Conflict and communication among engineers

The trend of cultural diversity is increasing in all organizations, especially engineering ones, due to globalization, mergers, joint ventures and the movement of the workforce. The collaborative nature of projects in engineering industries requires long-term teamwork between local and international engineers. Research confirms a specific culture among engineering companies that isassumed to have a negative effect on collaboration and communication among co-workers. Multicultural workplaces have been reported as challenging environments in the engineering work culture, which calls for more research among engineering organizations. An everyday challenge for co-workers, especially in culturally diverse contexts, is handling interpersonal conflict. This perceived conflict among individuals can happen because of actual differences in tasks or relationships. Research demonstrates that task conflict at the group level has some positive effects on decision-making and innovation, while it has negative effects on employees’ work attitude and performance. However, relationship conflict at the individual level has only negative effects including frustration, tension, low job satisfaction, high employee turnover and low productivity. Outcomes of both task and relationship conflict at individual level can have long-term negative consequences like damaged organizational commitment. One of the most important sources of differences between individuals, which results in conflict, is their cultural backgrounds. First, this thesis suggests that in culturally diverse workplaces, people perceive more relationship conflict than task conflict. Second, this thesis examines interpersonal communication in culturally diverse work places. Communicating effectively in culturally diverse workplaces is crucial for today’s business. Culture has a large effect on the ways that people communicate with each other. Ineffective communication can escalate interpersonal conflict and cause frustration in the long term. Communication satisfaction, defined as enjoying the communication and feeling that the communication was appropriate and effective, has a positive effect on individuals’ psychological wellbeing. In a culturally diverse workplace, it is assumed that individuals feel less satisfied with their interpersonal communications because of their lack of knowledge about other cultures’ communication norms. To manage interpersonal interactions, many authors suggest that individuals need a specific capability, i.e., cultural intelligence (some studies use cultural competence, global intelligence or intercultural competence interchangeably). Some authors argue that cultures are synergic and convergent and the postmodernist definition of culture is just our dominant beliefs. However, other authors suggest that cultural intelligence is the strongest and most comprehensive competency for managing cross-cultural interactions, because various cultures differ so greatly at the micro level. This thesis argues that individuals with a high level of cultural intelligence perceive less interpersonal conflict and more satisfaction with their interpersonal communication. Third, this thesis also looks at individuals' perception of cultural diversity. It is suggested that level of cultural diversity plays a moderating role on all of the proposed relationships (effect of cultural intelligence on perception of relationship conflict/ communication satisfaction) This thesis examines the relationship among cultural diversity, cultural intelligence, interpersonal conflict and communication by surveying eleven companies in the oil and gas industry. The multicultural nature of companies within the oil and gas industry and the characteristics of engineering culture call for more in-depth research on interpersonal interactions. A total of 286 invitation emails were sent and 118 respondents replied to the survey, giving a 41.26 per cent response rate. All the respondents were engineers, engineering managers or practical technicians. The average age of the participants was 36.93 years and 58.82 per cent were male. Overall, 47.6 per cent of the respondents had at least a master’s degree. Totally, 42.85 per cent of the respondents were working in a country that was not their country of birth. The overall findings reveal that cultural diversity and cultural intelligence significantly influence interpersonal conflict and communication satisfaction. Further, this thesis also finds that cultural intelligence is an effective competency for dealing with the perception of interpersonal relationship conflict and communication satisfaction when the level of cultural diversity is moderate to high. This thesis suggests that cultural intelligence training is necessary to increase the level of this competency among employees in order to help them to have better understanding of other cultures. Human resource management can design these training courses with consideration for the level of cultural diversity within the organization.

Lethal Interpersonal Violence in the Middle Pleistocene

Evidence of interpersonal violence has been documented previously in Pleistocene members of the genus Homo, but only very rarely has this been posited as the possible manner of death. Here we report the earliest evidence of lethal interpersonal violence in the hominin fossil record. Cranium 17 recovered from the Sima de los Huesos Middle Pleistocene site shows two clear perimortem depression fractures on the frontal bone, interpreted as being produced by two episodes of localized blunt force trauma. The type of injuries, their location, the strong similarity of the fractures in shape and size, and the different orientations and implied trajectories of the two fractures suggest they were produced with the same object in face-to-face interpersonal conflict. Given that either of the two traumatic events was likely lethal, the presence of multiple blows implies an intention to kill. This finding shows that the lethal interpersonal violence is an ancient human behavior and has important implications for the accumulation of bodies at the site, supporting an anthropic origin.

