Team Solutions for Conflict Management When co workers form teams they will find that they disagree or need to find ways to express their differences (Engleberg, Wynn, 2006, p. 147). Conflicts may arise from tight deadlines and short tempers, but most team members may not know what to do. "Despite the inevitability of conflict, many of us go out of our way to avoid or suppress it" (Engleberg, 2006, p. 147). When working in a team environment, co workers must find effective solutions for the numerous conflicts that may arise. According to Jim Temme et al. (1995), "Teams must set their own goals, make decisions, and solve problems" (Temme, Katzel, 1995, para. 5). The most common ways conflicts arise are from the "struggle between incompatible and opposing needs, wishes, ideas, interests, or people" (DeJanasz, Dowd, Schneifer, 2001 p. 243). Other forms of conflict arise when team members have different values, attitudes, needs, expectations, perceptions, resources, and personalities (Capozzoli, 1995, para. 9). Many employers do not offer sessions on how to handle conflicts, so employees are not aware of effective strategies available to help team members deal with their differences. Conflicts can come from almost any type of communication Understanding different types of conflicts and how to resolve them is the best first step. Positive and Negative Conflicts There are both positive and negative conflicts. Conflicts are mostly associated with "quarreling, fighting, anger, and hostility" (Engleberg, Wynn, 2006, p. 147). Not all conflicts need to become negative. A conflict can be positive when managed or resolved effectively (Capozzoli, 1995, para. 5). These conflicts challenge co workers and can lead to better results. They can lead to increased involvement, cohesion, innovation, and creativity from team members. They can also show positive personal growth, change, and clarify both values and key issues (DeJanasz, Dowd, Schneifer, 2001 p. 244). Through positive conflicts, the "quality of decision making improves as opposing viewpoints and concerns are discussed" (Engleberg, Wynn, 2006, p. 149). Groups who are committed to positive conflicts share similar principles such as members being able to disagree and still respect each other (Engleberg, 2006, p. 149). They are also not afraid to disagree with higher ranked group members, know that their disagreements will not be punished, and have an agreed-upon approach for resolving their conflicts and making decisions (Engleberg, 2006, p.149). Negative conflicts can lead to employees feeling as though they have lost sight of the team's goal because of constant bickering or arguing among team members.
For a team to be successful there are several factors that have to be addressed in order for a fluent, functioning group of individuals combined to achieve a certain goal. This goal can be a variety of different endings from producing minor results to making decisions that create a major impact on a large scale. Within a team environment conflict is always presence. Conflict is essential to the advancement of teams and must be managed in a proper way to avoid destruction and division amongst the group of individuals. From sports, to education, and the workplace teamwork is present in everyday life. As a human race we all work in different team oriented situations in order to accomplish a variety of tasks.
Conflict within the team can be healthy if well managed and there is a pre-set common goal the team is working towards. Conflict comes sometime due to differences in perception and cultural differences. These have to be harnessed to avoid “group-think” rather than allowing for ‘information seeker’ to thrive so as to bring the best out of the team work through critical questioning (A Primer on Communications Studies, 2012).
In several occasions, conflict occurs in the communication of one or two people. Several people have thought of conflict as cases involving pouring of furious anger in a communication process. Nonetheless, conflict is the misinterpretation of an individual’s words or values (Huan & YAzdanifard, 2012). Conflict can also be due to limited resources in an organization (Riaz & Junaid, 2010). Conflict may as well arise due to poor communication or the use of inappropriate communication channel of transmission of information between the involved parties. Management of conflict has various conflict management styles that include avoidance style, forcing style, passive-aggressive style, accommodating style, collaborating style and compromising style. Workplace conflict comes in two different kinds: task involving conflict, which focuses on the approaches used in resolving the problem and blaming conflict that has the aspects of blame and never brings element of resolving problems between the conflicting parties. In the perception of several individuals, relationship conflict is negative.
... resolution via coaching, constructive criticism and positive actions. Additional measures may need to be taken should behavioral issues persist to include the termination of team membership and/or repercussions for non-active participation. Resolving negative issues by turning performance around can only be accomplished when team members clearly understand their role within the team and the importance of their participation. This occurs with the encouragement and support of all team members; hence team morale improves in addition to team productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness.
Conflict, when managed effectively, can be constructive. Conflict theorists have labeled this type of conflict as “C-Type Conflict or cognitive conflict” (Amason, Hochwarter, Thompson & Harrison, 1995, p. 22). Conflict of this type is usually centered on issue or opinion related differences and has a positive effect on the team. It increases team member involvement by allowing each member to speak his or her opinion or idea and evaluate the opinions or ideas of others. People change and grow personally from dealing with this type of positive conflict and team cohesiveness is created. Ultimately, “C-Type Conflict” results in a solution to the problem or agreement amongst team members.
When dealt with properly, conflict resolution can give rise to a cohesive and productive team. What Is Conflict? Conflict, as defined by Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, is "a competitive or opposing action of incompatibles: antagonistic state or action (as of divergent ideas, interest, or persons), Mental struggle resulting from incompatible or opposing needs, drives, wishes, or external or internal demands."
