Team Dynamics and Conflict Resolution

Team Dynamics and Conflict Resolution

Our world today is extremely diverse. America, especially, is a great example of diversity in our world as it is a conglomeration of people of different races, religions, backgrounds, personalities, educational experiences, and learning styles. These huge assortments of different types of people come together each day in different areas of life. American schools encompass a great variety of different people, which helps children to learn at an early age to get along with those whom are unlike them. This requirement of toleration of others extends into the working world as we have co-workers who are very diverse in many ways as well. Though we can learn and even have great success in getting along with others, there will always be instances of personal clashes.

In our vastly diverse corporate America, which Wikipedia defines as an “informal phrase describing the business world of the United States” (Corporate America, 2005), big businesses today succeed because of synergism within the company. This synergism, which can be explained as the whole team being more efficient than the individual persons who comprise it (Synergy 2005), comes only from employees working together closely in teams. Teams within the business world will always be filled with different people. One team of 10 members will have 10 very different learning styles, 10 separate methods of communication, and 10 incredibly conflicting personalities. Because of this, there is always bound to be conflicts, which will arise due to clashes in the thinking processes of the very distinct team members. Though conflict can tear a team apart and cause the whole group to lose focus and fail at achieving goals, many resolutions have been set in place to solve these conflicts and ensure that teams can come together to get the job done well.

There are different types of causes of conflict in work teams, including personality conflicts of which we have many different types. These differences stem from categories such as internal within the group, two separate team members, one team member conflicting with the rest of team, multiple team members, or two different teams clashing. Any one of these conflicts can cause havoc in the team reaching its goals. The main differences between people are based on certain characteristics such as likes, dislikes, priorities, opinions, and the different ways that people communicate or talk. All of these characteristics can stir up conflicts in the work team’s performance. A lot of times, the result of conflict is because of some type of misunderstanding. When work teams have group discussions, opinions are going to be exchanged and teammates, based on their particular personality type, can take offense to these differences in opinion. The person providing their opinion may not be intentionally trying to cause conflict, but inevitably it comes about. Team members can’t always take things so personal; they need to understand the difference between criticism and constructive criticism. Criticism doesn’t involve a positive outcome. It describes your faults or mistakes based on someone else’s judgment. Constructive criticism has a positive response. It focuses on your weaknesses and gives ways to improve on them. Constructive criticism must be alive in a work team in order for the success of the group.

When conflicts do arise in work teams there are many ways to resolve these situations. Based on personal conflicts, the best remedy for this situation is mediation. This process involves both parties meeting in a private location and a person or persons as a mediator who’s neutral to the conflict. It has been proven that mediation can resolve any conflict, whether it’s at home or the office. I can vouch for this because in high school I was a volunteer mediator. Mediation, no matter the conflict, can save time and money. Mediation can keep the conflict from reaching the legal level and out of the court system. The effectiveness of this resolution is that it opens up the lines of communication, lets the parties vent their frustrations in front of one another, saves a relationship, identifies the issues, and lets the parties decide on their own solution to the conflict. Now as with any resolution both parties must cooperate with the resolution process. This defines how long the mediation process will take because not all mediation will take the same amount of time. There are five stages we used in high school to mediate, all of which help us guide the parties to the end result, a compromise. The different stages used in mediation are 1. the opening, which lets the parties speak their reason for cooperating in the mediation; 2. venting, this helps identify the issues and lets them discuss the issues with feelings and emotions; 3. clarifying, clarity helps gather as much information about the conflict as possible