Discuss about the Team Leadership and Conflict Resolutions.
The focus of this assignment is on learning about groups and teams. The concept of group or team is adopted by organisations in order to accomplish several client projects. At the time when two or more individuals are classed together either by the organisation or based on their social needs it is known as a group. A team involves a collection of people who are all linked together by means of a common objective. Usually majority of the work in a business entity is performed by means of groups. The individual characteristics and the personality of an employee is important in terms of their effectiveness in terms at the time when they work collectively in order to help in the achievement of any specific objective. In a specific team there are several groups in which the members of the group help the leader in the accomplishment of goals (Tyler & Blader, 2013).
The concept of a group is nothing but an assembly of work, interaction or cooperation with one another in the achievement of a common goal in a specific time point. The identity of the members of a group is considered in an individual manner. The members share information as well as resources with other members of a group. There might be either formal or informal groups which are created for the fulfilment of specific reasons. Formal groups are usually created by the management of the organisation for performing a specific work commitment. The informal groups are done in order to satisfy the social or psychological needs of the human beings (Krueger, 2014).
A group of people who are asked to achieve a common goal within a stipulated period which have collective accountability is known as a specific team. The motto which is usually maintained in teams is “one for all and all for one”. The team members also have a mutual understanding with each other which can be denoted by the term synergy. The three most important features of team functioning are cohesion, confrontation and collaboration (Baggetta, Han & Andrews, 2013).
Therefore the modern terms of today might be temporary and they might change as the issues are crucial but the issues like dynamic composition, technology and distance and empowerment are always addressed. It is seen that organisations use teams to perform complex jobs, to maintain customer service and quality and also maintenance of rapid change (Delia, 2015).
It is often seen that mangers and team members possess differing opinions on success. There are different characteristics as well as categorisations of success. Usually there are certain characteristics which are noticed in case of teams which include that of proper communication, focus on the goals and results, contribution to the goals as well as offering support to each other. Communication is essential for keeping a track of progress and also in working together efficiently on different tasks. In case the level of communication is poor, there can be the existence of several misunderstandings (Pentland, 2012).
Success is achieved when teams focus on the completion and also on the achievement of tasks. In case a project is successful it does not imply team success. There are several benefits of team success which are discovered in the long run. Proper communication and cohesion is also necessary in the development of social relations. Teamwork is rewarding due to the fact that there is social support, opportunity to learn new skills and also get rewards from the organisation.
Though there cannot be predetermined fixed factors for the success of teams it can be easily said that team composition is a necessary factor. There need to be the effective organisation of teams in order to help them in performing tasks and also in developing social relations for supporting their operations. There is importance which needs to be given to two types of activities namely that of making decisions and performance of tasks.
It was also learned in this segment that there are traditional models of team success which is that of the focus on the team performance, the importance on social relations and also that of successful performance. The team work is beneficial in the sense that it helps in the improvement of the technical skills on one hand and the interpersonal skills on the other.
This section of the paper is concerned with certain specific stages. These involve that of formation, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. This comprises of members getting to know one another, disagreement about the roles and procedures, the establishment of rules and social relationships, focus on task completion and finally the end of a specific group.
In this connection it needs to be understood that the team dynamics keep on changing and there is the effect of team performance on the dynamics of the team and the relationships of the team members. The team goals were also learned in this connection which involves that of direction, motivation and the proper goals are clear, specific, measurable and it also involves the participation of the team members (Lockwood, 2015).
This is nothing but a standard against which the performance of teams can be evaluated. The team members can also encourage their specific involvement in the task. The team needs to be guided towards certain activities and encourage the integration of the tasks of the team members. The concept of team norms were also discussed which involve a certain level of appropriate and inappropriate behaviour in a team. The team norms need to be maintained which include that of fairer communication, maintain respect, distribution of power and the enforcement of conformity. It is desirable that the team projects be done properly and the necessary team warm ups be done in order ensure proper communication and maintenance of respect (Barnett & McCormick, 2012).
