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40 modules across five units. Each module runs concept → constructs → evidence → alternatives → your decision → knowledge check.
8 modules shown
Groups and Teams
Unit III — Group Dynamics
A team is more than a collection of skilled individuals; its performance depends on how roles, norms, status, and cohesion combine to convert individual ability into coordinated output. When these structural elements are weak or misaligned, even technically strong members can produce mediocre collective results, a gap often explained by social loafing and low collective efficacy.
Team Development
Unit III — Group Dynamics
Teams evolve through predictable stages of development, and getting stuck at an early stage (especially storming) prevents the coordination and trust needed for high performance. Shared mental models let members anticipate each other's actions without constant explicit communication, which becomes critical under time pressure.
Communication
Unit III — Group Dynamics
Effective communication requires matching the message to the right channel, anticipating noise that distorts meaning, and building in feedback loops to confirm understanding. High-stakes, emotionally charged messages generally require richer media, even though rich channels are harder to scale.
Interpersonal Relations
Unit III — Group Dynamics
Interpersonal relationships at work are governed by both formal agreements and unspoken psychological contracts about fairness and reciprocity. When a perceived promise is broken, employees reassess trust, perceived organizational support, and the quality of their exchange relationship (LMX) with their manager, often with effects beyond the individual involved.
Conflict Management
Unit III — Group Dynamics
Not all conflict is harmful: task conflict about ideas can improve decisions, while relationship and process conflict tend to damage trust and coordination. Choosing among competing, avoiding, accommodating, compromising, and collaborating styles should depend on the stakes, time pressure, and relationship importance involved.
Negotiation
Unit III — Group Dynamics
Effective negotiation requires knowing your own and the counterpart's BATNA and reservation point to identify whether a zone of possible agreement exists, then choosing between distributive tactics (claiming value) and integrative tactics (creating value) based on the relationship's importance and the issues at stake.
Power and Politics
Unit III — Group Dynamics
Power in organizations arises from multiple bases -- legitimate authority, control over rewards or punishments, expertise, and personal referent appeal -- and is amplified by others' dependency on the power holder. Political skill determines whether power is used to build legitimate influence or is seen as self-serving manipulation, which matters greatly in contested resource-allocation decisions.
Social Influence
Unit III — Group Dynamics
Groups under pressure to maintain cohesion or defer to authority can suppress dissent through conformity and groupthink, leading to poor decisions despite available warning signs. Understanding social proof and minority influence helps identify how to structurally protect critical thinking in high-stakes group decisions.