Team Dynamics and Conflict Resolution in Work Teams

Team Dynamics and Conflict Resolution in Work Teams

A team is a group of individuals brought together in order to accomplish a task or resolve a problem that cannot be successfully or proficiently completed by an individual. This group may be temporary or long term. The length of time that the team will be together has a great effect on the ability of the individuals to work together. It may contain individuals of varying expertise in order to accomplish the assigned task or tasks in the most proficient and correct manner.

When trying to complete some tasks, teams may be more effective than an individual. They offer the ability for individuals to get to know their team members and develop working relationships. Teams allow organizations to develop a strong culture that incorporates the needs and expectations of all of its members. Teams often provide more efficient results because of the differences in individual's strengths and weaknesses. An area that one individual is weak in; another individual may be strong in.

Whenever a team embarks upon a process of self-assessment in order to measure its own effectiveness to improve performance, it engages in team building. To access itself, a team seeks feedback to find out its strengths and weaknesses as a team. To improve upon its current performance, a team needs to set goals on how to go from their actual state to their desired state. The term team building can often refer to the process of establishing specific groups to accomplish certain tasks in an organization.

Team Dynamics are the unseen forces that operate in a team between different groups of people. One can recognize team dynamics by looking for the forces that influence team behavior. These forces might include:

Ð'* Personality styles by including or excluding people

Ð'* How we gather information, expressed as Creative or Practical.

Ð'* How we make decisions, expressed as logical or belief based.

Ð'* Team Roles

Ð'* Organizational culture

Ð'* Problem-solving methods

One can manage team dynamics constructively by:

Ð'* Identifying team dynamics - the natural forces at play.

Ð'* Determine whether they are acting for good or ill.

Ð'* Make interventions to make the effect of those dynamics more positive.

Ð'* Organize teams in the workplace and identify roles and responsibilities of team members.

Ð'* Identify team goals and work with different personality types.

Ð'* Use effective planning to achieve team goals.

Ð'* Communicate in a team and identify factors affecting team communication.

Ð'* Resolve and manage team conflicts.

Diversified work teams can be to ones advantage or diversity can lead arguments within the team. Without team dynamics in place conflict rises, and aggravation and anger start to grow. This is why learning to resolve conflict issues is so important. One could define the term team dynamics as requiring individuals to motivate each other to achieve a common goal.

Team Dynamics & Characteristics

a. Different roles team members may play

1. ADVISOR- Encourages the search for more information,

2. ASSESOR- Offer insightful analysis of options,

3. ORGANIZER- Provides structure.

4. MAINTAINER- Fights external battles.

5. CONTROLLERS- Examine detail and enforce rules.

6. PRODUCERS- Provides directions and follow through.

7. PROMOTER- Encourages ideas after they are initiated.

8 CREATOR- initiates creative ideas.

9. LINKER- Coordinates and integrates.

b. Team Development Process

1. Pick team member or teams that have the same type of performance goals.

2. They should all have positive energy.

3. Accountability- Individual and mutual, meaning everyone is responsible.

4. Skills- Pick team members whose skills are complementary to yours.

c. Identifying Team Goals

We are a type of virtual team, teams that use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal, so after developing your teams, key roles should be established and their should be a certain goal set for the whole team to use.

d. Establishing Decision Making Procedures

1. Share ideas

2. Offer suggestions

3. Generate complete information and knowledge

4. Higher quality decisions are made through team participation

Conflict Resolution

Most everyone thinks of conflicts as a clash, a battle, or tension in a group to protect or enforce our rights or values, when a conflict arises and consider it as a crisis. How you respond to a conflict is based on your willingness to change. Conflicts often emerge when team members have different approaches to one or more subjects. Conflicts in teams could be an intense involvement of basic personality structures. Personalities come in all shapes and forms. Dealing with different personalities is a difficult task when dealing in the areas of conflict in teams. Every individual uses his or her mode of operation for example decision making the way we take in or write information, energy flow how well we function in the group slacker or a go getter. We all use one or more modes of operation in the team.

Areas of conflicts in