Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 2000. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2005. / Principal faculty advisor: Samuel L. Gaertner, Dept. of Psychology. Includes bibliographical references.

According to realistic conflict theory (RCT), people develop negative attitudes towards others as a result of competition with those others over limited resources. I hypothesized that participants would change their opinions of others in a greater negative direction if those others were competitive in resource use than if those others are cooperative. Additionally, I hypothesized that the participants' own resource use would influence how they changed their opinions of the others. Participants were asked to complete a ten-item trait-rating questionnaire before and after competing in a simulated fishing environment against a simulated group that fished either a little (cooperative opponent) or a lot (competitive opponent). As predicted, when fishing against competitive opponents, participants changed their ratings in a more negative direction than when fishing against cooperative opponents. In addition, participants' own fishing behaviour influenced some of their rating shifts. I discuss an alternative explanation of the results as based on group identity processes (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), and suggest that the effects of such processes should be directly compared with competition over resources in the same study. Limitations of the study are discussed along with potential solutions.

abstract: Existing work suggests that intergroup negativity is caused by dissimilarities of values between groups. In contrast, I propose that incompatible values--regardless of whether they are similar or dissimilar--cause intergroup negativities. Because values act as cues to tangible goals and interests, groups' values suggest desired outcomes that may conflict with our own (i.e., incompatible values). The current study conceptually and empirically disentangles value-dissimilarity and value-incompatibility, which were confounded in previous research. Results indicated that intergroup negativities were strongly predicted by value-incompatibility, and only weakly and inconsistently predicted by value-dissimilarity. I further predicted that groups' values cue specific threats and opportunities to perceivers and that, in reaction to these inferred affordances, people will experience threat-relevant, specific emotional reactions (e.g., anger, disgust); however, results did not support this prediction. I also predicted that, because the inferred threats that groups pose to one another are not always symmetric, the negativities between groups may sometimes be asymmetric (i.e., Group A feels negatively toward Group B, but Group B feels neutral or positively toward Group A). This prediction received strong support. In sum, reframing our understanding of values as cues to conflicts-of-interest between groups provides principles for understanding intergroup prejudices in more nuanced ways. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2017

Regardless of numerous accomplishments and appreciable rewards of the collaboration in cross-functional teams, the impacts of cross-functional teams has deteriorated in the eyes of business, its ability to deliver having been questioned - businesses often fail to reap the promised benefits. While previous research has concentrated on collaboration in cross-functional teams of new product development, it neglected the outcomes of collaboration in crossfunctional teams and the leader behaviours that impacts and maintains the collaboration in cross-functional teams. This research aimed to understand the perspectives of leaders and subordinates on how leader behaviours could improve the impacts of collaboration in cross-functional teams. First by exploring the outcomes of collaboration in cross-functional teams, confirming importance to business, and then exploring current failures; secondly, by identifying the key leader behaviours that impacts collaboration in cross-functional teams. Preceding initiatives have been ineffective in reviving the value of collaboration in cross-functional teams, due to focal point being new product development collaboration of cross-functional teams and failed to focus on leader behaviours in cross-functional teams. This research, therefore, probed the necessities for collaboration entered into and maintained, looking particularly at leader behaviours which is effective in encouraging collaboration and involvement of stakeholders in cross-functional teams. From the research outcomes, the Leader behaviours Impact Model was designed to set out how collaboration can be established and maintained, optimising the impacts of the leader behaviours while also diminishing its many failures of collaboration in crossfunctional team. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / pagibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Intergroup conflicts are rife in public schools and often the bone of contention is promotional posts. These conflicts can affect the quality of teaching and learning if the focus of the teachers moves from the primary purpose of teaching to contesting senior posts. In addition, such contestation often splits the teaching staff into groups or factions. One such split is between the group made up of teachers belonging to the politically-aligned union and the group of teachers from non-politically aligned teacher unions or those not unionised at all. The School Governing Body parent-wing is often caught in conflict between these two groups as it has the legislative power to recommend appointment to the District Director. It is within this context that this study explores the perceptions of stakeholders in selected schools in Diepkloof with regard to intergroup conflict and investigates whether cadre deployment plays a role in this conflict. The findings of this study reveal stakeholders' perceptions that politically-aligned unions tend to exert influence to have their members promoted and, in the process, often overlook better qualified educators.

It has long been identified that relative deprivation increases prejudice. Guimond and Dambrun (2002) demonstrated that relative gratification, as the opposite of relative deprivation, is also an important variable in predicting intergroup discrimination. Guimond and Dambrun (2002), further suggest that in order to prevent destructive conflicts between groups, such as intergroup discrimination, the goal of equality rather than economic improvements has to be kept in mind. The present paper will report three experiments which aimed to replicate Guimond and Dambrun’s (2002) findings on relative deprivation and relative gratification and which further aimed to test their proposal that equality would reduce prejudice. The results of the three experiments confirmed the predicted effects of relative deprivation and relative gratification on intergroup discrimination. However, the results did not confirm that equality reduces prejudice. Methodological and theoretical reasons for these results are provided and discussed in detail.

