Center for Behavioral Decision Research

CBDR : Seminar Series : Seminar by Oliver Sheldon

Conflict and Rivalry in Teams and Organizations

	presented by Oliver Sheldon (University of Chicago)


	Tuesday, February 12	link to paper
	10:30-noon
	Posner 388	link to Speaker's Site

	Abstract:

	Mundane events and common practices in organizations can catalyze conflicts and rivalries between colleagues and teammates, potentially with dire consequences. My primary stream of research, which includes my dissertation, focuses on these kinds of situations. Whether they be ordinary delays in getting back with a colleague or having one’s teammate selected for mentoring, events and practices that evoke conflict between colleagues are routine in organizations. My empirical work documents the negative emotional and cognitive consequences of these events, as well as downstream costs for cooperation, learning, and performance. My second stream of work picks up on the role of emotion in the workplace by investigating how emotions influence individuals’ perceptions of colleagues. Related work explores how leaders perceive their own ability to understand and manage their emotions and those of their subordinates. Finally, in other work, I am interested in how financial analysts and commentators think about and describe markets. In particular, I look at how the words and metaphors they choose to use, perhaps unknowingly, shape investors’ emotional reactions to and forecasts about the market. I describe these and other projects in greater detail below.

	Host at CMU: Moore