Importance Of Team Work And Conflict Management In Organizations

The Case Scenario

In a digital age, proliferation of social media has had a dramatic impact on organisations. To date, much of the research efforts focused on the ways social networking affects organisations’ marketing and branding processes. However, more investigation is required into the positive and negative effects of social networking on the processes and practices of management of organisations.

In your Essay, identify the aspects of management mostly influenced by social media and discuss the positive and negative effects of social networking on management.

Team Work is an essential part of the organization. An organization functions well if it has a good bond between the different team members. It goes a long way in assisting the firm to achieve its goals and objectives (Nancarrow et al. 2013). Furthermore, if the work is being completed with the help of off shoring, it becomes essentially important to inculcate team building in the given scenario, as the different members of the organization are unable to see one another face to face and there may arise a situation whereby the different members may have certain difficulties (Kvarnström 2008). The primary aim of the given report is to discuss the case scenario and describe the importance of team work thereby highlighting the relationship between Allison and Penny

The given case for which the difficult situation has come to surface has taken place because of the rift between Allison and Penelope. Earlier when the team used to work together under the same roof, there existed normal rifts between the two ladies; however they did not seem to be anything serious (Maruca 1998). However recently, as a majority of the work takes place in the offshoring format, the ladies have been facing problem with one another. It has happened that one of them believes that the other is being too authoritative and trying to demean the other one in front of the clients. Allison has been with the firm since a long time and feels that she is the unofficial team leader, however Penny`s behaviour towards her seems to authoritative to her which then leads to conflict between their interests. As Allison is overdramatic she feels that Penny`s relationship is quite unjustified towards her and in the same manner Penny feels the same (Costa, Passos and Bakker 2014).

The primary mistake being committed by Craig is that he took the situation quite lightly. He believed that he should have communicated with the different members involved in the given conflict using a single meeting, where both of them were present. Although the given scenario is plausible, due to the off shoring work that is currently taking place, this could not have been implemented easily (Russ et al. 2013).

The Primary Mistake Committed by Craig

The conflict which is quite evident in the given case study is that there exist certain miscommunications and misunderstandings between the different team members and specifically Penny and Allison. Both of them had to work alongside each other but had various differences amongst them. Penny felt that Allison`s behavior was quite irrational and Allison thought that Penny was very authoritative. Both of them were not feeling very comfortable with one another and for this reason they often created a scene in front of the clients. For this reason, it there us a conflict among the team members and all of the different team members also felt some kind of a problem against Penny (Galegher, Kraut and Egido 2014).  Hence, Penny felt the need to communicate with Craig and had a meeting with Penelope which greatly hurt Allison who felt that a joint meeting could have been conducted and then the issue being faced by the different employees, could have been solved easily. Hence, due to this Allison has hinted a resignation.

The given scenario could have been resolved easily if Craig had shown a bit of responsibility towards his team members and if he had been able to easily identify the given conflict at an early stage. If Craig would have been able to successfully solve the given problem at an earlier stage and taken up the issue with more seriousness then he would have been easily able to solve the issue at hand and would have been able to not bring the given scenario at this stage (Fidalgo-Blanco et al. 2013).

It is believed that the conflict needs to be resolved at an early stage before it escalates and becomes too big for the management to handle.

The ineffectiveness in the team is due to the following reasons:

1. Distance between the team members- As the different employees have been working on an off shore basis, they have not been able to confront one another properly.
2. Lack of team building activities– There has been no witness of any team building activities among the different team members which could have gone a long way in solving the issue at an early stage itself (Valentine, Nembhard and Edmondson 2015).
3. Behavior of Craig- Craig seems to have given them too much freedom and the flexibility in their work schedules has bought about the given scenario.

Conducting regular meetings-

 Regular meetings need to be conducted in order to bring about resolving scenarios between the different team members.

Team building activities

Team building excursions and activities need to be built up continuously in order to ensure that the different team members gel with each other continuously and there does not exist any disparity among the thinking of different members.

Craig`s behavior needs to be altered

Craig needs to consider the behavior of the employees and find better solutions.