Team motivation is a huge and often neglected procedure. There is the concept of social loafing and there are contributing factors also to the idea of team motivation and team performances. There are different models for the increasing team motivation which include the job characteristic model, the issue of task interdependence, the concept of evaluation and rewards, the team efficacy and also the commitment and cohesion.
There was also a mention regarding the fact how the idea of cohesion affects the performance of a team. There is a bidirectional positive influence on the team in this regard. It is seen that there are several tasks in a team which need the concept of working together or that of cohesion. There are certain tasks which are given to the groups which involve those of interdependence, interaction and coordination. In this case if the internal cohesion of a team is extremely strong, then it helps them perform as a whole and fulfil the requirements of the task given to them. Therefore cohesive teams are much better prepared to handle conflict and there is a better conformity to the norms within such teams (Georgiadis, 2014).
In order to build cohesion there needs to be a similar sort of attitude among the team members and a lot of time spend together. The members of the teams also need to be trained n social interaction skills, task skills, team success and reward for success and also in the team leader behaviour. The team roles comprise of role ambiguity, role conflict, solutions and also prioritization of tasks. Leader or facilitator helps in the development of agenda, the sharing of information and also in the removal of internal problems.
Overall it can be said that the balance of a team depends on the characteristics of a team, the level of maturity of the team and also the nature of the tasks which they are concerned with. There are different shared mental models which are related to the tasks and the way in which the team operates, there is also the instance of transactive memory helping in proper coordination and solving of problems. Systematic means of adaptation is also very powerful in learning from the experiences which are being gained.
The concept of team work as a mixed motive solution was discussed in this particular segment. There can be mixed motive solutions, cooperative and competitive solutions and the concept of cooperation is encouraged by contributions which are valuable.
There can be problems with communication which include confusion in communication and goals and individual and team goals might also conflict. There are certain situations where competition is appropriate which helps in the increase in productivity as well as the level of competition within organisations in case the jobs are considered to be independent. There are different types of personality and individual concerns. The competitors have the main concern of outperforming others, the co-operators need to focus on the success of the group and the individuals focus on the group as well as personal success (Condliffe, 2012).
The communication between organisations is appropriate as it helps in the increase in productivity, increase in the competition within organisations and also in case of different independent jobs. Apart from this in this chapter the benefits and problems with the concept of cooperation are also discussed. The benefits of cooperation lie in the fact that all the members are motivated, support communication, improve the level of coordination, decrease the amount of tension and also increase the amount of cohesion (Carron, Shapcott & Martin, 2014).
There are problems with cooperation as well which include the resistance to change and outside influence, the cases of unhealthy agreements were the members of the team might feel angry and the decisions which the team is making.
The concept of communication is used to understand the way in which messages can be sent to other people. Communication is much more than basic message sending which involves several choices and decisions but it needs to involve the concept of being informal situations. Communication can be considered as the procedure of significant interaction among the human beings. It is necessary for communication to occur as the cooperation between two or more parties where one is at the active or giving end and other at the passive end. It can also be said that communication is a network of interactions and therefore there is the constant change of roles of the sender and the receiver. Sometimes communication is momentary, sometimes it is not. Therefore the nature of communication can acquire a true perspective of the present requirements as well as its requirements with the past and the possible impact of it on the present scenario (Norenzayan, 2013).
The communication process comprises of the transactional model which includes the senders and recipients, the reciprocal influence and also the communication is dynamic and also is a changing process. There can be different forms of communication which include verbal communication, non-verbal communication and also the concept of communication within teams. There are possibilities where poor communication can lead to conflict, effective communication fosters trust, establishes norms and develops a collaborative and creative climate (Ghate, Ghate & Ostrom, 2013).
There is also the discussion regarding the flow of the communication of a team. This involves the focus on the common information rather than the concept of unique information. There are different types of bias which include the confirmation bias along with the concept of false dichotomies. There are different types of communication style, which include the masculine communication style and feminine communication style. The awareness of styles can help the members adapt to the understanding and minimization of the misunderstandings.
