Present Career, Carrer Interest, and the Value of a College Education

Conflicts Resolutions within Work Groups

There are many things to consider when talking about working within a group. One of the major things is conflicts between the group's members. People will always have conflicts among themselves and with others; it is just a way of life. One of the conflicts that occur within a group is Lack of Leadership, someone needs to be in charge and keep everyone else pointed in the right direction. Another conflict among groups is Group Roles; everyone needs to know where they fit into the puzzle and what is expected of them. Also everyone needs to have coinciding Schedules, that way you know the work is getting done. All of theses problems add up to one of the biggest issues in a group, which is Disagreements and or Arguments.

When one thinks of leadership the first thing that enters there mine is Mentoring. Having the power and the ability to guide, motivate and lead others in any given task are concrete attributes of a good leader. When one or all of these does not happen there is probably a good sign of lack of leadership.

Bosses are often accused of not motivation their workers. They assume that if a person is hired for a job they should perform their job and the motivation should come from the fact that they are receiving a paycheck. This could be deemed as a true statement if the company does not believe in promoting a team environment. When a boss, director, group leader or who ever is put in to a leadership position does not motivate their subordinate there is usually a lack in performance. People enjoy working for leaders with good motivational skills. Motivation skills discover what people are capable of doing and how well they can do it, plus encourage them to strive to do more while taking pride in what they have done.

All leaders have to make decision. Once a leader demonstrate poor decision making skills it is extremely hard to be effective. This leader will find it very hard to get people to trust his or her decision. Poor decision would be a decision made with little regards of the consequences. Poor decisions are often made with little consideration for others. This leader will not be an effective leader without getting training and develop techniques for good decision making. Poor communication can be very damaging in any environment. A poor communicator transmits in a way that is en-effective or discouraging. A person with poor communication skill will affect performance from subordinate.

Avoiding confrontation or ignoring problems stimulate aggravation with subordinates. When a leader chooses to avoid confrontation they are letting a situation get out of hand. Most people want to have a resolution to issues that are affecting a work environment.

It is very discouraging when a leader does not enforce rules or enforce rules with certain people. Most people like to feel that they are treated equal to their fellow workers. Allowing the rules to be constantly broken promotes a very unhealthy environment. What this does is creates talk among a leaders subordinates questioning their ability too lead, once something of this magnitude happens it very difficult for that person to gain the respect and admiration from there subordinates.

Good decision making, proper planning, mentoring, and communication all of these things should be used in a persons activities at work, home and with friends. There is always the room for improvement regardless how good of a leader a person may be.

Another conflict that occurs in groups or learning teams is roles. The Webster's New World Dictionary for Young Readers defines a group as, "a number of persons or things gathered together," (p.312) along with defining a role as, "a part that a person plays in life," (p. 601). These group roles can be described in two major types, the task roles and the maintenance roles (Kreitner-Kinicki, 2003). These two types of group roles provide us with more defined functional roles that complete the needs of the group in terms of finishing a duty, or task role, and up keeping a duty, or maintenance role. A person who has assumed a task role is determined to complete the goals while keeping the team or group on schedule. The assumption of a maintenance role generally is referred to a position of acquiescence or keeping the team working together in accord (Buhler, 1994). These functional roles are broken down into individual functions that appropriate the entire group. These are found in Table 1-1.

Conflict occurs in these roles when the member assumes too much work for themselves, the role being performed does not agree with that of the other members, the role is questionable to the person it has been assigned, or the role is not defined adequately so a role of ambiguity becomes evident. A lack of or an excess of a role can be detrimental to the outcome of the group because "employees interact interdependently towards a common and valued goal or objective," and" have been assigned specific roles or functions to perform," (Ilgen, Major, Hollenbeck, & Sego, 1993). If these roles are not followed through with, there can be a delay in productivity or the goal desired.

These roles are better understood and achieved when they are well defined (Kreitner-Kinicki, 2003) and members can evenly distribute work amount, balance out behavior, and share areas of proficiency to achieve their goal (Mathieu, et al., 2000). Communication of each role is imperative when understanding what the assumed role should be. Whether the role is implied or directly command from a superior role, it is necessary to completely comprehend the role for goal completion. "Communication refers to team members' capacity to understand information exchange . . . to enhance information sharing," (Stevens & Campion, 1994).

Table 1-1

Task Roles Description

Initiator Suggests new goals or ideas.

Information Seeker/Giver Clarifies key issues.

Opinion seeker/giver Clarifies pertinent values.

Elaborator Promotes greater understanding through examples or exploration of implications.

Coordinator Pulls together ideas and suggestions.

Orienter Keeps group headed toward its stated goal(s).

Evaluator Test group's accomplishments with various criteria such as logic and practicality.

Energizer Prods group to move along or to accomplish more.

Procedural technician Performs routine duties.

Recorder Performs