9.5 Key Takeaways, Knowledge Check and Key Terms

In this chapter, we learned that:

• Personality encompasses a person’s relatively stable feelings, thoughts, and behavioral patterns.
  
• The Big 5 personality traits are summarized by the acronym OCEAN. They are Openness, Contentiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Neuroticism is associated with poor emotion regulation while individuals who score high in contentiousness, openness and agreeableness may be more likely to engage in positive conflict.
• Cognitive dispositions (general patterns of mental processes that impact how people respond and react to the world around them) discussed in this chapter were locus of control, cognitive complexity, authoritarianism, dogmatism, emotional intelligence, and AO.  Social-personal dispositions (general patterns of mental processes that impact how people socially relate to others or view themselves) discussed in this chapter were loneliness, depression, self-esteem, narcissism, Machiavellianism, empathy, and self-monitoring. These ways of being impact our relationships and ability to engage in conflict management.
• Workplace deviance involves the voluntary behavior of organizational members that violates significant organizational norms and practices or threatens the wellbeing of the organization and its members.
• Harden Fritz categorized six types of problematic bosses: different, okay good old boy/girl, toxic, self-centered taskmaster, and intrusive harasser.
  • First, the different boss is someone a subordinate sees as distractingly different from them as a person.
  • Second, the good old boy/girl boss considers the “old ways of doing things” as best – even when they’re problematic.
  • Third, the OK boss kay and average in just about every way possible coasting towards retirement.
  • Fourth, the toxic boss is seen as unethical, obnoxious, and unprofessional by their subordinates.
  • Fifth, the self-centered taskmaster is entirely concerned with completing tasks with no concern for developing relationships with their followers.
  • Lastly, the intrusive harasser boss tends to be highly interfering and often wants to get caught up in their subordinates’ personal and professional lives.
• Harden Fritz categorized eight types of problematic coworkers:
  • adolescent (wants to be the center of attention and get nothing done),
  • bully (is overly demanding of their peers and takes credit for their work),
  • mild annoyance (they engage in disruptive behaviors regularly but not to a drastic degree),
  • independent self-promoter (likes to toot their own horn),
  • pushy playboy/playgirl (pushes people into doing things for them),
  • independent other (perceived as distinctly different from their coworkers),
  • soap opera star (loves to gossip and be in the middle of all of the workplace drama), and
  • the abrasive, incompetent harasser (is highly uncivil in the workplace with a special emphasis in sexually harassing behavior).
• Harden Fritz categorized five types of problematic subordinates: the okay subordinate, the abrasive harasser, the bully, the different other, and the incompetent renegade.
  • First, the okay substitute is a follower who is not stellar or awful, just very much middle of the road.
  • Second, the abrasive harasser is an individual who tends to be someone who needs counseling regularly about what constitutes sexual harassment.
  • Third, the bully is someone who bosses their peers around, usurps authority, and engages in hypercompetitive behavior when competition is not necessary (all signs of someone who is deeply insecure).
  • Fourth, the different other is a follower who is perceived as distinctly different from their supervisor.
  • Finally, the incompetent renegade is ethically incompetent and views themselves as above the law within the organization.
• Using the ABC model, we discussed three basic forms of conflict management: Avoider attempt to avoid a conflict altogether or leave the conflict field. Battlers have a distributive conflict style and desire a win-lose orientation. Collaborators engage in integrative conflict and attempt to find a mutually beneficial solution to a problem.