A group can only be called a team if the members are actively working together toward a common goal. A team must have the capability to set goals, make decisions, solve problems, and share responsibilities. For a team to be successful, trust must be earned between its members by being consistent and reliable (Temme & Katzel, 2005). When more than one person is working on a particular task, inconsistent views or opinions commonly arise. People come from different backgrounds and live through different life experiences therefore, even when working towards a common goal, they will not always see eye to eye. Major conflict that is not dealt with can devastate a team or organization (Make Conflict Work, 2008). In some situations, conflict can be more constructive than destructive. Recognizing the difference between conflict that is constructive to the team and conflict that is destructive to the team is important. Trying to prevent the conflict is not always the best way to manage conflict when working within a team setting. Understanding conflict, what causes it, and how to resolve conflict effectively, should consume full concentration.
Many people enjoy working or participating in a group or team, but when a group of people work together chances are that conflicts will occur. Hazleton describes conflict as the discrepancy between what is the perceived reality and what is seen as ideal (2007). “We enter into conflicts reluctantly, cautiously, angrily, nervously, confidently- and emerge from them battered, exhausted, sad, satisfied, triumphant. And still many of us underestimate or overlook the merits of conflict- the opportunity conflict offers every time it occurs” (Schilling, nd.). Conflict does not have to lead to a hostile environment or to broken relationships. Conflict if resolved effectively can lead to a positive experience for everyone involved. First, there must be an understanding of the reasons why conflicts occur. The conflict must be approached with an open mind. Using specific strategies can lead to a successful resolution for all parties involved. The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument states “there are five general approaches to dealing with conflict. The five approaches are avoidance, accommodation, competition, compromise, and collaboration. Conflict resolution is situational and no one approach provides the best or right approach for all circumstances” (Thomas, 2000).
Differences within the team are the major reason for conflict. This stems from differences in opinion, attitude, beliefs, as well as cultural back grounds and social factors. The Conflict can be positive which is functional and supports or benefits the organization or a person’s main objectives (Reaching Out, 1997). Conflict is viewed as positive when the conflict results in increased involvement form the group, increased cohesion, and positive innovation and creativity. Conflict tends to be positive as well when it leads to better decisions, and solutions to long-term problems.
Look up the word conflict in the dictionary and you will see several negative responses. Descriptions such as: to come into collision or disagreement; be at variance or in opposition; clash; to contend; do battle; controversy; quarrel; antagonism or opposition between interests or principles Random House (1975). With the negative reputation associated with this word, no wonder people tend to shy away when they start to enter into the area of conflict. D. Jordan (1996) suggests that there are two types of conflict: good, which is defined as cognitive conflict (C-type conflict) and, detrimental, defined as affective conflict (A-type conflict). The C-type conflict allows for creativity, to pull together a group of people with different opinions or ideas, to combine and brain storm all thoughts to develop the best solution for the problem. The A-type conflict is the negative form when you have animosity, hostility, un-resolveable differences, and egos to deal with. The list citing negative conflicts could go on forever. We will be investigating these types of conflicts, what managers can do to recognize conflict early, and what strategies they can use to resolve conflicts once they have advanced.
Along with the preparation for conflict resolutions, understanding the situation in the team during the conflict is important. Clarifying positions along with listing the facts and all the necessary analyzation of the particular situation helps in resolving the conflict in a team. Applying this process can effectively address and resolve the conflict in a
Conflict is a basic aspect of teamwork (Levi, 2001), since the number of decisions that a team needs to make often evokes feelings of discomfort and stress. Conflict very often arises from a clash of different working style, ideas, interests, needs, and wants. Team conflicts can be due to high stress level. It has been experienced that in teamwork there can be conflicts and conflicts creates dissatisfaction among the employees. It is important that conflicts be addressed in such a way that it has adverse effect and it is very important to address the conflicts on the spot otherwise it would be difficult to handle the conflicts. (Jehn, 1995).When team member s disagree about the task themselves that how these tasks should be performed then task related conflicts occurs. It is also called task led-conflicts, it occurs when persons disagree over the understanding of tasks and their goals it is a disagreement between two team members in a group over the decisions. They have differences of opinions about a certain issue. (Stewart, Sims & Manz, 1999). Disagreement can be caused by differences in viewpoint and values, differences of opinion about tasks and differences in expectation about the impact of decisions (Levi, 2001).
Conflict is energy, conflict is excitement, conflict is often driven by a passion that is necessary to progression. In other words, we need many of the characteristics that might cause conflict and conflict itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The important thing is learning how to manage
The case is about team conflict because it involves a team work. We have a group of employees working on a project which has a common goal to implement safety database tracking system for their company (international pharmaceutical company).
Conflict exists in every organization as a result of incompatible needs, goals, and objectives of two people while aligning to the overall business requirements. Though disagreement is linked with negative impact, the approach has healthy considerations (Leung, 2008). For instance, some conflicts create an avenue for the exchange of ideas and creativity to meet the set organizational purposes. However, damaging disagreement in organizations results in employee dissatisfaction, turnover, and poor services and reduced productivity. The paper establishes different types of interpersonal conflict and key resolution strategies used to address the problem. Human resource managers need to have the capacity to identify different levels of conflicts and the best methods to negate them.