Team Dynamics and Conflict Resolution in Work Teams

Katzenbach and Smith (1993a) recognise teams as the basic units of performance in organisations and identify a team as '...a small number of people with complimentary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.'

Teamwork cannot be demanded. Everyone involved must discuss and understand what the goal is and what is required of them. Teams should have traits such as goals and objectives, empowerment, trust, authentic participation, innovation, creativity, risk taking and leadership. (Temme and Katzel, 1995)

Teams have become very common and effective since they have proven to be effective in areas as cost reduction, developing new and innovative products, and improving quality (Effective Human relation, 2008). Team development is supported, in fact, required by almost all managements today, but still it may take quite a long time for the members to learn the task and activities and to fit themselves in the particular environment. Team work may vary as the organization or company varies. Team work involves a lot of important aspects such as relationships, cooperation, learning, leadership etc. since a team works together in

Team work means that a shared sense of purpose is felt and a common purpose is identified. This bonds individuals into a team and creates the ideal scenario for success and achievement.

A team is something more than a collection of individuals. Teamwork is a group of people working together to achieve the same goal. The whole is more than a sum of the parts. A team can be identified by evidence of some or all of the following:

A team is a group of people working together in a related field to achieve an agreed goal, target or objective. In order to attain the overall goal activities and tasks are shared between the team members with give individuals their roles and responsibilities.

Teams are an integral component of organizational success. They take on many forms and functions and can have various structures. Teams also conduct a wide variety of projects with goals of innovation or mitigation. An example, from my experience, of a project that required the execution from a team was the establishment of a finished goods inventory program within a paper manufacturing company. A project of this magnitude required that a diverse and multifaceted team be assembled.

After the selection of the effective team members, it is important to analyze the conditions that should be in place before the team is launched; analyze the team processes that unfold as the team begins its work; assess what should happen during the team’s launch, and

Teams are more than just groups of people assembled in the same area, they are a collection of individuals dedicated to a common purpose and with a series of detailed performance targets, working together with complementary skills. Teams of people are encountered in various scenarios, not just in the workplace, but also throughout life, such as sports, associations, charities and voluntary services.

Diversity in culture and demographic characteristics can be a negative impact or be one of the team's greatest strengths, depending on how the team as a whole functions and applies these different “routes to success”. A group can become a high performing team by understanding how cultural and demographic differences influence group behavior. The groups must realize that they can benefit from their diversity to their advantage and into a high performance team.

The text book describes conflict as “a process that begins when one party perceives another party has or is about to negatively affect something the first party cares about.” There are different views on dealing with conflict. There is the traditional view that seeks to eliminate any conflict and the interaction group that seek to use conflict as a stepping stone to greater things. Conflict can arise in any situation and, following the managed conflict view, it is not necessarily something to be push under the table but something to

The team has stated the project’s objectives, defined deliverables, established milestones and technical requirements, which help define the project’s scope and establish priorities. With the imposed deadline, completion of the project on time should be the project’s top priority and thus becomes the

4. The team must have unified commitment. This doesn't mean that team members must agree on everything. It means that all individuals must be directing their efforts towards the goal. If an individual's efforts is going purely towards personal goals, then the team will confront this and resolve the problem.

To fully discuss this topic, we must start with a simple definition of a team. Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith define a team in their best-selling book The Wisdom of Teams (Harper Business Essentials 1994), as

The potential of a team depends on the skill, knowledge, and ability of the people in the team, but also on their ability and motivation to make the best use of their resources toward achieving the team purpose (Stevens & Campion, 1994). In