Confrontation as a Training Design in Complex Organizations: Attitudinal Changes in a Diversified Population of Managers

Abstract

The "confrontation technique" has been used successfully in training designs in complex organizations, and this study at once reinforces and extends existing experience. Specifically, what follows is a report on an application of the technique that induced favorable attitudinal changes in the marketing area of a large firm. The similarities of this study with existing ones encompass both design and results. Basically, the design required the exchange of "images" between individuals or organization units. The public sharing of these data apparently reduced the amount of "unfinished business," freed up organization members, and led to favorable attitudinal changes on a variety of before/after comparisons. Thus the study is consistent with a growing major emphasis in the contemporary literature. Numerous observers have cited the necessity and positive consequences of "confronting" in organizations (Davis,:1967; Greiner, 1967, pp. 66-70; Lorsch, 1965, pp. 95-110). Several change agents have successfully varied the basic design of confronting persons in complex organizations with data about how they are seen by some significant others. As in this case, to note one variety of design, the participants may do the actual image building and communicating (Beckhard, 1967; Blake, Mouton, & Sloma, 1965). More or less oppositely, the consultant can play a more active role by interviewing and then synthesizing an image to be communicated to the client system (Argyris, 1962, 1967). A range of variations lies somewhere between these two types (Benedict, Calder, Callahan, Hornstein, & Miles, 1966; Miles, Calder, Hornstein, Callahan, & Schiavo, 1966). Also the design and results of this study are distinguished from other reports in the literature, particularly in four senses. First, the present training experience deals with several functionally related departments. Second, the design encompasses several hierarchical levels down to the first level of field supervision. (Other efforts in the literature tend to deal with two major groups, e.g., labor and management, and apparently with only a few levels of organization toward or at the top.) Third, an unusually wide variety of data was gathered in the present training design. Only gross attitudinal changes in the total population are reported here; i.e., the gross focus here is on changes in how everyone saw everyone else at time, and time2. But the cooperation of the participants permits a range of analysis broader than that of existing reports in the literature. Fourth, the confrontation experience was part of a large and longrange program of organization change. In contrast, existing reports tend to deal with ad hoc efforts.

The impact of training on the conflict resolution ability of rural women in the Niger Delta, Nigeria

“…Golembiewski and Blumberg (1967) attested to the efficacy of training in the 'critical core skills' and the use of the stated procedures as reported in their study, an improvement in the commitment of trainees to decisions and attitude towards co-operation as well as empathy in pre-and post-tests. Arak (1990), Burrel and Vogis-Turf (1990) and Davis (1986) found that 95-98% of conflicts mediated by trainees in the 'critical core skills' of the co-creative process of conflict resolution had lasting and stable agreements because the parties were committed to the decisions made.…”

“…Critical core skills of co-creative conflict resolution Golembiewski and Blumberg (1967) and Arak (1990) observed that trainees are successful in co-creative conflict resolution process if they are primarily trained Downloaded by [University of California Santa Cruz] at 01:47 27 November 2014 to become sensitive and willing to change certain aspects of their behaviour and exhibit qualities termed 'critical core skills' during social relationship. Clements et al (2000) listed the aspects of behaviour as: ability of trainees to trust opponents during interaction; maintenance of integrity during conflict resolution process; forgiveness of opponents; co-operation with opponents to resolve issues; empathy; taking responsibility for one's actions; and commitment to the decisions made in the resolution of conflicts.…”

The Destructive I mpact of a Positive Team-Building Intervention

“…These perceptions are shared, and the problems they indicate are confronted and resolved. The design, or a variation thereof, has been utilized in dealing with intergroup conflict (Argyris, 1967;Blake, Shepard, & Mouton, 1954;Golembiewski & Blumberg, 1969) and interpersonal and intragroup conflict (Beckhard, 1969;Bennis, 1969;Boss, 1975;Boss, Gouws, & Nagai, 1978;Golembiewski & Blumberg, 1967;Golembiewski & Kiepper, 1976). Two important factors contributed to the adoption of the 3-D-image design.…”

Technology for Organizational Training in Schools

“…Since then approaches developed through the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science have been tried out in countless organizations. Although the T-group has been associated with the National Training Laboratories (NTL) and the laboratory method in general (Bradford, Gibb, and Benne, 1964) and is still practiced as the pivotal tool in many organizational change programs (Bennis, 1966;Schein and Bennis, 1965;Argyris, 1964;Rice, 1965), other approaches have been effective (Schein and Bennis, 1965;Crosby and Schmuck, 1969;Golembiewski and Blumberg, 1967). The present paper describes procedures, exercises, methods, sequences, and data we have used in organizational training with schools and school districts.'…”