Predictors of shy children's coping with a social conflict : mediators and moderators

Shy children are at risk for later maladjustment due to ineffective coping with social conflicts through reliance on avoidance, rather than approach-focused, coping. The purpose of the present study was to explore whether the relation between shyness and children's coping was mediated by attributions and moderated by personality selftheories and gender. Participants included a classroom-based sample of 175 children (93 boys), aged 9-13 years (M = 10.11 years, SD = 0.92). Children completed self-report measures assessing shyness, attributions, personality self-theories and coping strategies. Results showed that negative attribution biases partially mediated the negative relations between shyness and social support seeking, as well as problem-solving, and the positive association between shyness and externalizing. Moreover, self-theories moderated the relation between shyness and internalizing coping at the trend level, such that the positive relation was exacerbated among entity-oriented children to a greater degree than incrementally-oriented children. In terms of gender differences, shyness was related to lower use of social support and problem-solving among incrementally-oriented boys and entity-oriented girls. Thus, shy children's perceptions of social conflicts as the outcome of an enduring trait (e.g., social incompetence) may partially explain why they do not act assertively and aggress as a means of social coping. Furthermore, entity-oriented beliefs may exacerbate shy children's reliance on internalizing actions, such as crying. Although an incrementally-oriented stance may enhance shy girls' reliance on approach strategies, it does not appear to serve the same protective role for shy boys. Therefore, copingoriented interventions may need to focus on restructuring shy children's social cognitions and implementing gender-specific programming for their personality biases.

Adolescent and parental perceptions of interparental conflict

Research indicates adolescent adjustment problems are associated with high levels of interparental conflict. This study examined parents’ and adolescents’ perceptions of interparental conflict and the relationship of these perceptions to adolescent adjustment through a survey of adolescent secondary students and their parents. Sixty-two adolescents and 62 parents participated in the study. Adolescents completed three self-report measures of psychological adjustment, a demographic questionnaire and the Consensus and Cohesion subscales of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS). Parents completed the same subscales of the DAS and a demographic questionnaire. There were no significant differences between the levels of interparental conflict perceived by adolescents and parents. However, adolescent perceptions of interparental conflict were a better predictor of adolescent psychological adjustment when compared to parental perceptions of conflict. The results of this study emphasise the importance of adolescent perceptions of interparental conflict, and provide support for both parental and adolescent reports of family functioning to be taken into account in future clinical studies.

Functional group conflict in information systems development

This paper discusses how interpersonal conflict between IS developers and clients can disrupt IS projects.  It is suggested how potential problems can be avoided by getting the 'soft' factors right which can lead to improvements in information systems development (ISD) processes.  However little is being done in most organisations to review success from this perspective.  Measurement of ISD quality tends to favour the product rather than the human drivers that influence the development of the product.  Several ideas are put forward that can be used to resolve conflict and tp better involve stakeholders in the ISD process.

Resolving conflict : --following the light of personal behavior /

"NAVPERS 15620."

The Moderating Role of Personality on Workplace Conflict and Outcomes

The purpose of this study was twofold. The first was to further clarify and expand or understanding of the relationship between interpersonal conflict, incivility, and their roles as stressors in the stressor-strain relationship. The second goal was to examine how neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, trait anger, and sphere specific locus of control moderate the stressor-strain relationship between task conflict, relationship conflict, incivility and workplace and health outcomes. The results suggest that extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, trait anger, and locus of control play significant roles in how workplace aggression affects individuals. These findings suggest that occupations that experience a high level of workplace aggression should consider incorporating these personality traits into their selection system as a way of limiting or reducing the effects workplace aggression can have on individual health, wellbeing, and job outcomes.

