How to Enhance Group Communication

In today’s world teamwork is being utilized by companies across the globe. Employers are seeing the value of teamwork and what can be accomplished when people put the strengths together. These teams consist of people from different cultures with different personalities. Conflict is inevitable when it comes to group dynamics. Conflict resolution is necessary to keep the group functioning efficiently. This paper will analyze group dynamics and focus on conflict resolution by way of communication.

Regular meetings with regards to roles and aims of the team are a very important part of the process of working as a team. The meetings enable the team to prioritise ways of working together, it enables the team to reflect on progress to date and to set new goals and identify other ways of getting the best out of being a team.

Conflict arises from various sources in the team setting (Capozzoli, 1995). The most common causes of conflict are values, attitudes, needs, expectations, perceptions, resources, and personalities. As we are all raised with different values, morals come into play when the team issue deals directly or indirectly with ones values, morals, or ethics. Conflicting attitudes can bring about problems as two or more team members prove to have differing goals in mind. Individual needs can cause rifts within a team when they are not satisfied. The expectations of team members are not the same on how the goal will be met. We all have different perceptions of life situation and interpret them differently. The lack of resources needed to complete a task can cause conflict. Differing personalities play a major role in team conflict.

Clear responsibilities and roles, the structure of the team, job descriptions, competencies, accountabilities, resources, tools and equipment should all be provided. Problem solving, communicating, managing conflicts, tasks, planning meetings, performance evaluation, managing change and decision making should follow clear procedures ensuring effective team working. Positive relationships, mutual respect and trust, continuing support and inclusion, valuing diversity and listening to feedback can overcome challenges to effective team performance. A strong credible leader with clear expectations can also overcome challenges to an effective 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.

The features of effective team performance are set out in Brian Tuckman’s phases of team development theory, ‘Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing.’ This outlines the phases that a team will go through in order to become effective and reach maturity. At the ‘Forming’ stage of team development individual roles and responsibilities are unclear and each member of the team is concerned to avoid conflict with each other. From this point the team will go through the ‘Storming’ phase which is when they start to conflict as individuals put forward ideas which will be challenged by others in a bid to gain power and position over others. After this the ‘Norming’ phase follows and it is at this point that individual roles are defined and accepted

Each family member contributed to establishing a purpose for the group sessions to identify what why they are together and want to accomplish. Janice would like for the family to get along better while also communicating better. Leon agreed with Janice and would like for the family to get along better while also working to reduce tension in the family. Beartice expressed the purpose was to be a happier family. Kat sees the purpose of the group for the family to be nicer to one another. Kat and Guy agree that the purpose is to help the family members to accept one another. The purpose of the family coming together in group sessions is to improve communication, get along with one another better, to be happier, and reduce tension.

An example of legitimate power is exercised with the shift supervisors who consist of Sergeants and Corporals. These ones have been given authority from the Police Chief to discipline individuals under them on each shift or to handle petty matters. He backs these ones up on whatever decisions are made on their shift provided it does not interfere with the policies of the University Police Department. If problems do arise in the department, there is an open door policy where the employees are welcome to discuss with the Chief or their immediate supervisor so that it can be resolved as soon as possible.

Important team building strategies to consider are focused on giving team members a chance to get to know one another. Through understanding team member’s perceptions, differences, and priorities, insight can be gained to improve conflict resolutions (Moore et

Although I already knew the basic importance of communication, one aspect I never would have considered is how much, or how little, a counselor is able to share with the parents or teachers. Mr. Jim Thompson discussed during break-out groups just how serious the issue could become. Permission needs to be given before any information, unless life-threatening, is shared with anyone. This helped me realize that if a counselor needs to consider the conversations with students that private, I need to ensure that I keep my school experiences quiet, unless an individual may be in trouble. This topic can be related to the break-out group discussion with Mr. Brad Hagg, the Chief Technological Officer. One aspect of his work is to check the students’

The team is assembled and the task is allocated. Team members behave independently, with anxieties about inclusion and exclusion. Their time is spent planning, collecting information and bonding, with an apparent willingness to conform. This can happen whenever new circumstances occur within a group, or when new challenges or projects are set within established

This essay aims to analyse how personality can affect the performance of teams. This essay will also explore various theories relevant to personalities and will assess how different personalities can be beneficial in increasing team performance as well as any disadvantages. This essay will also explore how personality can affect the inter-personal relationship between team members.

Work Team development is a dynamic and often difficult process. Most teams find themselves in a continuos state of change and development. Eventhough, most teams never reach full stability, there is a general pattern that describes how most teams evolve. There are five stages of team development, the first stage is forming. In this stage there is a great deal of uncertainty about the teams purpose, structure and leadership. Members are testing the the waters to determine what types of behaviors are acceptable. This stage is complete when members began to think of themselves as part of the team. The second stage is called storming. In this stage there is much intragroup conflict.Team members accept the existence of the team, but there is resistance to the control that the team imposes on individuality. Conflict can arise from numerous sources within the team setting but generally falls into three categories:communication, factors, structural factors and personal factors (Varney, 1989/Townsley). In addition, there is conflict over who will control the team.

In the textbook Communicating in Groups: Application and Skills, author Katharine Adams defines primary and secondary groups in the opening chapter. As part of the definitions of each vocabulary item, Ms. Adams asserts that primary and secondary groups parallel anywhere from one to three spurs for group creation. Stated more simply, three reasons for interpersonal activities are represented by primary and secondary groups. Those spurs happen to be inclusion, openness, and control (Adams, 16-17). While conducting a junior internship at Carando Classic Italian in 2015, I was an agent in a secondary group that solved the problems of waste and throughput that also emanated the primary group characteristic of inclusion. In the following paragraphs,

“Team conflict may occur among members hailing from different fields of professions, such as in a cross-functional project team, or between line workers (who work directly with the product or service) and staff teams (who provide behind-the-scenes support). It may also occur as a result of perceived inequities in group member status or productivity, personality differences, or other work-related problems.” (Organizational Communication, 2010, pg 223).