Information system development projects engage organizational members in a process with potential for conflict. Managing such conflicts in project groups is an important but often neglected aspect of systems development. This research assesses group process during the development of an information system in an insurance company, using questionnaires, recorded transcripts of group meetings, interviews, and archival data. We describe the relationships among four variables in a model of conflict---participation, influence, conflict, and conflict resolution---at five different periods over a 22-month period. Our results show that in every time period participation positively affected influence and that influence positively affected both conflict and conflict resolution. These findings are supported by an analysis of communication patterns within four project meetings and by qualitative data collected during the project. The practical implications of conflict and group processes in system development are discussed.information systems development, group conflict
This research explores the relationships among user participation, influence, conflict, and conflict resolution in the development of management information systems. Three stages of development are analyzed: initiation, design, and implementation. Results show that influence does result from user participation, and that influence leads to both conflict and resolution. Participation without influence, however, does not lead to successful conflict resolution in any of the three development stages.management information systems, implementation, conflict resolution
Prior studies with subordinates and managers from public and private agencies resulted in the development of a 31-scale Profile questionnaire conceptualized in a systems framework of input, transform, and output variables. In the present stud)', the Profile was completed by 78 managers and 407 of their subordinates. Convergent and concurrent validity studies generally supported the validity of the scales. Five management styles measured were found to be conceptually but not empirically independent. The five management styles-direction, negotiation, consultation, participation, and delegation-differentially correlated with organizational, task, intrapersonal, and interpersonal variables, as well as with measures of work-unit effectiveness and satisfaction. According to stepwise regressions, direction was most likely to appear with structure and clarity; negotiation with short-term objectives and authoritarian subordinates; consultation, with long-term objectives and intragroup harmony; participation, with clarity and warmth; and delegation, with warmth and lack of routine tasks.Situational analyses of leadership are appearing with increasing frequency (Bass & Barrett, 1972;Hunt & Larson, 1974;Stogdill, 1974). The present research began by conceiving a manager and his immediate subordinates as a system of inputs, transforms, and outputs, The inputs come from the task to be performed and from the larger organization in which the group is imbedded. Personal and interpersonal inputs are also considered. Transform variables are the manager's style and the relations between manager and subordinates. Outputs are effectiveness and satisfaction.Five management styles were conceiveddirective, negotiative, consultative, participative, and delegative (Bass & Valenzi, 1974)-• since two-factor solutions to leader behavior are a purely arbitrary outcome. As Miller (Note 1) has shown, an investigator can elect a solution with any number of factors (up to 12 at least). For us, a satisfactory and compelling level of understanding of how a supervisor behaves is not achieved until his consultative behavior has been distinguished from his participative and delegative behav-Requests for reprints should be sent to Bernard M. Bass, Graduate School of Management, University of Rochester,
The present study examines a causal model explaining inner city youths' drug involvement using environmental variables which previously have been investigated singly or in various combinations and shown to influence drug use: the availability of drugs in the neighborhood and at school, a view of the neighborhood as tough, the esteem given to drug using, gang-involved persons by peers, friends' substance use, and participation in drug/street culture spare-time activities. The results show friends' use of alcohol and marijuana and participation in drug/street culture out-of-school activities have strong direct effects on personal drug involvement for the Black and Puerto Rican junior high school males and females who were studied; further, friends' use of alcohol and marijuana and the status peers give to drug using, gang-involved persons have respectable indirect effects on drug involvement for the four groups. In addition to these common features, a number of differences in the factors relating to drug involvement are found in the four groups. Implications of the results for alternative methods of drug abuse prevention and treatment are discussed, as is the necessity of utilizing an environmental, sociocultural view of drug use to adequately explain youth drug taking.
An industrial simulation experiment was conducted with students earning a master's degree in business administration to determine the influence of the power motive on their use of power. Need for power was assessed by means of the Thematic Apperception Test measure devised by Winter. Students scoring among the top and bottom third of those taking the test then proceeded to act as "supervisor" in the industrial simulation by directing the labors of a work crew in the next room. One member of the crew, Man C, behaved as an ingratiator. Supervisors high and low on n Power evaluated Man C about the same when he was neutral and noningratiating in his manner, but when Man C was an ingratiator, supervisors high on the power motive evaluated his performance more favorably than did low-scoring supervisors. High n Power supervisors also perceived themselves as exerting greater influence on the work group. These findings are seen as extending the heuristic value of the n Power construct by demonstrating its relationships to use of power in an industrylike situation.Organizational supervisors typically have at their disposal a variety of powers over subordinates. Depending on the nature of the organization, these powers may include the power to grant raises, recommend promotion, recommend transfer to a more fulfilling job assignment, and even discharge subordinates for inadequate performance. It is surely axiomatic that supervisory use of power can substantially influence employee morale and need fulfillment. One would expect that a supervisor would promote need fulfillment among subordinates if he allocated benefits in a manner that was closely contingent on their quality of performance (Porter & Lawler, 1968). Conversely, need fulfillment would probably diminish to the extent that the supervisor distributed rewards on the basis of arbitrary criteria that were extraneous to recognized organizational objectives.Grateful acknowledgment is expressed to Robert Conforti, Clifton King, and Robert Zogg, who served as experimenters.Requests for reprints should be sent to
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