The document contains questions from students about articles on conflict management, organizational crisis, and corrective actions following misconduct. The questions discuss: - Identifying and containing conflict within groups to prevent spread. - The role of trust in mediating conflict dynamics. - Preparing teams for sensemaking during crisis through training. - Differences between public and private company responses to executive dismissal and misconduct. - Impacts of public scandals versus private scandals on company recovery. - Communicating with consumers following a product safety issue.

1. Conflict &
Dysfunctio
n
MAN 7779
ADVANCED MANAGEMENT THEORY
MARCEL WEDDERBURN
JON HENSLEY

2. Conflict and Dysfunction: Conflict Management
What experiences have you had with
Conflict Management in your
Organization?
What did you learn about your own
leadership from this experience?
How might you handle this situation
differently next time?

3. Conflict Management Through the Lens of System
Dynamics (Cronin & Bezrukova, 2019)
Containing Conflict
What group signaling could be developed to
promote identification and containment of
the dyad conflict prior to its spread?
Context:
System Dynamics enhances explanation,
predication, and control of conflict p.794.
One potential consequence of conflict is
conflict contagion. This results in conflict
expanding from two people to the group;
creating negative emotions, potentially
producing counterproductive work
behaviors, and effecting team function.
~ Mara Raggi

4. Conflict Management Through the Lens of System
Dynamics (Cronin & Bezrukova, 2019)
Trust
The research team discusses trust as a mediating
factor, however, what other effects might trust have
on different parts of the system dynamics? Are
there opportunities where trust is exerted from an
exogenous perspective, where TC and RC are
reduced?
Context:
The reading seeks to approach conflict from beyond
the typical temporal approach by looking at a
selection of research in conflict through the lens of
system dynamics (SD). One area for additional
research is the relationship of trust to each system.
~ Christian Ward

5. Conflict Management Through the Lens of System
Dynamics (Cronin & Bezrukova, 2019)
Future Research
What additional research can be performed on
path dependence in dynamic systems?
Context:
The authors acknowledge that both attractors
and path dependence have been identified,
but largely ignored in conflict research.
Considering path dependence’s importance on
move choices at any particular moment, it
bears further research on its own as a
contributor in conflict research.
~ Rick Munoz

6. Conflict Management Through the Lens of System
Dynamics (Cronin & Bezrukova, 2019)
Research Methodology
The authors used a filter of “longitudinal
methodology” when selecting 52 of the
207 articles for the study.
Why do you think they used this filter
when a longitudinal methodology
typically represents long-term research
and therefore increases the chance of
unpredictable outcomes? Why didn't
they add other types of filters to obtain a
more complete list of articles to
examine?
~ Susan Rebner

7. Conflict & Dysfunction: Leadership in Crisis
What experiences have you had
with leadership during a crisis in
your organization?
How might you handle this
situation differently next time?
What did you learn about your own
leadership from this experience?

8. The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations:
The Mann Gulch Disaster (Weick, 1993)
Training and Development
How might training and
development programs prepare
teams for sensemaking and
flexibility during disaster and
dysfunction in organizations?
~ Britta Kelley
Similar Questions: Rene Bordas
Leadership
Training
Step 1:
Don’t
Screw
Up!
Step 2:
Refer to

9. The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations:
The Mann Gulch Disaster (Weick, 1993)
Preparing for Crisis
How can an organization synthesize
the ‘sensemaking’ process in a crisis
situation to prepare for potential
collateral damage to the
organization?
~ Sharmeen Ahmed
Related Question: Jon Hensley

10. The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations:
The Mann Gulch Disaster (Weick, 1993)
Remote Conflict
Would workers who work remotely,
but may see each other occasionally,
be equipped to handle sudden
danger/adversity (as we saw in
Mann Gulch and with the Chilean
soccer players) over workers who see
each other regularly in the office?
~Hardeo Bissoondial

11. The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations:
The Mann Gulch Disaster (Weick, 1993)
Problem with Authority
From a leadership perspective, how
do you overcome issues of authority
and prevent possible panic mode
consequences in a team setting?
~ Lubor Olsovsky

12. Conflict & Dysfunction – Corrective Action
What experiences have you had with
disciplinary actions in your
organization?
How might you handle this situation
differently next time?
What did you learn about your own
leadership from this experience?

13. The Corrective Actions Organizations Pursue Following Misconduct: A
Review and Research Agenda (Hersel et al., 2019)
Executive Dismissal
What differences exist between public and privately owned
companies in utilizing executive dismissal as a corrective action for
organizational misconduct?
Context:
Hersel et al presented executive dismissal of CEO’s, C-suite
professionals, and leadership as a method of corrective action for
misconduct within an organization. The paper details that changing
leadership restores investor confidence that improved conduct will
result from the corrective action. Future research could determine
that executive dismissal may be more of an action for companies
that are publicly traded as opposed to privately owned. Customers
may not have any focus on corporate or organizational misconduct if
the product is still of the same value to the customer. Interestingly,
future research could determine that corrective actions at the
executive level are primarily meant to restore shareholder
confidence resulting in the corrective actions themselves
perpetuating a potential organization misconduct by not truly
identifying a root cause. Essentially, if the corrective action taken is
primarily financially driven in the short term, is the corrective action
itself another organizational misconduct action?
~Kevin Darling

14. The Corrective Actions Organizations Pursue Following Misconduct: A
Review and Research Agenda (Hersel et al., 2019)
Public Scandals vs Private Scandals
Do privately owned companies recover quicker than
publicly traded companies from organizational misconduct
and how do the "penalties" differ for such misconduct?
Context:
A future research question may be to analyze whether
public and private companies are treated the same way
after a misconduct. Society may demand more from
publicly traded corporations than they would from privately
owned corporations and the "penalty" may be more
severe. For example, after the revelation of financial fraud,
financial markets lose confidence in the financial
information provided by the fraudulent firm...which can
cause a drop in stock and bond prices (Gomulya & Mishina,
2017), and lead to bankruptcy. A privately owned company
may weather the storm and recover over time.
~ Hardeo Bissoondial

15. The Corrective Actions Organizations Pursue Following Misconduct: A
Review and Research Agenda (Hersel et al., 2019)
Public Scandals vs Private Scandals
Nearly 55 percent of consumers
indicate they are willing to change
their buying preferences following a
product safety concern. In addition to
taking a corrective action to fix the
product design and quality, what
kind of communication could an
organization employ to address
consumer safety concerns?
~ Alex Blyakhman

16. References
Cronin, M. A., & Bezrukova, K. (2019). Conflict Management
through the Lens of System Dynamics. Academy of
Management Annals, 13(2), 770–806.
https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2017.0021
Hersel, M. C., Helmuth, C. A., Zorn, M. L., Shropshire, C., &
Ridge, J. W. (2019). The Corrective Actions Organizations
Pursue Following Misconduct: A Review and Research
Agenda. Academy of Management Annals, 13(2), 547–
585. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2017.0090
Jex, S. M., & Britt, T. W. (2014).In Organizational Psychology
(3rd ed.). John Wiley & Sons. (
Weick, K. E. (1993). The Collapse of Sensemaking in
Organizations: The Mann Gulch Disaster. Administrative
Science Quarterly, 38(4), 628.
https://doi.org/10.2307/2393339
Questions?