The effects of incentive structures and conflict management on perceived decision quality and the strength of consensus
</p> <p>This study investigated the effects of group and individual incentive structures as well as collaborative and competitive conflict management strategies on consensus and perceived decision quality. Results showed group incentives encouraged collaborative conflict management w...
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| Format: | Others |
| Language: | en |
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Virginia Tech
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10919/44381 http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-08222009-040317/ |
| Summary: | </p>
<p>This study investigated the effects of group and individual incentive structures as well
as collaborative and competitive conflict management strategies on consensus and
perceived decision quality. Results showed group incentives encouraged collaborative
conflict management while group incentives and collaborative conflict management
both encouraged the perception of consensus and decision quality. At the same time
individual incentives encouraged competitive conflict management while individual
incentives and competitive conflict management each reduced the perception of
consensus and decision quality. I used questionnaires to measure the perception of
conflict management strategies, consensus, and decision quality with a sample size of
120. I wasn't able to substantiate the same hypotheses relating to actual consensus,
which I measured mathematically on the group level through a rank procedure. The
sample size for actual consensus was 30 groups.</p>
<p>
In an exploratory effort to understand a behavioral aspect of decision making groups, I
found that individuals I verbal behaviors concerning how often they had spoken during
the group process correlated significantly with individuals' perception of how
influential individuals were on the final group ranking.</p>
<p>
In the experiment, I used 120 students from an introductory psychology class at
Virginia Tech. The sample consisted of 63 males and 57 females. All subjects
watched the movie called "12 Angry Menll and were asked to decide by themselves on
the order in which the 12 jurors would change their vote from guilty to not guilty. I
formed groups of four, and exposed them to either group incentives or individual
incentives before they were asked to make a group decision on the same ranking. I
intended group and individual incentive structures to cause collaborative and
competitive conflict management strategies, respectively.</p> === Master of Science |
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