Productivity-Conflict Resolution in Work Teams

Regardless of what type of work we do, we spend most of our awaking hours in the work place. Let’s face it, an average person who spend at least 50% of awaking hours in the work place; therefore to work in a pleasant environment is very crucial to one’s wellbeing. However, conflict in the work place happens more often than we can imagine. Some conflicts are minor and go away in a short period of time. And some conflicts can be prolonged and becomes more serious as times goes on. The productivity can be greatly effected with any kind of conflict. Thus, how do we identify some of the common conflicts occurs in the work team and resolve such conflicts to achieve maximum productivity.

The two main category of conflict in the work team is Personal and Professional. By personal, which means that is non work related, and Professional, that is work related. Nevertheless, either conflict will bring down the efficiency in the work team. In a more serious case, it can cause violence or lead to someone leaving the job due to either personal or professional conflict.

In many cases, personal conflict is more complicated than professional conflict. Because it is difficult to predict how each person will react to a situation and that person’s mood for that day. Personal conflict can be caused by someone’s gossip, miss communication or no communication. Personal conflict also can be caused by someone’s perception, bad habits ( for example: always being too loud on the phone) or bad hygiene, or simply one dislikes another.

Although, we can not completely avoid any personal conflict, but there are few things we can do to minimize personal conflict in the work team. Below are some suggestions to avoid personal conflicts in the work team:

• Give some personal space to each other in the work team

• Make work place a more spacious work place

• Be polite and courteous to each other

• Always keep good and open communication among co-workers

• Don’t be afraid to confront a conflict in a peaceful way

• Take the initiative to be friends, rather than enemies

• Offer assistance, not resistance

• Avoid gossips in the work place

• Weekly “ Brown bag lunch” with co-workers

Professional conflicts