Managing Conflict
Conflict in teams is inevitable and understanding the source if the conflict can be a better way to get the most desired solution. Conflict arises due to team members having different expectations such that when the expectations are not met, disagreement arises. Team leaders should meet the expectations of the team members to minimize cases of conflicts. Thus, the expectation theory of conflict helps individuals to understand the source of conflicts in a team which arises from conflicting personality.
Our work team comprises of individuals from different countries where one team member is from Germany, and the rest are from China. The differences extend to gender where we have three males and one female. With such differences in our team, conflicts are likely to occur due to different expectations among the team members. Every person in our team has a set of expectations starting from personal expectations, team expectations and leader expectation that should be met to avoid conflicts. Any violated expectation in a team can lead to conflict. If one of the team members expect things to be done in his/her way, then the team leader turns down the request, the team member is likely to develop deviant behavior that can lead to conflict.
To avoid expectation conflicts, team leaders should always involve team member sin decision making especially where the decision is likely to affect the members. The team leader should also reward members for any accomplished work. Giving the members their free time after work is necessary to avoid expectation conflicts. Our work team will engage in a team-building session which has several activities and among them is devising ways to resolve conflicts when they arise. During the sessions, problems will be pointed out, and solutions are suggested depending on the agreement made.
From the learning, the concept of helping teams in the conflict was discussed. Clarification exercise was suggested as a way to determine the expectations of tam members. This is a good strategy especially when the team is newly created as it allows team members to understand their differences and their expectations which are easily solved to avoid conflicts. Since our team is newly organized, a team-building program is likely to increase our understanding of each other expectations. When we get to know the expectations of others, it will be easy to avoid conflicts by working towards meeting the expectations as a team.
A good team-building require proper planning and resources that facilitate the session. Preparation will promote the success of team-building as each of the team members will be familiar with the requirements of the session. Our work team will utilize this strategy in the identification of team members’ expectation. The team building will allow the each of the members learns what is expected of them and this has to follow the goals of the team for enhanced results. During the team building, team members should be allowed to give their suggestions and expectations so that it is made clear what the team should work on. With such a strategy, conflicts among team members will be avoided especially for new teams.
Role clarification is another way that teams should use to avoid conflict between them. When all team members understand their roles in the team, they respect each other’s roles and work with minimal supervision. This maintains a good relationship between the team members hence conflicts will be avoided or else solved appropriately when they occur.