Question

How did stereotypes (see also page 176 of the textbook) and social identity (see also pages 277-279 of the textbook) contributed to the conflict at Lehman Brothers?

b) Would replacing “problem” individuals resolve the conflict? Why?

c) What would you recommend to manage intergroup conflict in a company?

Answer 1

Social identity, in the study of the interplay between personal and social identities. Social identity theory aims to specify and predict the circumstances under which individuals think of themselves as individuals or as group members. The theory also considers the consequences of personal and social identities for individual perceptions and group behaviour.Social identity originated from the conviction that group membership can help people to instill meaning in social situations.

On other hand The stereotype content model argues that these two fundamental dimensions—competence and warmth—underpin stereotypes of most groups, and that they derive from status and power relations between them. Considerable evidence shows that high-status groups are consistently stereotyped as more competent than low-status groups, who in turn are often stereotyped as warmer than high-status groups which tended to be the higher status groups, or significantly more warm than competent, which tended to be the lower status groups.

b) Yes to some extent replacing problems individuals can resolve the conflict. People are full of conflicts and problems and due to which they take unneccesary action to rectify it and sometime it is harmful for others.People in collectivist cultures belong to groups as a matter of right, by birth or marriage, whereas those in individualist cultures often have to earn their membership in a group. People should take measure steps to resolve the conflicts.

c) Conflict is pretty much inevitable when you work with others.People have different viewpoints and, under the right set of circumstances, those differences escalate to conflict. How you handle that conflict determines whether it works to the team's advantage, or contributes to its demise.As well as being able to handle conflict when it arises, teams need to develop ways of preventing conflict from becoming damaging. Team members can learn skills and behavior to help this

We can prepare for Resolution by varoius ways :

1) Acknowledge the conflict and discuss the impact.

2) Agree to a cooperative process and communicate

3) From being defensive to empathizing

4) From winning to solving the problem

Taking ownership of our actions, rather than blaming others, dramatically improves our performance. That’s the key benefit of the 50–50 rule.