Conflict Resolution Strategies

Once everyone on the team is aware of what the conflict is about and are willing to share their thoughts and feelings for the betterment of the team, then the group can proceed to the next step of resolving the conflict with open communication and respect.

While finding a good balance, conflicts will most certainly arise. Conflict resolution strategies must be utilized, for the team to be effective and meet the goals and objective of their assignment. These conflicts may be more evident in certain types of teams more so than in others. Conflict is common when working in teams. Its is important to have team meeting in order to lay out potential problems and disagreements and prepare to support the teams final decision. (Weinstein, 2007)

Conflict results from real or perceived opposition to one’s values, actions, desires or general interests. Conflicts may occur internally or externally between individuals or groups; conflict within a team environment can cause frustration, and occasionally anger. However, conflict resolution can also often generate positive results for the team. Conflict management skills remain in demand; conflict may be managed successfully by reaching an agreement that satisfies the needs of both the individual(s) and the team as a whole

Conflict arises from various sources in the team setting (Capozzoli, 1995). The most common causes of conflict are values, attitudes, needs, expectations, perceptions, resources, and personalities. As we are all raised with different values, morals come into play when the team issue deals directly or indirectly with ones values, morals, or ethics. Conflicting attitudes can bring about problems as two or more team members prove to have differing goals in mind. Individual needs can cause rifts within a team when they are not satisfied. The expectations of team members are not the same on how the goal will be met. We all have different perceptions of life situation and interpret them differently. The lack of resources needed to complete a task can cause conflict. Differing personalities play a major role in team conflict.

Cappozzoli, Thomas K. (1995, Dec). Resolving conflict within teams. Journal for Quality and Participation. v18n7, p. 28-30

Conflicts occur because of the different points of view. They can also happen because of various morals, values, and work ethic. In a multinational team there is bound to be conflicts. Those conflicts will transpire and require resolution. Problem solving with negotiations can lead to a quick resolution.

Conflict, though it can be a hindrance, is essential to effective teamwork, because it is a natural part

Parties to a conflict often claim to have issues with the behaviour of co-workers or the outcome of company policies and work procedures, but these issues are likely being caused by something deeper.

Competition is when an individual “achieves a victory through force, superior skill, or domination”. This type of approach fails to address the root cause of the conflict and suppresses the desires of other conflicting individuals; therefore resulting in future conflicts over the same issues. Collaboration is when all conflicting parties recognize something is wrong and needs attention. This is an ideal approach. When collaborating, groups respect each others ideas, opinions, and suggestions, and understand each others point of view. This allows group members to eventually accept the logic of a different point of view and accept that logic; therefore resulting in a consensus. Compromise is when each group gives up something of value to the other group. This is an appropriate approach when: there is insufficient time, issue not worth time or energy, or there’s no realistic or easy agreement.

Integrating; this style of conflict management is concerned with identification of joint problem, confrontation of attitude and proposing the possible solution for the conflict. This style of conflict management is more effective for solving complex issues. Additionally, this style of conflict management tends to be more effective in long run. However, this style of conflict management may not be effective in managing the conflicts that surface out of differing values of employees.

The text book describes conflict as “a process that begins when one party perceives another party has or is about to negatively affect something the first party cares about.” There are different views on dealing with conflict. There is the traditional view that seeks to eliminate any conflict and the interaction group that seek to use conflict as a stepping stone to greater things. Conflict can arise in any situation and, following the managed conflict view, it is not necessarily something to be push under the table but something to

Many authors have highlighted the inevitability of conflicts on the other hand it is said that disputes can be prevented or at least can be minimized through proper management. Conflicts are ubiquitous where ever a large number of people are involved i.e. where the human relationships proliferate (Kumaraswamy, 1997). People are the principle resource for any commercial project today. Different project managers, engineers, surveyors belonging to different organizations and having different needs, goals and each of them looking to maximize their benefits are brought together to form a team. Because of these differences in the individuals the conflicts and disputes become inevitable in a project. Conflicts are generally perceived as a negative term but it has both positive and negative sides. Positive conflicts can be helpful to generate new ideas, make innovations, helps people to ‘Be real’ and creative. But this conflict has to be maintained so that it does not get out of control and bring about dysfunctional consequences. There are large numbers of potential sources that makes conflict inevitable in a project. Some of them are explained below: - (scribd)

The dynamics of a team relies heavily on the interaction of team members during times of conflict not just during times of agreement. Often groups seek to achieve a cohesive relationship in an effort to unite the team towards its goals. Group members can make the mistake of subverting conflict in an attempt to maintain this team unity. Conflict serves a valuable role in effective group interactions that must be understood by participants of a team. An examination into the characteristics of conflict and cohesion and the relationship between the two dynamics can provide perspective to

For many of us, every day is a struggle to avoid conflict. Yet avoidance is practically impossible since the core characteristics, ideas and beliefs of each individual often conflict with our own. Differences of opinion, competitive zeal, and misinterpretations, among other factors, can all generate ill feelings between co-workers within an organization. While we can’t avoid conflict, we can learn how to sidestep negative confrontations by becoming familiar with the types of conflicts that most commonly arise in the work place and by learning how to resolve them.

It is hard and impossible to eliminate conflicts when processing a team project. In the discussion problem 2, it tells us to solve a problem of developing experts from different places to into a real and complete team. People from different backgrounds and diverse places always have different values, perceptions, expectations, needs and resources. Also, different people must have various personalities. Therefore, a good manager should know and tolerant everything happened in the project and keep seeking probable methods to deal with every detailed conflicts.