SciTS 2011 Conference: Sessions

Collaboration Readiness and Conflict Resolution in Teams (Panel)

Wednesday, April 13 • 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

The forces that bring scientists together for collaboration are many and they each produce a host of factors that can influence teamwork. Motivational forces can be internal, as when intellectual curiosities coalesce to produce a shared desire for collaboration. Or there can be external pressures, as when problem resolution demands interdisciplinary solutions. Across these varied factors, moving from investigator-initiated research to collaborative team science, introduces a host of challenges potentially impeding group process and outcomes. To help bound this problem space, we examine collaboration readiness and conflict across affective, behavioral, and cognitive levels. We address both theoretical and practical issues associated with the dimensions of collaboration un-readiness and readiness and conflict development and conflict resolution. By understanding both the intra- and the inter-personal aspects of teamwork, it is possible to identify the most effective steps for embarking on collaborative work and how to address conflict when it arises in team science.

Michelle Bennett, Ph.D., National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Stephen M. Fiore, Ph.D., University of Central Florida, Associate Professor, Cognitive Sciences, Department of Philosophy, Director, Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, IST
Verlin Hinsz, Ph.D., North Dakota State University, Professor of Psychology
Gary Olson, Ph.D., University of California-Irvine, Professor of Information and Computer Sciences

Video

Watch: Collaboration Readiness and Conflict Resolution in Teams

Panelists

Michelle Bennett

Michelle Bennett, Ph.D., is the Deputy Scientific Director for the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), in Bethesda, Maryland. The NHLBI Division of Intramural Research comprises approximately 60 intramural scientists and clinicians working in basic, translational and clinical research. Dr. Bennett is responsible for overseeing the BSC process, facilitating the research process by assuring cutting edge technologies and approaches are available to all researchers in the program, and establishing and maintaining clinical partnerships with local area hospitals. Prior to joining the NHLBI in June of 2010, Dr. Bennett was a Deputy Director at the Center for Cancer Research (CCR), National Cancer Institute (NCI), with more than 250 intramural scientists and clinicians working in basic, translational and clinical research. Dr. Bennett has worked closely with Dr. Howard Gadlin, the NIH Ombudsman on understanding the critical elements that facilitate team science and collaboration. Dr. Bennett has extensive background in promoting collaboration and teambased approaches by bringing together research scientists with diverse backgrounds and expertise to solve complex scientific problems. Drs. Bennett and Gadlin spearheaded an initiative to understand the fundamental characteristics that contribute to successful scientific team functioning. This work led to the production of a workbook: Collaboration and Team Science: A Field Guide that serves as a primer for investigators who are building or participating on a research team.

Stephen M. Fiore

Stephen M. Fiore, Ph.D., is faculty with the University of Central Florida’s Cognitive Sciences Program in the Department of Philosophy and Director of the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory at UCF’s Institute for Simulation and Training. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh, Learning Research and Development Center. He maintains a multidisciplinary research interest that incorporates aspects of the cognitive, social, and computational sciences in the investigation of learning and performance in individuals and teams. He is co-Editor of recent volumes on Macrocognition in Teams (2008), Distributed Learning (2007), Team Cognition (2004), and he has co-authored over 100 scholarly publications in the area of learning, memory, and problem solving at the individual and the group level. As Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator he has helped to secure and manage approximately $15 Million in research funding from organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the Department of Homeland Security.

Verlin Hinsz

Verlin Hinsz, Ph.D., received his undergraduate degree in Psychology and Sociology from North Dakota State University and his doctorate in socialorganizational psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since earning his doctorate, he has been on the faculty of North Dakota State University where he is now Professor of Psychology. Like his doctoral degree, Professor Hinsz’s research lies at the intersection of social and organizational psychology. Some of Professor Hinsz’s recent publications have dealt with information processing in groups, motivating food safety behavior, group and individual judgment and decision making, and approach and avoidance motivation in groups. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Air Force Research Labs. Professor Hinsz is currently associate editor of the Interpersonal Relations and Group Performance Section of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Gary M. Olson

Gary M. Olson, Ph.D., is Donald Bren Professor of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. He joined the Department of Informatics at the Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences in July of 2008. Previously he was Paul M. Fitts Professor of Human-Computer Interaction in the School of Information and Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan. He received his B.A. summa cum laude (1967) in Psychology from the University of Minnesota, and an M.A. (1968) and Ph.D. (1970) in Psychology from Stanford University. For more than two decades he has conducted research in the areas of human-computer interaction (HCI) and computer supported cooperative work (CSCW). Of late the focus of his work has been on how to support small groups of people working on difficult intellectual tasks, particularly when the members of the group are geographically distributed. This research has involved both field studies of groups attempting to do such work and lab studies that evaluate specific technologies. He has published more than a hundred and twenty articles and chapters, and has edited four books, most recently Scientific Research on the Internet published in 2008 by MIT Press. In 2003 he was elected to the ACM SIGCHI Academy, and in 2006 shared the SIGCHI Lifetime Achievement Award with Judy Olson. In 2008 he was elected a Fellow of the ACM, and in 2009 became a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) and the American Psychological Association (APA).