Intergroup Development Interventions

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Chapter 11

• Intergroup Development Interventions

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Learning Objectives (part 1 of 2)

• Identify problems of intergroup conflict and
  suboptimization.
• Experience negative effects of competition on
  organization effectiveness.

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Learning Objectives (part 2 of 2)

• Observe and develop strategies for collaborative
  intergroup relations.
• Diagnose causes of cooperative versus competitive
  group relations.

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Power to the People Who Make the Hogs (part 1 of
3)

• HDs Kansas City plant empowers teams to
• Make their schedules and work rules.
• Train new workers and evaluate workers.
• Manage plants operating budget.
• Approve plant strategies.

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Power to the People Who Make the Hogs (part 2 of
3)

• Plants structure centers around employees.
• Work teams of 8 to15 members.
• Group sends member to operating group.
• Four operating groups oversee its division.
• Operating group elects representative to Plant
  Leadership Group.

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Power to the People Who Make the Hogs (part 3 of
3)

• The plant is open and does not have walls for
  offices.
• Productions workers receive financial rewards
  based on the performance of the plant.

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Changing Relationships in Todays Organizations

• Managers concentrate efforts on shared
  responsibilities among work teams.
• Organizations create situations of team
  interdependence.
• OD interventions aim at developing effective
  working methods between teams.

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Collaboration and Conflict

• Organizations need cooperation to be effective.
• Differences in objectives and values between
  groups.
• Conflict is inevitable between groups.
• Dysfunctional conflict reduced through intergroup
  interventions.

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Our Changing World Prototype for
DaimlerChrysler (part 1 of 3)

• Daimler-Benz AG and Chrysler Corp. to form
  DaimlerChrysler has entailed challenges.
• Indications of a financial flop.
• The 2 have different skills and specialties.
• Instead of collaborating, Mercedes and Chrysler
  groups often compete.

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Our Changing World (part 2 of 3)

• M-Class plant in Alabama provides prototype.
• Old rules on how to manage thrown out.
• Plant uses open style offices.
• Gain sharing used in incentive program.
• Dress for all is casual.
• All eat in one cafeteria.

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Our Changing World (part 3 of 3)

• Plants design helped establish culture of
  teamwork and open communication.
• Each team has a leader.
• Team member can do work of other members.
• A team at a station can do work of stations
  before and behind them.

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Intergroup Operating Problems

• Group conflict depends on
• How incompatible the goals are.
• Extent to which resources are scarce and shared.
• Degree of interdependence of task activities.

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Figure 11.1Factors Involved in Conflict
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Suboptimization

• Suboptimization occurs when group optimizes its
  own subgoals but loses sight of larger
  organizational goals.
• Intergroup competition involves groups with
  conflicting purposes or objectives.

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Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity

• Role conflict occurs when individual belongs to 2
  or more groups whose goals are in conflict.
• Role ambiguity exists when individual of group
  not clear about his/her functions and goals.

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Cooperation Versus Competition (part 1 of 2)

• Mixed research results on competition and
  cooperation among groups.
• Members of competitive groups have more
  self-esteem for their groups.

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Cooperation Versus Competition (part 2 of 2)

• Groups competing with one another more highly
  oriented toward accomplishing task, but no
  evidence of increased productivity.
• Cooperation promotes productivity between groups
  when task is complicated and requires
  coordination.

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OD in Practice General Mills Looks to Extreme
Teams (part 1 of 2)

• General Mills (GM) improved teams by looking for
  examples outside company.
• GM looks at teams that dissect their operations,
  analyze them, change them, and put them back
  together.

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OD in Practice (part 2 of 2)

• Examination of NASCAR pit crews helped production
  operations.
• Cross-team cooperation examined between SWAT
  teams.
• GM replaced separate performance goals for
  engineering, purchasing, and production with
  single set of goals.

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Managing Conflict

• Organizational conflict does not need to be
  eliminated but instead managed.
• Diagnosing conflict involves learning basic
  conflict styles used in dealing with conflict
• Desire to satisfy self.
• Desire to satisfy others.

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Figure 11.2Conflict Styles
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Five Styles of Cooperative Versus Assertive
Behavior (part 1 of 2)

1. Avoiding - low concern for self and others.
2. Obliging - low concern for self, high concern for
   others.
3. Dominating - high concern for self, low concern
   for others.

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Five Styles of Cooperative Versus Assertive
Behavior (part 2 of 2)

1. Compromising - moderate concern for self and
   others.
2. Integrating - high concern for self and others.

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Techniques to Deal with Intergroup Problems

• Deal with conflicts openly to manage tensions.
• OD techniques include
• Third-party consultation.
• Organization mirror.
• Intergroup team building.

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Third-Party Consultation

• Uses third party, usually outside practitioner,
  to help open communications, level power, and
  confront problems between groups.
• Third party provides diagnostic insight and is
  source of emotional support and skills.

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Organization Mirror

• Gives feedback to teams on how other elements of
  organization view them.
• Units meet together to process data with
  objective of identifying problems and formulating
  solutions.

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Intergroup Team Building (part 1 of 2)

• Key members work on issues of interface.
• Meeting usually involves following 5 steps
• Step 1. Working separately, the two work groups
  make three lists
• How we see ourselves.
• How we think other group sees us.
• How we see other group.

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Intergroup Team Building (part 2 of 2)

• Step 2. Meeting with other group, person from
  each group presents their lists.
• Step 3. Groups meet separately to discuss.
• Step 4. Subgroups formed by mixing members of two
  groups. Develop action plans.
• Step 5. A follow-up evaluation meeting held.

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Table 11.1Sample Intergroup Meeting Listing
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Key Words and Concepts

• Avoiding Style - manages conflict by withdrawing.
• Boundaryless - a GE term that refers to reducing
  conflict between divisions and departments.

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• Compromising style - manages conflict by seeking
  compromise between parties.
• Confrontation - parties directly engage each
  other and focus on conflict.
• Dominating style - manages conflict by attaining
  personal objectives and ignoring needs of others.

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• Integrating style - conflict style where there is
  high concern for self and others.
• Interdependence - performance of one group
  contingent upon another group.
• Interfaces - meeting point between groups.

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• Intergroup competition - emerges when group
  pursues one goal while directly opposing values
  that exist in another group.
• Intergroup interventions - increase cooperation
  among organization subsystems.

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• Intergroup team building - key members of
  conflicting groups meet to work on issues of
  interface.
• Meta goals - superordinate organization goals.
• Obliging style - manages conflict by showing
  concern for people satisfactions and smoothing
  over conflicts.

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• Open loop - elements of organization operating
  without feedback.
• Organization mirror - gives work units feedback
  on how other elements of organization view them.
• Role ambiguity - members of group not clear about
  their functions and goals.

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• Suboptimization - group optimizes own goals but
  loses sight of larger organization goals.
• Team interdependence - performance of one group
  contingent upon another group.
• Third-party interventions - increases
  communication and intergroup problem solving
  using outside practitioner.

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Preparations for Next Chapter

• Read Chapter 12.
• Complete Step 1 of OD Skills Simulation 12.1.
• Complete Step 1 of OD Skills Simulation 12.2.
• Read and analyze Case Western Utilities Company.