Role Structure, Leadership, and Negotiation Effectiveness

📖 The Scoop

The study compared the effectiveness of negotiation groups versus decision-making groups with the same task and attitudinal composition but without a conflict-generating representational role structure. It also tested the ameliorative effects of a neutral leader (mediator) on such conflict and on consequent group performance effectiveness. (1) Results validate a previous test of a model of the negotiation process, in which members' attraction to their reference groups are viewed as forces impeding negotiation success, while members' commitment to a superordinate reference position and their motivation to resolve the problem are viewed as forces promoting negotiation success. (2) Results also show that groups having a representational role structure (ie negotiation groups) set forth less successful solutions than decision-making groups without this structure. (3) A neutral leader appears to attenuate conflict arising from a representational role structure, and enhances the chances of a successful group solution. The findings have implications for organizational decision-making and for the negotiation process.

Genre: No Category (fancy, right?)