Therefore, if the given is implemented and Allison and Penny are bought about in front of one another thereby have a face to face conversation and making them realize the need to respect one another than the issue might get resolved (Dettmer, Knackendoffel and Thurston 2013). If the given steps are implemented, there will be no problem in the future.

The Ineffectiveness in the Team

Conclusion

Therefore from the given analysis it could have been stated that team building and conflict management plays a crucial role in managing a team. As seen from the given report the issue between Allison and Penny can be solved using a team management tool of conducting regular meetings and making them confront the issue. If the issue is not dealt with one a face to face meeting then the problem cannot be solved. It is the role of a manager to ensure that the team is successfully able to manage conflicts under his guidan

The value of team work cannot be undermined. The society is formed of different groups who have members and due to this it is very important for different members in a team to have healthy relationships with one another. This is because the members in a group are interdependent and that will require them to work keeping in mind the needs of the other members.

According to Robinson and Stubberud (2014), Team work has better results for the organization as compared to the individual work. If individuals in a team are able to perform well and there does not exist any synergy between the different members in a team then, there may arise a situation whereby the goals in an organization may not be achieved carefully.

Before undertaking the given coursework, I was not aware of the various concepts and their underlying importance in a team. I had a belief that team work is not as important as individual contribution and that if the different team member’s work together towards successful goal completion, the organization will be able to prosper. However after analyzing the different case studies in the given coursework and going through the real life experiences, my perception about team work changed.

I have learnt various theories on team work and according to me this will go a long way in helping me to prosper in my career. I believe I would like to build up my team work and team collaboration skills as a good team worker assists the firm and helps the team to achieve their targets. Furthermore a good team collaboration skill also goes a long way in engaging in long term relationship with the other team members. The importance of team relationships need to be understood and given value to.

Lastly, if I have good team skills and have build up adequate details from the coursework it will go a long way in assisting the team in which I will be performing in. This will in a way be beneficial for the firm as well.

As a manager I will be required to assist the organization and help the different team members who have been facing conflicts and assist them in achieving their organizational goals. A team needs to function in a synergy and as a manager, it will be my responsibility to manage my team and make them realize that they will not be able to function without one another. A good team can easily achieve the organizational goals and able to bring about competitive success to the organization.

References

Costa, P., Passos, A.M. and Bakker, A., 2014. Empirical validation of the team work engagement construct. Journal of Personnel Psychology.

Dettmer, P., Knackendoffel, A., and Thurston, L. P. ,2013. Collaboration, consultation, and teamwork for students with special needs. Pearson.

Fidalgo-Blanco, Á., Sein-Echaluce, M.L., García-Peñalvo, F.J. and Conde, M.Á., 2015. Using Learning Analytics to improve teamwork assessment. Computers in Human Behavior, 47, pp.149-156.

Galegher, J., Kraut, R.E. and Egido, C., 2014. Intellectual teamwork: Social and technological foundations of cooperative work. Psychology Press.

Kvarnström, S., 2008. Difficulties in collaboration: a critical incident study of interprofessional healthcare teamwork. Journal of interprofessional care, 22(2), pp.191-203.

Maruca, RF 1998, ‘How do you manage an off-site team?’, Harvard Business Review*, July – August, pp. 1 – 7.

Nancarrow, S.A., Booth, A., Ariss, S., Smith, T., Enderby, P. and Roots, A., 2013. Ten principles of good interdisciplinary team work. Human resources for Health, 11(1), p.19.

Robinson, S. and Stubberud, H.A., 2014. Teaching creativity, team work and other soft skills for entrepreneurship. Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 17(2), p.186.

Russ, S., Rout, S., Sevdalis, N., Moorthy, K., Darzi, A. and Vincent, C., 2013. Do safety checklists improve teamwork and communication in the operating room? A systematic review. Annals of surgery, 258(6), pp.856-871.

Valentine, M.A., Nembhard, I.M. and Edmondson, A.C., 2015. Measuring teamwork in health care settings: a review of survey instruments. Medical care, 53(4), pp.e16-e30.