Effects of an emotional intelligence program in variables related to the prevention of violence

In recent decades, numerous studies have shown a significant increase in violence during childhood and adolescence. These data suggest the importance of implementing programs to prevent and reduce violent behavior. The study aimed to design a program of emotional intelligence (El) for adolescents and to assess its effects on variables related to violence prevention. The possible differential effect of the program on both genders was also examined. The sample comprised 148 adolescents aged from 13 to 16 years. The study used an experimental design with repeated pretest-posttest measures and control groups. To measure the variables, four assessment instruments were administered before and after the program, as well as in the follow-up phase (1 year after the conclusion of the intervention). The program consisted of 20 one-hour sessions. The pretest-posttest ANCOVAs showed that the program significantly increased: (1) El (attention, clarity, emotional repair); (2) assertive cognitive social interaction strategies; (3) internal control of anger; and (4) the cognitive ability to analyze negative feelings. In the follow-up phase, the positive effects of the intervention were generally maintained and, moreover, the use of aggressive strategies as an interpersonal conflict-resolution technique was significantly reduced. Regarding the effect of the program on both genders, the change was very similar, but the boys increased assertive social interaction strategies, attention, and emotional clarity significantly more than the girls. The importance of implementing programs to promote socio-emotional development and prevent violence is discussed.

异文化圈社会规范层次结构模型的比较研究

The relationship between the management and the culture was explored from the view of social norm's theory. In concrete terms, the differences of the hierarchical structure of the social norm among the Chinese, the Japanese and the American were studied systematically by using interview, case study, questionnaire survey and the structure equation model, etc. The results were: (1) The basic two types of the social norms of the Chinese, the American and the Japanese were the same: the external control norm and the internal control norm. The basic dimensions of the two types of norms composed of moral principle, value orientation, the law and the rules, and the social custom were consistent among the three countries. Furthermore, the dimensions of social norms were hierarchical because of the functioning of the different culture, which consisted of the hierarchical structure system. (2) Although there were the same dimensions among the three countries, the contents of these dimensions had both the common norms surpassing the specific culture and the particular norms depending on the specific culture. (3) The basic structures of the social norms in China and in Japan were the same: the internal control norms played a main role and the external control norm was auxiliary. On one hand, within the internal norm of the Chinese, the moral principle was the main force while the value orientation was the supplementary; within the external norm, the law and the rules was the main force while the social culture custom was supplementary. On the other hand, the relationship between the external and the internal dimensions of the Japanese turned out to be contrary to those of the Chinese. (4) The structure of the American social norms were different from the Chinese: for the American, the external control norm played a main role while the internal control norm was assistant. Furthermore, the law and the rule was the major aspect while the social costumes was the second in the external control dimension. In addition, the value orientation led the performance style of the American, while the moral principle played the second role in the internal control structure. (5) The social norms related to the management performance were found including work responsibility, organization commitment, meeting making-decision, communication style, work duty and interpersonal conflict by inventory and case study. The mangers from China, Japan and America had significant different views on paying attention to the management norms. In a word, the culture differences of the social norm were the fundamental reason of the management conflict.

Hostile attributional bias and aggressive behavior in global context.

We tested a model that children's tendency to attribute hostile intent to others in response to provocation is a key psychological process that statistically accounts for individual differences in reactive aggressive behavior and that this mechanism contributes to global group differences in children's chronic aggressive behavior problems. Participants were 1,299 children (mean age at year 1 = 8.3 y; 51% girls) from 12 diverse ecological-context groups in nine countries worldwide, followed across 4 y. In year 3, each child was presented with each of 10 hypothetical vignettes depicting an ambiguous provocation toward the child and was asked to attribute the likely intent of the provocateur (coded as benign or hostile) and to predict his or her own behavioral response (coded as nonaggression or reactive aggression). Mothers and children independently rated the child's chronic aggressive behavior problems in years 2, 3, and 4. In every ecological group, in those situations in which a child attributed hostile intent to a peer, that child was more likely to report that he or she would respond with reactive aggression than in situations when that same child attributed benign intent. Across children, hostile attributional bias scores predicted higher mother- and child-rated chronic aggressive behavior problems, even controlling for prior aggression. Ecological group differences in the tendency for children to attribute hostile intent statistically accounted for a significant portion of group differences in chronic aggressive behavior problems. The findings suggest a psychological mechanism for group differences in aggressive behavior and point to potential interventions to reduce aggressive behavior.

A criança como ator na resolução de conflitos interpessoais

Relatório da Prática Profissional Supervisionada Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar

Mediação de Conflitos Interpessoais

Relatório da UC Seminário de Apoio à Prática Profissional Supervisionada Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar

O diário de grupo como instrumento mediador na resolução de conflitos entre pares

Relatório da Prática Profissional Supervisionada Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar