Leadership Strategies for Managing Team Conflict

Introduction: Teamwork and the Origins of Conflict

Teamwork has increasingly become a common aspect of organizational life. Organizations across varied sectors and industries are ever more reliant on teamwork to achieve their goals and objectives. Nonetheless, teamwork presents a breeding ground for conflict, largely due to differences in background, views, beliefs, personalities, objectives, and priorities (Toegel & Barsoux, 2016). If not properly handled, conflict within a team can considerably hamper morale, motivation, collaboration, and productivity. This paper highlights a team conflict scenario and discusses approaches for dealing with team conflict, pointing out the role of leadership in managing it effectively.

A Workplace Conflict Scenario: Violation of Team Norms

One instance of team conflict experienced during professional life relates to disrespect for team norms on the part of some team members. Every team has rules that determine how members behave and interact with one another during the course of teamwork (Pope, 2008). These rules are usually formulated during the forming stage — the first stage of the group development process as described by Bruce Tuckman's model (Margerison, 2003). Group rules typically govern attendance of meetings, the articulation of views during discussions, and individual responsibility for assigned roles.

At one point, a certain team member consistently defied the rules the team had agreed upon. Contrary to team norms, he frequently arrived late for meetings, chatted during meetings, spoke rudely to other members, interrupted others while they were talking, missed team-building activities, and always had to be prompted to fulfill his part of the work. Even with warnings from the team leader, the member continued to disrupt team cohesion through indiscipline. His behavior was highly detrimental to the team and caused missed deadlines. Worse still, distrust and antipathy grew between the uncooperative member and the rest of the team. Important meetings and discussions deteriorated into unhealthy exchanges. Eventually, no one wanted him on the team, compelling the team leader to report the matter to management for disciplinary action.

For a team to work effectively, every member must accomplish the duties assigned to them and fulfill their obligations relating to both their individual role and the team's rules. In this case, the laxity of the disruptive, uncooperative member in fulfilling his responsibilities was detrimental to the team — a clear indication of how a lack of individual accountability can hamper teamwork. The fundamental idea behind teamwork is to bring together a group of individuals to combine their efforts and accomplish team goals more effectively and swiftly (Pope, 2008). Every member of the team is a collaborator, meaning their individual input substantially influences the group's outcome — even if their contribution may seem insignificant in isolation. Without collaboration, achieving team outcomes becomes difficult. Accordingly, the team leader, together with the team, must ensure that a spirit of collaboration is established and sustained.

Building Collaboration Within Teams

Literature suggests different approaches through which collaboration within a team can be forged. One effective, practical method is learning from one another (Gratton & Erickson, 2007). A team often brings together individuals with diverse skills, abilities, backgrounds, and perspectives, and such diversity is the essence of a team. Indeed, Belbin's team role inventory asserts that an effective team is one in which members play diverse roles — a team should include team workers, specialists, implementers, shapers, coordinators, resource investigators, plants, monitor evaluators, and completers (Margerison, 2003). Though not all of Belbin's team roles were represented in the scenario described above, the team did include team workers, resource investigators, coordinators, completers, and implementers. When a team encompasses disparate skills and different capabilities, members complement one another's efforts — specialists learn from team workers, shapers learn from implementers — and everyone grows from such experiences. Each individual's skills and abilities contribute to the benefit of the team as a whole. When there is a spirit of learning from one another, team members see each other not as rivals but as collaborators and partners. Even though one member in the scenario was not cooperative, collaboration and interdependence were generally important aspects of the team's work.

Learning from one another means team members share resources and knowledge, and help one another to accomplish their individual roles and responsibilities (Gratton & Erickson, 2007). Though a team involves collaborative effort, individuals each have their own part to play. Each individual is like an element contributing in their own capacity and executing assigned responsibility to achieve the objective of the group. Collaboration tends to succeed when individuals help one another while still accomplishing their own duties. For example, when a team member is stuck with a task or experiences difficulty, the other team members should be the first to offer assistance — lending their knowledge, skills, expertise, resources, or any other form of help. Had every member in this scenario effectively fulfilled their individual roles and responsibilities, it is unlikely that the conflict described would have occurred.

Another way to improve collaboration within a team is by ensuring openness and inclusivity. This involves encouraging diverse ideas, giving every member a chance to contribute, valuing every member, allowing room for the expression of concerns, building friendships, and ensuring honest and transparent communication (Parker, 2009). Openness and inclusivity were particularly important in this team. The team leader portrayed a democratic, or participative, style of leadership — allowing every team member a voice in every process or activity. This was important for ensuring diversity of ideas and perspectives, enhancing teamwork, and strengthening interpersonal relationships. Team collaboration can be further enhanced by rewarding and acknowledging collaborative behavior, encouraging socialization outside work, and incorporating team-building activities that involve collaboration. These efforts cultivate an atmosphere of collaboration, ultimately minimizing negative conflict and enhancing team functioning and effectiveness.

Destructive vs. Constructive Conflict

The conflict described in the scenario above is an example of destructive conflict. Also known as negative conflict, a destructive conflict is one that does not add value to the team — it destroys it (Toegel & Barsoux, 2016). Destructive conflict occurs when differences in ideas and perspectives turn into blame games, attacks on personalities rather than issues, hateful verbal exchanges, and judgmental responses. An individual demonstrates intolerance for diversity, adamancy about having their own way, a lack of empathy, and insensitivity to others' feelings. In worst-case scenarios, physical abuse may even occur. Destructive conflict damages interpersonal relationships, kills enthusiasm for the team, diminishes individual commitment, and undermines collaboration and the flow of work. This can ultimately stifle creativity and hamper team productivity. In the scenario described, the negative conflict deteriorated interpersonal relationships and undermined collaboration.

Destructive conflict resembles the competing style of conflict management described in the Thomas-Kilmann conflict management model (Raines, 2012). In the competing approach, an individual behaves assertively, disregarding the views and concerns of the other party or parties. They tend to be adamant, focused on having their way. The outcome is often a win-lose situation, where one or some of the parties are not satisfied with the result. This deepens frustration on the part of the losing party, thereby worsening interpersonal relationships. However, the competing style of conflict management may be appropriate in certain situations — for instance, during emergencies or when quick decision-making is required, it may be the most effective approach.

While conflict is often perceived as negative due to the frustration and antagonism it may create, it can sometimes be positive. Also referred to as constructive conflict, positive conflict is beneficial to the team — it generates productive ideas (Parker, 2009). It is characterized by flexibility, open-mindedness, acknowledgement of diversity, positive disagreement, and the belief that every member of the team can win (Bateman, Snell & Konopaske, 2016). Constructive conflict arises when team members hold different, equally creative ideas or approaches about how to accomplish a certain task. Rather than viewing one approach as superior to the others, the team evaluates the various ideas and settles on the most suitable, acceptable, and feasible option. In other words, divergence in perspectives does not escalate into power struggles, blame games, unhealthy exchanges, threats, or a tone of hostility. Instead, team members reinforce interpersonal relationships for the benefit of the team. This not only minimizes negative conflict but also fosters collaboration, consequently enhancing team productivity.

Collaboration is the most appropriate approach to conflict resolution as described by the Thomas-Kilmann model (Raines, 2012). Rather than one party winning at the expense of another, attention is paid to arriving at an outcome that satisfies everyone. All interests are considered and carefully balanced to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome — a win-win result. This requires open communication, consideration of everyone's ideas and concerns, and mutual understanding. In the scenario described, collaboration was one of the guiding principles of the team. In everything the team did, members sought to learn from one another and involve every member in every process. Even in handling the uncooperative member, collaboration was deployed as the first technique. Team members held a number of meetings to discuss the disruptive member's conduct and its consequences for the team. The decision to report the matter to management was not made by the team leader alone — following a series of unfruitful warnings, the team collectively decided to refer the matter to a higher authority.

Conclusion: Diversity, Leadership, and Positive Conflict

Overall, the importance of teamwork in today's increasingly complex workplace has never been greater. To achieve the best outcomes through team effort, however, an environment of collaboration and positive conflict must be cultivated. It is imperative for team members to work together, always helping and learning from one another. The leader should instill the understanding that every member plays a unique role that ultimately contributes to the achievement of the overall goal.

More fundamentally, rather than creating tension and conflict, diversity should be seen as an opportunity for creativity. Allowing divergence in views and perspectives opens the group to numerous ideas, which can lead to more innovative ways of doing things. Leadership plays an integral role in achieving this outcome. As the head of the team, the team leader must set a good example by forging a spirit of collaboration, positivity, and win-win conflict resolution. When the leader sets a good example, their followers are likely to emulate that behavior.

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