Groups and Teamwork - Pearson Canada

Chapter 5 Groups and Teamwork 185
What happens when role expectations as implied in the psychological contract are not
met? If management is negligent in holding up its part of the bargain, we can expect negative
repercussions on employee performance and satisfaction. When employees fail
to live up to expectations, the result is usually some form of disciplinary action, up to
and including firing.
The psychological contract should be recognized as a “powerful determiner of behaviour
in organizations.” 30 It points out the importance of accurately communicating
role expectations. In Chapter 9, we discuss how organizations socialize employees in
order to get them to play out their roles in the way management desires.
Role Conflict
When an individual is confronted by divergent role expectations, the result is role conflict.
Role conflict exists when an individual finds that complying with one role requirement
may make it more difficult to comply with another. 31 At the extreme, it can include
situations in which two or more role expectations are mutually contradictory!
Our previous discussion of the many roles Ira Schwartz had to deal with included several
role conflicts. For instance, the expectations placed on Schwartz as a husband and
father conflict with those placed on him as a manager with his firm. As you will remember,
his family role emphasizes stability and concern for the desire of his wife and children
to remain in Saskatoon. His career role, on the other hand, centres on a company
that expects its employees to be responsive to its needs and requirements. Although it
might be in Schwartz’s financial and career interests to accept a relocation, the conflict
comes down to choosing between family and career role expectations.
All of us have faced and will continue to face role conflicts. The critical issue, from our
standpoint, is how conflicts imposed by divergent expectations within the organization
impact behaviour. Certainly, they increase internal tension and frustration. There
are a number of behavioural responses individuals may engage in. They may, for example,
give a formalized bureaucratic response. The conflict is then resolved by relying on
the rules, regulations, and procedures that govern organizational activities.
For example, a worker faced with the conflicting requirements imposed by the corporate
controller’s office and his own plant manager decides in favour of his immediate
boss—the plant manager. Other behavioural responses may include withdrawal,
stalling, negotiation, or, as we found in our discussion of dissonance in Chapter 3,
redefining the facts or the situation to make them appear congruent.
Norms
Have you ever noticed that golfers don’t speak while their partners are putting on the
green, or that employees don’t criticize their bosses in public? Why? The answer is
“norms!”
Norms are acceptable standards of behaviour that are shared by the group’s members.
All groups have established norms that tell members what they ought and ought not to
do under certain circumstances. When agreed to and accepted by the group, norms act
as a means of influencing the behaviour of group members with a minimum of external
controls. Norms differ among groups, communities, and societies, but all of these
entities have norms. 32
Formalized norms are written up in organizational manuals that set out rules and procedures
for employees to follow. But by far, most norms in organizations are informal.
You don’t need someone to tell you that throwing paper airplanes or engaging in prolonged
gossip sessions at the water cooler is an unacceptable behaviour when the “big
boss from Toronto” is touring the office. Similarly, we all know that when we’re in an
employment interview discussing what we didn’t like about our previous job, there are
certain things we shouldn’t talk about (difficulty in getting along with co-workers or
role conflict
A situation in which an individual is
confronted by divergent role expectations.
norms
Acceptable standards of behaviour
within a group that are shared by
the group’s members.