HRM345 -Building Effective Teams -- Unit 3 - Discussion Board

Team Conflict

Conflict exists in nature and, by extension, in all human relationships. Conflict can be something to avoid or embrace, or a more neutral approach can be taken. You will lead a group discussion on the subject among your peers. You decide that to generate a lively discussion, it is important to create a level of understanding of the role of conflict in groups and how conflict can be used to move a group forward.

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas:

• After doing some research on the topic of conflict, propose to your peers a position, and discuss the concept of conflict in teams.

• Is conflict something to avoid or embrace?

• Use examples from either your personal experience or from the literature that would support your position.

Responses to Other Students: Respond to at least 2 of your fellow classmates with at least a 100-word reply about their Primary Task Response regarding items you found to be compelling and enlightening. To help you with your discussion, please consider the following questions:

• What did you learn from your classmate's posting?

• What additional questions do you have after reading the posting?

• What clarification do you need regarding the posting?

• What differences or similarities do you see between your posting and other classmates' postings?

Unit 3 – Discussion Board

Conflict “is a perception on the part of one person or group that its ideas are negatively received by others; is an agreement within an organization concerning strategic objectives, resources, policies, or processes that interfere with interrupt operations” (Editorial Board, 2014).

Socioemotional conflict “is perceived as a personal attack rather than an effort to reach a resolution, so the parties involved become defensive and uncooperative” (Editorial Board, 2014).

Constructive Conflict “situations end in positive outcomes, because the focus is task-related and emotions are kept in check” (Editorial Board, 2014).

The basic concept of conflict when anyone hears it, is the disagreements. Conflict can be internal, external, personal and professional. When creating teams in the workplace, conflict can come in many ways. According to the YouTube video 5 Types of conflict in the workplace and how to handle them, the types of conflicts would be: Interdependence conflicts, differences in styles, differences in background/gender, differences in leadership styles, and personality clashes (makeadent leadership, 2019). Identifying these types of conflicts and how to minimize the negative impact and maximize the success of the teams, projects, and company. Diversity has also become a norm. With diversity there is much potential for building a promising team, but this can also cause some conflict within the team as well. Not all conflict is bad such as constructive conflict. When working with teams and diversity, it is important to know how to properly manage conflict to prevent the failure of a team based on whether the conflict is personal clashes or professional viewpoints.

Conflict in life is unavoidable. In some instances, a conflict can be avoided if it is something such as a basic misunderstanding. Overall, conflict will happen whether it is wanted or not. The main concept in this would be that while conflict is almost a guarantee it can be possible to utilize tools or methods to turn conflicts into opportunities to grow and conquer the goals set within the company and the team. Some of the important steps that can be taken to ensuring that conflict in the workplace would be proper training for handling stressful conversations and/or debates, knowing how to properly delegate, proper communication, and consequences. By using these tools, most if not all conflict can be opportunistic in the outcomes.

Ome example of a conflict I have had would be in the different approaches to leadership. I have had leaders that were on the demanding side of the spectrum and then I have had leaders that were on the interactive side. This to me has always been a big deal. Some people work better with the direct approach, some work better with the interactive approach, and some can easily work with both. My personality allows for me to be one of the few that tolerates both. Depending on the team or the type of project it is important to understand the requirements. I have worked in a situation where we had a leader that was direct. At first it was doing what was told but as the team was working, we had hit a few problems. Some of the individuals in the team had some ideas on how to fix them but when we had the team meetings, the leader did not want to listen. We were told to do it a certain way no questions asked. This caused some other conflicts as the project was not working the way the leader had specified. It ended up being a disaster. When the project failed the leader was quick to place the blame on us, the individuals. This type of leader did not work well for our team or the goal. One part of being a true leader would be to accept accountability and to listen to ideas that are not their own. I have also worked in a similar situation, but the type of project was different, but the leader was the same type of directive. This type of project was clear cut with specific objectives that allowed for the direct approach. We had finished the project and it was successful. The reason for the comparison in this for me is because in the experience of both projects, what it really came down to be the type of project that needed to be completed.

Looking at the concept of conflict it is important to know the different types and try to take a proactive approach to handling them. Some conflicts might be able to be avoided, but it is impossible to avoid all conflicts within the workplace. Understanding how diversity can influence or impact conflicts is also critical to the workplace. The main point from this post is that conflict is always going to be present in the workplace as well as everyday life. Some conflict can be good such as debates, this allows for different viewpoints and different solutions to an issue. Some conflict can be disruptive such as personality clashes. This makes it hard to work in a cohesive way and can be ultimately harmful to the working environment.

References:

Editorial Board. (2014). Organizational behavior. Groups and teams. Retrieved from Colorado Technical University (CTU): Organizational Behavior (vitalsource.com)

Makeadent Leadership. (2019, April 29). 5 types of conflict in the workplace and how to handle them. Retrieved from 5 Types of Conflict in the Workplace and How To Handle Them - YouTube