Team management and conflict

BBS 1st year

 Team
• A team is a formal group made up of
interdependent individuals who are
responsible for achieving common objectives.
• Team has following characteristics
1. A team is a small group of people with
complementary skills.
2. All team members must have common goals.
3. A team is self directing, autonomous and
self-managing.
4. A team has individual and mutual
accountability.
5. A team has unified commitment to
goal achievement.
6. A team has two way
communications
7. A team generates synergy through
co-ordinated efforts.
8. A team has leadership roles.
 Classification of Team
• Problem solving
team ;d:of ;dfwfg 6f]nL
• Self-managed team :jod\ Jojl:yt
6f]nL
• Cross functional team qm;
sfof{Tds 6f]nL
• Virtual team k/f]If sfNklgs 6f]nL
 Problem solving team
• A problem solving team is a formal group of
employees usually of same department that is
focused on solving a particular problem.
• It deals with improving quality, efficiency and work
environment.
• Quality circle is an example of problem solving
team. QC is a group of employees who voluntarily
meet on a regular basis to improve the working
conditions.
 2. Self managed team
• A group of 10 to 15 members who work
independently without manager.
• They prepare plans, assign and schedule works,
make decisions and solve problems themselves.
3. Cross functional team
• A cross-functional team consists of members of
same hierarchy but from different departments.
This kind of team tackles specific tasks that require
different expertise and inputs.
 4. Virtual team
• It is a group of physically dispersed members
at different locations who communicate and
collaborate each other through the help of
internet.
• Video conferencing, email, chat etc are the
ways through which team members
communicate with each others.
 Conflict
• Conflict refers to all kinds of
opposition or antagonistic
interaction among individuals and
groups.
• It exists whenever one party
perceives that another party has
hampered or is about to hamper
the accomplishment of goals.
 • Conflict is a process by which
individual or groups feel frustrated
in the pursuit of certain goals.
• Traditional view regards conflict as
harmful and avoidable, human
relations view regards conflict as
natural and inevitable and
internationalist view regards conflict
as inevitable and useful.
 Types of conflict
• 1. intra-personal conflict
JolQmleqsf] åGå
• 2. interpersonal conflict
cGt/j}olQms åGå
• 3. inter- group conflict cGt/ ;d'x åGå
• 4. inter-organizational conflict
cGt/ ;ª\u7gfTds åGå
Managing conflicts in organization
• Constructive conflicts brings
improvement whereas destructive
conflicts brings hindrance in the
organizational performance.
• Conflict management is the process of
skillful encouragement and handling of
the positive conflicts on one hand and
resolving or limiting negative conflicts
on the other.
3 main approaches of managing conflicts

• There are three main approaches

of handling conflicts SPO
1. Stimulating Conflict åGå pQ]hgf
2. Preventing Conflict åGå /f]syfd
3. Resolving Conflict åGå ;dfwfg
 1. Stimulating conflicts
• Effective manager must stimulate
constructive conflict in the organization
by the following way
i. Reorganizing: changing the organization
structure, Breaking up old work group
and departments and forming new ones
ii. Communication: ambiguous or
threatening message in the informal
communication
iii. Encouraging competition: use of
bonus, incentive pay and awards
for excellent performance to
stimulate competition.
iv. Bringing in outsiders: bringing
people of diverse attitude,
values and styles. Divergent
opinions, innovative ideas and
originality can be developed.
 2. Preventing conflicts
• Managers need to prevent
destructive conflicts that adversely
affect the performances. The
following methods may be applied
i. Super ordinate goal: Super ordinate
goal is a common goal that appeals
to all the parties involved in the
conflict and cannot be accomplished
by the resources of any single party.
ii. Reducing interdependence: high level
of interdependence increases the
potential for conflict. So it should be
reduced.
iii. Exchange of personnel: Rotation of
the employees among the
interdependent departments help
them to understand the situation and
problem more clearer about the other
department. So it reduces the conflict.
iv. Liaison group or integrators:
Appointment of integrators to bring
the conflicting parties towards
mutually agreeable solution.
v. Appeal to higher authority: when
conflict can not be solved at the level
of the parties involved, it may be
referred to superior position to bring
the conflicting parties together.
 3. Resolving conflict
• Conflict is inevitable and therefore, a
manager needs to resolve conflicts. Conflict
resolution means a situation in which the
underlined reasons for a given conflict are
eliminated.
I. Problem solving: It involves bringing the
conflicting parties together to share their
problems and information to avoid
misunderstanding. At the end trust and
openness is built by this process.
ii. Accommodating/ soothing: Soothing
involves playing down difference
among conflicting parties and
highlighting similarities. It recognizes
the common interest in the goal and
brings the conflicting parties to an
agreement.
iii. Compromising: It is a technique where
both parties will give and take
something of value to arrive at an
acceptable solution to resolve conflict.
iv. Avoidance: It means ignoring the
conflicts of little value knowingly. It is
the suppressing of the open
discussion about the conflicts. It is
believed that with the passage of
time conflict will automatically be
resolved.