Group Consensus
Managing Conflict Conflict is an inevitable part of interpersonal relations within an organization, where the actions of one individual are perceived to have a negative impact upon the state of another individual. A leader must be prepared to institute steps in the conflict management process in order to progress through a given incident for the betterment of the organization. “Conflict management is the principle that all conflicts cannot be resolved, but learning how to manage conflicts can decrease the odds of nonproductive escalation” (Popovich & Hocenski, 2009, p.15). Although conflict, in general, may seem detrimental to a team, functional conflict is necessary for a properly functioning team. Without functional conflict,
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According to Redick, Reyna, Schaffer, and Toomey (2014) leading though the different phases require leaders to focus on different items such as establishing objectives in forming stage, reinforcing trust, relationships, and structure in the storming stage, taking a supporting role in the norming stage, and in the performing stage a leader encourages and propels the team past complacency (p. 6).
Another important step to consider in effectively implementing team structures within an organization relates to the developmental stages of these teams. To properly tackle the challenges and objectives assigned, a team must develop a process for cohesively coming together as a functional unit. Marissa Shuffler (2011) details, “the two most prevalent approaches, team training and team building…highlight their contributions to improving teams when designed according to team development science” (p.365). These two processes permit a team to more effectively move through the four stages of development as a group.
High Performing
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One training approach is the Johari Window, a model that builds a team’s communication and trust. “By explaining the idea of the Johari Window, you can help team members understand the value of self-disclosure, and you can encourage them to give, and accept, constructive feedback” (Mindtools, 2014). In the end an approach such as the Johari Window or other team development functions will help people build more trusting relationships, solve critical issues, and work more effectively as a
When they have been used correctly, they’ve been shown to improve efficiency and profitability in organizations. “Developing team skills is important because of the tremendous explosion in the use of teams in work organizations over the last decade (Developing Management Skills).” An examination of these models will show the similarities and differences they have in the context of team building. Four Stages Model “The Forming – Norming – Storming – Performing model of team development was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965. This model has become the basis for subsequent models of team dynamics and frequently used management theory to describe the behavior of existing teams (Wikipedia).”
University of Washington. (2013). Four (Five) Stages of Team Development – Bruce Tuckman. Retrieved April 2014, from University of Washington: depts.washington.edu/oei/resources
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.
Seven tasks must be included in consideration of team dynamics and structure. The first of which is defining the goal, mission or function of a specific team. The team must know what it is being asked to accomplish. The second area of consideration is assessing what skills, abilities, knowledge or potential to acquire such would be needed amongst selected team members. Identification of potential team members should include an assessment of the skills, knowledge and abilities or the potential to acquire such so that ultimately the team has the building blocks with which to succeed in its mission, goal or function. This assessment must include an understanding of realistic potential contributions by potential team members with the included assessment of whether or not the acquisition of skills and knowledge can be made available through research and analysis.
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.
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.
Simply put, conflict is the disagreement and disharmony that occurs in groups when differences are expressed regarding ideas, methods, and/or members (Engleberg, Wynn, and Schuttler, 2003). Conflict among teams or groups develops in many ways. In developing an effective team, members will generally experience the five stages of evolution: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning. The storming and norming stages deal with the process of conflict (storming) and resolution (norming). During the storming stage, exact conflict has not yet been identified, and therefore chaos, disorganization, and disputes are apparent.
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.
This is where the team comes together and get to know each other and feel each team member out and work on finding each member’s strengths and weaknesses. During forming, the team will begin working on establishing trust and getting over their fear of conflict. Lencioni recommends that the team members spend some time talking about their personal lives to help establish trust. He also suggests taking the Myer-Briggs personality profiles to help facilitate learning each member’s strengths and weaknesses (2002). According to Prytherch, et.al. (2012), when individuals are brought together into a team, it can take a long time for that group to bond cohesively and reach the stage where it is working well. Trust and confidence between team members also takes time. To hasten the process, the new team should first undergo a team-building activity. The goal of team building activities is to promote greater interaction and cohesiveness among employees (Schnall
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).
The first stage in developing a team as it relates to group dynamics is forming, this is the stage where team members come together and they question what they are therefore, who else is a part of the team, who they are comfortable with, and this enables them to get involved as well as allowing the team the opportunity to introduce themselves to each other. The second stage is storming, and in this stage the team members begin to voice their opinions and differences as well as align themselves with others who share their same beliefs. This is an important stage for the team because team members will begin to become more involved with one another, and when they voice their concerns, they can feel like they are being represented and understood. The third stage is norming in the stage team members begin to establish a shared common commitment to the purpose of why the team is there, where they can establish their overall goals and how the goals are going to be achieved. In the fourth stage, known as performing, the team works effectively and efficiently to gather towards achieving the goal.
Rahim (2002) differentiated person’s perception towards handling a conflict into two: “concern for self and concern for others” (p. 216). Further, the study explored two types of conflicts and observed that most conflicts arise during the decision-making process. Dysfunctional conflict, which hinders team performance and interpersonal relations due to individual’s self-interest in implementing particular decision. Functional conflict serves organization purpose with employees involved in the conflict regarding which proposal to implement (Rahim, 2011).
Some ways in implementing effective teamwork is by giving the power to make decisions. Giving the team the power to make decisions is a great motivation for effective teamwork and to bring about radical change (p.2). Share clearly defined team objectives: when a team shares and gets feedback from one another their performance and overall effectiveness improves (p.3). Promote efficient team meetings: by having team meetings and using status reports makes a more productive meeting. The status reports helps with the meeting because the report is going to state what already has happened and what needs to be done (p.3). Make individual progress visible to the whole team: In order for the team to make effective progress in the workplace they need to make each individual team member work available to be seen (p.3). Make it fun by melting the ice: Working in a team should be fun and inspiring, not an obligation. A great strategy is having fun and humor that promotes effective teamwork in the workplace. Trying actives like ice breaker to boost the team spirits and bring about positive attitudes is good for the team
The stages of team development are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Norming is the first stage that involves team members getting to know each other and trying to figure out where they fit in. As a leader, it is important to provide clear directions and set proper goals and expectations during this stage. Storming is the next stage and as the name suggest it is characterized with struggles, challenges, conflicts, and competition among team members. During this stage, I will provide a mediating role and facilitate conversations that steers the team towards the right
The team members not only share expectations for accomplishing group tasks, but trust and support one another and respect one another's individual differences. Your role as a team builder is to lead your team toward cohesiveness and productivity. A team takes on a life of its own and you have to regularly nurture and maintain it, just as you do for individual employees. Teambuilding is important for several reasons. It facilitates better communication and it motivates employees. The more comfortable your employees are to express their ideas and opinions, the more confident they will become. This will motivate them to take on new challenges. Team building also promotes creativity and develops problem solving skills. It also breaks the barrier because team building increases the trust factor with your employees. The first rule of team building is an obvious one: to lead a team effectively, you must first establish your leadership with each team member. Communication should be clear and manager should describe team values and goal. Trust and cooperation is also important when building effective team. Opinions of all group members are important and all of them are equal. One of most important thing is encourage listening and