Diversity and Avoiding Conflicts

While finding a good balance, conflicts will most certainly arise. Conflict resolution strategies must be utilized, for the team to be effective and meet the goals and objective of their assignment. These conflicts may be more evident in certain types of teams more so than in others. Conflict is common when working in teams. Its is important to have team meeting in order to lay out potential problems and disagreements and prepare to support the teams final decision. (Weinstein, 2007)

Conflict results from real or perceived opposition to one’s values, actions, desires or general interests. Conflicts may occur internally or externally between individuals or groups; conflict within a team environment can cause frustration, and occasionally anger. However, conflict resolution can also often generate positive results for the team. Conflict management skills remain in demand; conflict may be managed successfully by reaching an agreement that satisfies the needs of both the individual(s) and the team as a whole

People work in groups or teams everyday whether in their career, education, political organization, church, or any other social setting. Conflict while working in teams or groups is inevitable. When taking people of different backgrounds, personalities, moral, and ethical beliefs and putting them together in a group, conflict will arise. The key to achieving your team goals is to construct and conquer your goals with keeping the greater good of the team in mind. Conflict as it arises should be combated and abated through swift and thorough resolution techniques. When dealt with properly conflict resolution can give rise to a cohesive and productive team.

Conflict among team members is a challenge which always seems to be occurring in one way or another over a small period of time or larger. Conflict can be formed in many different ways and if unresolved can lead to more severe consequences. Having strategies in place can help leaders to deal with such issues and challenges and help to keep them to a minimum.

The potential for conflicts would consist of pointing fingers and judging without investigating. A person might already know who the employee is that started the problem and approach the person, unprofessionally. The process needs to be redefined and no one should be singled out as the culprit. Furthermore, a conflict may ignite if communication is not open. Hence, one person might feel an idea or strategy is not helpful to reach the goal. Although, good teamwork creates a positive environment. If there is a heated disagreement, it can lower the mood, and demotivate the rest of the team. However, according to Cheesebro, (2010) Conflict is healthy in certain situations, because it will bring a team together. Research has shown, employees who feel part of a strong team are happier and more productive. An acronym for team

Conflict Levels – Effective teams maintain a perfect level of negative and positive conflicts. At times disagreement is encouraged to lessen the likelihood of groupthink.

I think that one way to solve conflict and build trust on a team is to express the conflict directly and communicate with others in order to solve it. Besides, I think that team needs to create open communication so that every team member will be able to share their ideas and thoughts, and team members have to respect every aspect of other team members because respect can create the trust that will allow members to be vulnerable.

A leader has a role that can impact others to be more operative in functioning to attain a common goal and maintain effective working relationships amongst group members (Johnson & Johnson 2012). This makes leaders in groups considerably important in shaping individuals (Johnson & Johnson 2012). However, conflict arises in groups and becomes difficult to manage when a leader and the followers lack the skills to manage conflict as a team (Johnson & Johnson 2012). Leadership and conflict resolution skills must exists between leaders and followers in order to manage conflict (Johnson & Johnson 2012). Also, it is possible for followers to teach leaders how to lead and resolve problems since followers can play an active role in building relationships amongst group members (Howell & Shamir cited in Johnson & Johnson 2012). Since followers and leaders both have significant roles in accomplishing the group goals, they both have a role to manage conflict effectively as a group (Johnson & Johnson 2012). This essay will discuss how leaders have an important role in managing conflict and likewise with followers having important roles in managing conflict. Conflicts, the various types of conflicts that happen in groups and the reasons behind the conflicts will be mentioned followed by approaches that can be taken to help manage struggles within groups. The methods can be used by leaders and followers in order to manage

Conflict between team members will happen in the workplace because the fact that there will have an environment where decisions are made and personality clashes will occur. This doesn’t mean you have an unproductive workforce, it means you will have to be able to catch the problem early and know what to do with each individual case. People are going to disagree because they have different view points, different backgrounds and a different thought process, maybe even a different agenda for that project. People disagree for a number of reasons (De Bono, 1985). College graduates will be put into positions of uncertainty due to the lack of work history. This will in turn cause conflict, not knowing

Among the five strategies the one I appreciate the most is competition. Competition is useful in other avenues as well as conflict management, such as academics. Although competition does require a loser it does a good job of stimulating teams to put out best efforts. Further, competition saves time when there is a deadline looming. When working in a group conflict is an inevitable matter that one cannot escape, there are varieties of conflicts; ideas, opinions, beliefs, culture differences, and desired accomplishment. Everyone have different ideas and goals in accomplishing their tasks, therefore, it might be difficult to be dealt with amongst one another if they cannot come to an agreement or have an open mind for new things. Conflict in a group could mean that there is a diversity of believes, aims, and ideas. It indicates that team members are contributing their part, sharing their different point of view and trying to make a different. As a manager, one should not look at conflict as a bad thing; instead tolerate minimum conflict in a group as a way of motivation and a development method for improvement or exchanging ideas to reach their goals. However, if conflict increase and cannot be settled in a professional or peaceful manner, as a manager, I would use the collaboration strategy method to help solve the issues. I would start to request each team members to do their own participation and write down their ideas with a

5. View conflict as an opportunity. Conflict can offer many advantages for teaching and learning within the project team. It is important that as the project leader, you help navigate through the conflict and turn it into a positive learning opportunity for the team.

In order to reach a collaborative solution, a team must work to resolve conflict in a productive manner. Avoidance is one resolution strategy many teams use. Avoidance is not a valid resolution strategy in most instances though. Avoidance sweeps conflict aside in order for the team to pursue more productive avenues. “If the conflict is not central to the work of the team, it may be best to set it aside so that the important work of the team can proceed” (Porter, ρ.3). Only under these circumstances should avoidance be used. Another technique, compromise, is similar to avoidance. Compromise is when “each person gives up something for the sake of agreement” (Porter, ρ.4). Again, this method does not produce the best results as it fails to address the entire issue and can force certain members of a team to concede points that would be

In this writing, we will explore and explain strategies of conflict resolution and, encourage teams, individuals and society as a whole to use some of these ideas for their own resolution purposes. “In many cases, effective conflict resolution skills can make the difference between positive and negative outcomes.” (Conflict resolution, 2008). With this in mind, individuals will have hope for a more positive team experience.

Behfar, K. J., Peterson, R. S., Mannix, E. A., & Trochim, W. M. K. (2008). The critical role of conflict resolution in teams: A close look at the links between conflict type, conflict management strategies, and team outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology,

Conflict is inevitable and at times stimulates beneficial or creative thinking. Often conflict is a signal that people are miscommunicating and making different assumptions about what has gone unspoken. The conflict in itself is not the problem. It is the team’s reactions to it that determines the impact, thus causing it to be a negative experience. Conflict or divergence can be destructive or it can be constructive. It is up to the people involved in the conflict to manage the outcome. This gives them an opportunity to articulate their assumptions and figure out a way to come to agreement. In a learning team situation, conflict can arise when the original agreement to work together does not address