There is also the discussion of the team’s communication and in this connection there is the discussion of the evolution of shared values, attitudes and emotions. It is based on social relationships and requires being trustworthy. There is a review of the goals of the team and the techniques to rebuild the trust are also discussed. There needs to be the promotion of cooperation in the group (Ghate, Ghate & Ostrom, 2013).
There was also a certain amount of discussion on the psychological safety concerning the people. There is the introduction of interpersonal trust, mutual respect, important at the time of giving feedback and also the promotion of safety among the leaders. Another discussion is related to the communication climates, the evaluation versus description is also discussed.
There are four components which are self awareness, empathy, emotional regulation and also that of regulation management. The emotional intelligence of the team is responsible for enhancing the trust, cohesion, ability to work under stressful situations and it is also stated that higher EI teams have fewer and less intense conflicts. There are five main activities of communication of the facilitator, there needs to be the management of disruptive behaviours, management of differences and the summarization of the crucial decisions in the team meetings. It is desirable in case of the team meetings there need to be questions, active listening, provision of constructive feedback and the management of feelings.
Conflict is something which is prevalent anywhere and everywhere. Often the lack of conflict might be regarded as a problem in case there are leaders who dominate others and there is also a certain degree of avoidance. There is the case where the team’s stage of development is impacted. There is also the issue of conflict management which helps in the proper streamlining of issues in a team. There are several constructive impacts of conflict. There are newer and better ideas and approaches, there is more amount of creativity and there is also an enhanced organisational commitment. This is also determined by the emotional intensity of the conflict in this regard (Wolff & Yakinthou, 2013).
However there are negative impacts of conflict being negative emotion and stress, interference with the idea of communication, diversion of attention from the task, damage of cohesion, conflicts in relationships and also the determination of emotional intensity of conflict. In order to manage conflict there are different conflict management styles which include the ideas of cooperative, competitive as well as a level of commitment towards helping each other. There are two different dimensions of conflict, this includes the ideas of distribution and integration. There might be adoptions of avoidance, confrontation and accommodation. There might also be instances of collaboration where there is a win-win situation and there is also a greater amount of commitment to the decision making (Spaho, 2013).
Overall there needs to be the development of trust and effort. Often outside mediating factors also help in the proper management of issues. Virtual miscommunications however are much difficult and much more harder to resolve. There are both win-win and win-lose situations of conflict negotiation but it is always better to satisfy both the sides. In cases there can be the separation of people from the problem and there needs to be the focus on shared interest in all the parties (Rahim, 2017).
Social influence is something which tries to change or alter other people. On the other hand power is the capability of changing the beliefs, attitudes or the behaviours of the other people. There are different types of social influence which include normative as well as informational influence. There are different types of power which include the personal or soft power, the positional or harsh power. The former is more effective as it comes from an actual interest in supporting and the latter is legitimate but mostly coercive and reward oriented (Walton et al., 2012).
It is seen often that there is unequal power in a team and the causes might be the differences in status. There is also mistrust, uneven communication, poorer decision making, less satisfied and motivated members along with the amount of conflicts (Blau, 2017). There are also instances of minority influence, self confidence, a certain amount of belief in the amount of autonomy and the focus on the relationship of a team (Simpson et al., 2015). In this connection the concept of empowerment was also discussed which is dependent on the willingness of an organisation to share information and a sense of power with the employees which include that of motivation, sense of responsibility and engagement. There are often more effective teams and greater organisational commitment as far as empowerment is employed (Treadway et al., 2013).
Decision making is important for any sort of team and any sort of organisation as a whole. There are advantages like the gain in the process, the higher quality of decisions and also the effects of motivation in case people inspire each other. The disadvantages include the loss of process understanding, the communication issues and the incapability of pooling knowledge. Group decision making is crucial because it impacts the composition of the team and there is the improvement in group as well as in case of individual decision making. Decision making has different approaches which include that of leader oriented, group techniques and also that of full participation.
