Team conflicts and resolution strategies

Team Conflict Situation

Psychology

For the purpose of this paper, I am a leader of a team that is working together to complete a project of significance. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, there is a conflict between members of my group. The conflict is escalating, which is problematic, as the deadline for the project is approaching and again, the project holds significance for us and the company for which we work. The nature of the conflict among the group members has to do with the high degree of task interdependence for this particular project. Something that is an unfortunate, regular occurrence in group projects is that some of the group members feel overworked and that they have become responsible for the majority of the work on the project. This is another aspect of the team conflict I must address as leader of this group. Besides myself, the team members are women based in American and a male based in Brazil. I am in a challenging position, as team leader, I have been a person that the team members have vented to, expressing anger and negativity towards the others. These conflicts have delayed the project's completion. Over the course of the paper, I will address this team conflict situation in attempts to resolve these issues and ensure productivity.

There are a number of factors that I should consider when strategizing to solve the problems in my team. There distinct cultures and cultural differences that should be taken into account. America is in North America and Brazil is in South America. Those these countries are on the same hemisphere, they are unique countries with distinctive traits and histories. The way business is conducted has variations between these two countries. If I am going to be an effective leader, one that is able to assess and resolve these problems, I must take into consideration the cultures of my team members, in addition to my own culture, because my own culture will influence my approach to conflict resolution and leadership style. I also need to take into consideration the nature of the conflict because what kind of conflict is happening will, in part, determine what kind of conflict resolution strategy I consider or employ in order to rid the team of problems that are slowing us down. Current psychological research, as it relates to leadership and conflict reflects the same perspective or position as the paper in this area:

We ask questions such as how do some teams manage relationship conflict and avoid its usual negative impact, while others do not? More specifically, are there particular conflict resolution tactics that allow for the effective resolution of relationship conflict? Why does task conflict manifest itself as constructive debate in some teams but as open fighting in other teams? In other words, are there specific conflict resolution tactics that a team can chose that will allow for effective management of task conflict? Do certain conflict resolution tactics work across all types of conflict? Or does each type of conflict require different conflict resolution strategies? (Behfar, et al., 2008,171)

The nature of conflict is individual. There is some uniformity; there are some categories of conflict, but each unique conflict is different, especially when there is moderate to exceptional variation among the team members, as is the case with my hypothetical team and conflict situation. As leader, I need to clarify what the goals are for everyone. I need to have a meeting with all members, whether it is over the phone or video conferencing software such as Skype. I would gather everyone together and let them know that we are a team. We cannot accomplish our goals and our project without each and every individual's contributions. I would remind everyone or open new talks/negotiations for the roles that each person plays, and the specific, measurable responsibilities of each person's role. I would outline how all of the individual tasks are contingent upon each other -- re-explaining how interdependence works and that we are all in this project together. I would additionally let everyone know in this group meeting that everyone has expressed problems. I would express that as leader I am committed to resolving as many problems as possible and that I am open to solutions.

I would furthermore express that even though team happiness as it relates to efficacy is important, in the end, we are not on this team to be friends and get along swimmingly. We are on this team to complete a project. We cannot be friends with everyone we work with, and that a great trait of a team member is the ability to complete work with other members that we may not like personally. I would remind the team what is act stake here and remind them that these conflicts are directly interfering with our ability to get the work done. While I am concerned about the needs of my team members, the project is a high priority for me, and should also be a high priority for the rest of the team. We have to do what is good for the sake of the project, and not what is best for ourselves. I would also advise that until I have spoken to team members individually, that any problems with team members should be directed to me alone, or that if team members want to confront each other about intra-team conflicts, that I be present to moderate, or at least observe, so I can know which management strategies to apply toward conflict resolution.