Conflict and creativity in teams
Conflict in teams
In my recent place of work, I happen to be part of a team. At the time of inception, all the team members were compatible with each other to the extent that we took each other as brothers and sisters. However, there reached a time where there was a need to make significant decisions that had an impact on the whole organization. In this case, some conflict arose, and this can be attributed to the bad blood that emerged in the process. Many team members, who were so close to each other, now built some rifts and this was unexpected given the initial bonding among team members that was so strong. The conflicts arose due to various reasons or causes. Some of these reasons include unfair treatment and poor communication (West, 2012).
One of the main sources of conflict was unfair treatment. In this case, there was the aspect of gender imbalance in that people of the male gender were given preferential treatment than people of the female gender. For instance, when it comes to the contribution towards various policy issues, the ideas, and opinions of men were given priority over those of people of the female gender. Apart from that, when any opportunities arose, people of the male gender were given an upper advantage over those of the female gender, and this was due to the stereotype that they were more capable than those of the female gender (West, 2012). This issue of unfair treatment could be handled by giving every employee an equal chance.
Last but not least, poor communication was the other cause of conflict in our team. In this regard, there were no formal means of communication in our team. This led to some informal means of communication which led to rumors that mainly caused bad blood among the senior and the junior team members. The issue of poor communication could be solved by having a formal system of communication.
Creativity in teams
The three main indices of creativity are talent, tolerance, and technology indices. An evaluation of myself using this shows that am not so talented as I cannot brag that I am talented in a given field. When it comes to tolerance, I am one person who can accommodate everyone regardless of their background. Last but not least, when it comes to the technological index, I am so technologically aware and updated. To enhance my creativity in the talent index, I have to become passionate about some hobby.
Reference
West, M. A. (2012). Effective teamwork: practical lessons from organizational research.