Team Dynamics and Conflict Management

These vocabulary flashcards cover the fundamental concepts of team dynamics, group development stages, team roles, and conflict management strategies based on the lecture notes.

Team Dynamics

The way team members work together, influence one another, interact, communicate, make decisions, and manage conflict to achieve collective outcomes.

Formal Work Groups

Groups established by organizations to facilitate the achievement of organizational goals, often involving managers and subordinates in interlocked structures.

Task Forces and Project Teams

Temporary formal groups that meet to achieve particular goals or solve specific problems, often effective for the design of products and services.

Committees

Usually permanent groups that handle recurrent assignments outside the regular work group structure, such as Health and Safety or Finance.

Informal Work Groups

Groups that emerge naturally in response to the common interests of organizational members and are seldom sanctioned-by the organization.

Affinity Groups

Also known as employee networks, these are recognized components of diversity and inclusion that serve as external advisory groups for mentorship and recruitment.

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)

Groups at organizations like RBC (e.g., Women, Indigenous Peoples, Veterans) that tap into unique perspectives and cultures to empower employees.

Forming

The first stage of Tuckman's model characterized by introduction, excitement, optimism, and discovering the group's purpose and tasks.

Storming

The second stage of Tuckman's model where social facades are shed, authenticity emerges, and conflict begins as members explore power and influence.

Norming

The third stage of Tuckman's model where ground rules, norms, and procedures are established and a leader is defined.

Performing

The fourth stage of Tuckman's model where the group is matured and works toward achievements with competence, autonomy, and creativity.

Adjourning

The final stage of Tuckman's model involving debriefing, acknowledgement of work, and providing emotional support as the group dissolves.

Group Norms

Collective expectations and codes of conduct that social units use to evaluate and regulate the appropriateness of member behavior.

Punctuated-equilibrium Model

A model suggesting that groups remain static for long periods (stability) until a midpoint change triggers a burst of activity and radical progress.

Team Composition

A team structural component referring to 'who is in the team,' including their skills, personalities, values, and functional expertise.

Status

The rank or social position accorded to group members based on the group's evaluation of that member.

Social Loafing

The tendency of individuals to put in less effort when working in a group than when working alone.

Free-rider effect

The component of social loafing where an individual assumes the group will absorb the costs of their lack of effort.

Sucker effect

The component of social loafing where high performers reduce their efforts to avoid being taken advantage of by loafers.

Contractor Role

A task role characterized by organizing teamwork.

Creator Role

A task role focused on looking at the 'big picture.'

Contributor Role

A task role where the member brings specific information and expertise to the team.

Completer Role

A task role involving the transformation of ideas into action.

Critic Role

A task role that acts as a 'devil's advocate' to uncover assumptions.

Cooperator Role

A social role dedicated to supporting those with expertise.

Communicator Role

A social role that fosters collaboration through listening, sharing ideas, and humor.

Calibrator Role

A social role that keeps the team on track by initiating discussion and conflict resolution.

Consul Role

A boundary-spanning role focused on gathering information from and informing the larger organization.

Coordinator Role

A boundary-spanning role that interfaces with others in the organization to ensure team efforts are aligned.

Trust

The belief that team members are reliable, competent, and acting in good faith, allowing for help-seeking and mistake-admission.

Psychological Safety

The shared belief that people can speak up, ask questions, or challenge ideas without fear of embarrassment or punishment.

Cohesion

The extent to which a group is united or attractive to its members, influenced by stability and communication.

Groupthink

A risk of excessive cohesion where internal pressure to conform leads to flawed decisions and a reduction in moral judgment.

Team Potency

A team's shared belief in its collective capability to be effective and successful across various tasks and challenges.

Virtual Teams

Teams that use technology to collaborate across space, time, and organizational boundaries to access a wider talent pool.

Conflict

The process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party.

Task Conflict

A source of conflict related to the nature of the work to be done.

Process Conflict

A source of conflict related to how work should be organized and accomplished.

Relationship Conflict

Interpersonal conflict focusing on the characteristics of individuals rather than the work itself.

Problem solving (Conflict Handling Style)

A preferred style when interests are not perfectly opposing and parties have trust, though it carries a risk of others using shared information to their advantage.

Forcing (Conflict Handling Style)

Used when one has a deep conviction about a position, though it carries the highest risk of relationship conflict and may damage long-term relations.

Avoiding (Conflict Handling Style)

A style used when a conflict is too emotionally charged or the costs of resolution outweigh the benefits; it rarely resolves the underlying issue.

Yielding (Conflict Handling Style)

Used when the other party has substantially more power or the issue is much less important to you than to them.

Compromising (Conflict Handling Style)

A style used when parties have equal power and are under time pressure, though it may result in sub-optimal solutions.