This paper explored the process of identity formation among the Hui national minority, particularly focusing on Hui students who live and study within the majority group. Given that Hui's tradition derived from its mixed blood is often misinterpreted by others in interactions with outgroup members, it is necessary to explore Hui students' opinions of their ethnicity in public school, the way that they construct their ethnic identity, and how identity varies among Hui students and thus affects their academic performance. Results showed that in the group of Hui students who reported their GPA, ethnic identity and self-esteem negatively predicted GPA. Self-esteem failed to act as a moderator in the prediction of GPA, but it did mediate the prediction of their aspiration for higher education. Differences between ethnic identity only existed between Hui students in central and northwest of China. Additional analysis and information from interviews showed that Hui students do have experiences in which they are misinterpreted by other groups, and Hui ethnicity does affect their life.

Synergy among departments is increasingly considered vital for organizations to use their full resources to deal with threats and explore opportunities in the rapidly changing marketplace. Although valuable, developing synergy among departments is a difficult management challenge. Departments within organizations often have their own business goals, yet the coordination of these goals is a precondition for overall organizational effectiveness. The need for goal coordination makes departments interdependent (Thompson, 1967), but this interdependence may become particularly problematic when the different departmental goals are incompatible (St. John & Hall, 1991). Because of the value of cooperative goals for coordination, managers want to understand the conditions that lead people to believe their interests are basically positively associated in an organizational setting. In this study, we explore what factors increase the likelihood of having broad role identities, in which employees not only care for the goals characteristic of their own department, but also for goals of other departments. This gives rise to the question of not whether, but under what circumstances, departments develop organizational cohesion. That is the key question that must be approached by theories of intergroup relations in order to successfully understand the dynamics of interdepartmental coordination, cooperation, and conjunction. In this study, we propose that the degree to which people have concern for the organizational goals is partly rooted in interdepartmental goal interdependence. This study assumes that high departmental and interdepartmental effectiveness will be promoted by constructive cooperation between departments within organizations. In doing so, we connect the theory of cooperation and competition and social identity theory to test what interdepartmental structures will improve organizational effectiveness. Accordingly, we consider a congregation of structures by which coordination between departments can be managed. The study suggests that interdepartmental relationships are influenced or determined by contextual structures, especially task interdependence, shared rewards, and interdepartmental groups, operating first upon goal interdependence and social identity, with the effects on the interdepartmental coordination as subsequent outcomes. In practice, if each group were producing its own product or service, there might be little need for significant intergroup coordination. In most cases, however, identifiable groups in organizations are producing only a segment of the organization’s product or service. Coordination between such groups is a necessity. As professional firms that provide multiple services are well suited to exploring interdepartmental relationships (Tomasic, 1991; Eccles and Crane, 1988), this study collected the questionnaires from financial companies in mainland China. As a result, we found that three factors promoted effective interdepartmental coordination and thus high organizational performance. First, coordination will be more effective if there are compatible or cooperative goals between departments. Second, coordination will be more effective if the departments are addressed and rewarded on over-all performance measures embracing the activities of the several departments. Third, interdepartmental coordination will be more effectively achieved and over-all organizational performance will be higher to the extent that departments have salient organizational identities rather than departmental identities. This research has both theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretically, this study provides a test of whether interdepartmental structures promote synergy in financial companies in China. This study adds to research on cooperation and competition by identifying the interdepartmental structures as important antecedents to goal interdependence. This study adds to research on social identities by identifying the interdepartmental structures such as motivational and affective antecedents to organizational identities. This study also adds to research on intergroup relationships by developing the model to enhance the coordination relations among formal departments in organizations. Practically, this study has implications for developing interdepartmental relationships in the company, especially in those financial companies in mainland China; this study also provides empirical evidence of the utility of the interdepartmental structures and suggests that cooperative goals and organizational identity mediate their effects on organizational effectiveness.

This study empirically examines the impact of goal interdependence and leader-member relationship on cross-cultural leadership in joint ventures in China. Its two research questions are how to facilitate leader-member relationships between foreign managers and Chinese employees in joint ventures in China, and how foreign managers and Chinese employees can develop cooperative goals in Chinese contexts. Four hypotheses were generated. Hypothesis 1 examined the effects of leader-member relationship between foreign managers and Chinese employees on cross-cultural leadership. Hypothesis 2 studied the impacts of different goal interdependence on the leader-member relationship between foreign managers and Chinese employees. Hypothesis 3 and 4 investigated how foreign managers can make use of the basic elements of Chinese guanxi value to develop cooperative goal interdependence with Chinese employees. This study applies the theory of cooperation and competition and the theory of LMX to develop responses to the research questions. We used different methods for different research questions. To answer the first research question, we used a survey to collect data for the first two hypotheses. Completed survey questionnaires were analyzed on a valid sample of 199. To answer the second research question, we conducted a 2x3 experiment with 120 participants to test hypothesis 3 and 4. Results of our survey study supported the theorizing that cooperative goals between managers and employees can strengthen their leader-member relationships, which in turn facilitate cross-cultural leadership. Our results also extended this theorizing to cross-cultural settings. Findings suggested that although the theory of cooperation and competition and the theory of LMX were developed in the West, they could be useful in Chinese contexts for understanding cross-cultural leadership. Results of our experiment indicated that communicating warm-heartedness rather than indifference, and structuring mutual rather than independent or comparative rewards, helped foreign managers develop cooperative goals, strong leader-member relationships with their Chinese employees and facilitated their leadership. In summary, this study demonstrates that cooperative goals and strong leader-member relationship promote productive cross-cultural leadership in joint ventures in China. Foreign managers can use basic elements of Chinese guanxi value to develop cooperative goals and quality leader-member relationship for effective cross-cultural leadership in Chinese contexts.