There can be different approaches to the group decision making namely that of quality, speed and also the acceptance or support. There might be decision making problems which are caused due to issues of disagreement, premature closure, the negative emotions like risk aversion, safety in solutions and the decreased amount of creativity. There might be negative pressure which includes quick decisions and the ideas of group thinking. There are different techniques present which need to be applied and used based on the area in which they can be applied.
Conclusion:
All in all this learning experience was very informative, engaging and an overall learning experience. It is also to be noted that the concepts which have been learned are very much relevant and therein lay their utility. The learning procedures were so engaging that understanding different concepts with the flow was a lovely process. Issues of management in teams, managing conflict, developing a firm resolve all need to be impacted and understood in a proper manner. Thus it becomes important to understand where to utilize one’s power and where not. In life situations are bound to teach humans a lot and it is up to them to learn and utilize these experiences and ideas in a proper manner. These learning experiences in all the chapters and all the classes are therefore invaluable.
References and Bibliography:
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Barnett, K., & McCormick, J. (2012). Leadership and team dynamics in senior executive leadership teams. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 40(6), 653-671.
Blau, P. (2017). Exchange and power in social life. Routledge.
Brown, D. A., Brown, D. L., & Yocum, C. K. (2012). Planning a pharmacy-led medical mission trip, part 2: servant leadership and team dynamics. Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 46(6), 895-900.
Carron, A. V., Shapcott, K. M., & Martin, L. J. (2014). The relationship between team explanatory style and team success. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 12(1), 1-9.
Condliffe, P. (2012). Conflict Management: a practical guide. LexisNexis Butterworths.
Delia, E. B. (2015). The exclusiveness of group identity in celebrations of team success. Sport Management Review, 18(3), 396-406.
Georgiadis, G. (2014). Projects and team dynamics. The Review of Economic Studies, 82(1), 187-218.
Ghate, R., Ghate, S., & Ostrom, E. (2013). Cultural norms, cooperation, and communication: Taking experiments to the field in indigenous communities. International Journal of the Commons, 7(2).
Hermans, R. C., Larsen, J. K., Lochbuehler, K., Nederkoorn, C., Herman, C. P., & Engels, R. C. (2013). The power of social influence over food intake: examining the effects of attentional bias and impulsivity. British Journal of Nutrition, 109(3), 572-580.
Krueger, R. A. (2014). Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research. Sage publications.
Lockwood, J. (2015). Virtual team management: what is causing communication breakdown?. Language and Intercultural Communication, 15(1), 125-140.
Norenzayan, A. (2013). Big gods: How religion transformed cooperation and conflict. Princeton University Press.
Pentland, A. (2012). The new science of building great teams. Harvard Business Review, 90(4), 60-69.
Pobiedina, N., Neidhardt, J., Calatrava Moreno, M. D. C., & Werthner, H. (2013, May). Ranking factors of team success. In Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on World Wide Web (pp. 1185-1194). ACM.
Rahim, M. A. (2017). Managing conflict in organizations. Routledge.
Simpson, J. A., Farrell, A. K., Oriña, M. M., & Rothman, A. J. (2015). Power and social influence in relationships. APA handbook of personality and social psychology, 3, 393-420.
Spaho, K. (2013). Organizational communication and conflict management. Management: journal of contemporary management issues, 18(1), 103-118.
Treadway, D. C., Breland, J. W., Williams, L. M., Cho, J., Yang, J., & Ferris, G. R. (2013). Social influence and interpersonal power in organizations: Roles of performance and political skill in two studies. Journal of Management, 39(6), 1529-1553.
Tyler, T., & Blader, S. (2013). Cooperation in groups: Procedural justice, social identity, and behavioral engagement. Routledge.
Walton, G. M., Cohen, G. L., Cwir, D., & Spencer, S. J. (2012). Mere belonging: the power of social connections. Journal of personality and social psychology, 102(3), 513.
Wolff, S., & Yakinthou, C. (Eds.). (2013). Conflict management in divided societies: theories and practice. Routledge.
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