creative thinking and innovation, a decrease in intra‐group cohesion, and an increase in intragroup conflict. The cognitive processing framework proposed in this paper integrates these results into a coherent understanding of the effects of diversity on groups. The cognitive framework provides an explanation of group diversity effects and it suggests ways to minimize the negative effects of group diversity.

ROLE CONFLICT, TASK CONFLICT, AND LEADER RESPONSE: AN EXPLORATION OF A ROLE-TASK FIT MODEL.

This paper presents a test of a role-rusk fit model of intra-group conflict. The model confirms a complex interdependence between conflicts which are the outcomes of imbalances between the indivi...

Intragroup Conflict Management in Task-Oriented Groups

This study examined the associations among integrative, distributive, and avoidance conflict styles and two methods of characterizing members'perceptions of intragroup problens. The "problem source" approach was based on three common sources of conflict: task, participative, and social issues. The "problem analysis" approach was derivedfrom research in social cognition and included perceptions of problem frequency, goal mutuality, goal-path uncertainty, causal attribution to the group, causal attribution to one member; and negative feelings for the group. Overall, problem analyses provided a more powerful account (of conflict styles than did problem sources. The discussion addresses the specific role of' attributions, negative feelings, goal mutuality, and goal-path uncertainty as they relate to conflict management styles.

Relationships Among Conflict Management Styles, Levels of Conflict, and Reactions to Work

Abstract Relationships among (a) conflict management styles, (b) levels of conflict, (c) two general reactions to work, and (d) four types of individual outcomes experienced by employees in the United States were assessed in two studies. In Study 1, subordinates using a high-obliging style with supervisors experienced more intrapersonal conflict, supervisors using a high-integrating style with subordinates reported more intrapersonal and intragroup conflict, and low-dominating supervisors reported significantly greater intragroup conflict. In Study 2, high-integrating subordinates experienced less intrapersonal, intragroup, and intergroup conflict than low-integrating subordinates did. The results of analyses also indicated that there was a strong relationship between integrating and all six organizational outcomes. Lower job satisfaction and fewer interpersonal rewards were associated with a high-dominating style. Both integrating and compromising were positively related to interpersonal outcomes, and do...