Teamwork Collaboration and Conflict Resolution

¶ … Team and the Team Goal

The team that will be discussed in this paper is a workplace team that was formed to analyze and design a system that will provide their company with automation of most of the manual processes that the company and its customers undergo in business transactions. The team was named Strategy Solutions Team.

The Strategy Solutions Team was composed of one representative from each department of the company such as the billing department, the marketing department, etc. Each member is knowledgeable enough to provide the concerns of his department and to provide pertinent ideas for the new system that will be useful to his department. The goal of the Strategy Solutions Team was to analyze and design the new system in business structure format, that is in terms of the system's flow and usability to the business and users, and to come up with systems requirements and specifications. The technicalities of the systems requirements that the Strategy Solutions Team will produce, in terms of the actual development of the system, will be handled by the IT Development Team.

The nature/source of the team conflict

Because the Strategy Solutions Team is composed of members from different departments of the company, the work schedule of each member varies. The team found work schedule conflicts every time there is a need for team meetings. Instances happen when some members cannot attend meetings because of immediate work attention that they need to provide to their respective departments.

Impact of the team conflict on the team members

The output of the team, which is the business and users specifications of the new system, needs to meet its set deadline in order for the IT Development Team to start the system's development.

To accomplish this, every meeting must reside even if some members cannot attend due to conflict with their work schedule in their department and the schedules of the Strategy Solutions Team. In such instances, some members who make it to the meeting must accommodate the tasks assigned to absent members.

Time conflict in the team basically caused adversities to team members in terms of which member must accomplish which task. Some members found it hard to work on multiple tasks. Moreover, the tasks and roles that were actually assigned to each member are sometimes not prioritized because of other roles that come up. This resulted to an unsatisfactory outcome of some member's performance in the team.

Impact of the team conflict on the team productivity

Time conflict or work schedule conflict caused poor productivity on the team. It caused other problems related to the team's productivity. This includes problems on the quality and quantity of work accomplished. Because there are times when only few members participate in the team meeting, only few tasks were being accomplished as well. Also, the quality of work performances of members who participate in a meeting were at risk of becoming unsatisfactory due to multiple tasks that they need to accomplish. In general, the productivity of the team became poor because time conflict or work schedule conflict caused less manpower in the team and less time allotted to tasks performed by the members.

The benefits or consequences of the team conflict

The work schedule conflict among the members of the team caused the following negative consequences, both to the team members and to the success of the team's objective.

Most of the tasks were not given with 100% best performance of the team members. This is due to the multiple tasks assigned to some team members caused by the inability of other members to participate.

The completion of most of the tasks was delayed.

Team members who did not attend the team meetings for quite a number of times were not able to deliver the concerns of their respective departments in relation to the new system.

The output of the team, which is the business specifications of the system, did not cover all the important purpose that the system is supposed to serve.

The resolution or lack of resolution of the team conflict

The inefficient time management of the team members basically caused the conflict in the team concerning work schedules. Time management is important that every team member must have to allow attention on each of their tasks, whether the task involves their basic functions in the company, or whether it involves their special role in the team.

Despite of the work schedule conflict that the Strategy Solution Team had experienced in the first half of the duration of the project, we still managed to solve the problem. Time management became our solution to establish a strong ability of each member to be present in team meetings and to participate efficiently without setting aside the main responsibilities of each in the respective department. To make the presence of each member possible in every team meeting, the team allotted time to discuss and agree on which date and time will be scheduled for team meetings where everyone can possibly attend.

Recommendations

To prevent future conflicts that are related to schedules in a team environment, I suggest that the following methods be applied when managing a team as well as when participating in a team.

Make a list of your tasks to do. Including your roles and responsibilities in the company as well as your roles and responsibilities in the team.

Prioritize your tasks.

When assigning tasks to members of a team, give those that needs sufficient time and attention to members who are currently not handling much tasks outside of the team's goals.

In instances of urgent situations where a member cannot participate in a team, he must ensure that he provides time to make up with what he missed in the team's operation.

What you learned from the team conflict?

From the team conflict concerning work and time schedules, I learned that Time management is important to allow an effective teamwork.