Position and Personal Power in Management - Assignment Example

1. Define the term “groupthink” and identify its symptoms. Provide at least four ways teams can avoid groupthink.

Groupthink is the tendency to lose the critical evaluative potential of large cohesive groups. The following symptoms of groupthink are more common in a decision-making team.

Members of the team assume the team is beyond the attack and also good for criticism.

Disconfirming data and unpleasant rationalizing.

Members of a team act as if they are right and have above reproach.

Teams members refuse to tolerate those who suggest that the team is wrong.

Avoidance of groupthink

Encourage the team members and share viewpoints with them and also assign a very critical role to each member of a team. Creation of subset teams is also suggested which work on the same problems. Also, share their proposed solution. Outsider experts must be invited to observe the activities of team members and their reactions to team decisions and processes (Schermerhorn).                                                                             
C. What are four errors managers might make when trying to give constructive feedback to others?

A manager fails to give adequate feedback to their employees on their performance.

A manager may give negative feedback, and the employee wonders why the manager acts in the same way. An employee waits for performance appraisal when a manager gives feedback.

Recent performance is overemphasized by managers. This is not an accurate assessment when managers review the performance of the employees.

Some of the managers give negative feedback and do not give constructive criticism for improvement in the performance of employees. Managers also make a mistake when they talk more than listening others in the performance appraisal (Johnson).
D. How do cohesiveness and performance norms together influence team performance?

The performance of an overall team is influenced by high cohesion and conformity to norms. It occurs only in the best-case scenario. Group members work to accomplish the task and also experience satisfaction with other members of a team. In the worst case, scenario there is a strong commitment to the negative norms which results in a low performance of a team (Schermerhorn).

1. What is the difference between substance and relationship goals in negotiation?

In a negotiation, relationship goals, and substance are important. Substance in a negotiation is related to the contents of the negotiation. For example, an agreement between the employer and a candidate on final salary. On the other hand, relationship goals deal with the quality of an interpersonal relationship among the parties of a negotiation. It is also important that negotiating parties may work in the future. For example, there is a poor relationship in the negotiation of labor-management; the problem may occur in the future (Schermerhorn).