Free Essay Sample on Effective Team Management

Introduction

A team comprises of different people from different backgrounds with different ideologies, meaning not everyone would agree with everyone on a particular matter. The conflict would have to crop up from time to time. The team conflicts were caused by lack of clear goals that lead to the duplication of duties and competition for resources. One would determine how good a team is by how they solve their differences and manage to still put in the best efforts for the best results. Dealing with conflicts should be prompt and quick to prevent the matter from escalating. By examining the theories of team management, the author argues that team conflicts are inevitable, but effective team leadership and management can navigate team conflicts to achieve team goals.

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Conflict Recognition

As a team leader, one would have to start by acknowledging that there is a conflict among the team members. Do not ignore the matter since these members would have to work together in the long run. Theories of conflict management include avoiding, accommodating, compromising, collaborating, and competing (Altmäe, Türk, &, Toomet, 2013, p. 60). By ignoring the conflict, the members would have emotional buildups that would burst into nasty physical fights or arguments which would in turn affect the performance of the team.

Secondly, the team would have to allow each of the conflicting team members to clarify their position by airing their opinions. This helps in the elimination of possible miscommunication between the conflicting team members bringing the matter to a halt. From the discussion, the leader can now go on and identify the facts and assumptions stated. Separating the facts from myths helps the members understand where and how they went wrong and what led them to the point of conflict. Once all this is done, the leader should celebrate the resolution as a team by acknowledging the contributions of each team member towards finding the solutions to the problems. Clarification would make them feel good about working on a solution together thus increasing the cohesiveness of the team.

To operate effectively, members of a team have to actively concentrate on their goals, periodically reviewing means of accomplishing the goals, and the team approach of working. The team members have to look back at the techniques whereby it offers support to the team members as a means to promote the well-being of the members and ways of resolving conflict in the team. To the team, the most important matter under consideration is the accomplishment of the team in achieving the objective set by the members jointly and unanimously. There might be having strong characters, expertise, and commitment to various individual goals they aspire to attain. Team dynamics include the intention for which the team was meant for and the maintenance of the group (Huston, 2006).

Work Place Conflicts

According to Toofany (2007), hindrances to the ineffective working of teams results from poor decision making, loss of efforts, low creativity, lack of appropriate tasks, and social loafing. As an integral part of the management of team dynamics, members of the team need to learn to settle conflicts as a team. Conflicts are also used to express an opinion on what would stimulate each of the members to meet the objectives of the team and the company in general. The unavoidability of conflicts within a company indicates that leaders in an organization have to accept it. Even though there exist different ways of conflict management at workplaces for instance avoidance, collaboration, accommodation, and compromise, any plan of action that stresses leaving conflict not addressed are unacceptable.

According to Bagshaw (2004), conflicts frequently create a negative connotation on organizational performance. Considering that, the key objective of organizational management is to look out for techniques of conflict resolution, which may impede the functioning of a company such that it gives importance to the shareholders, prevention of conflict represents a dangerous technique of conflict resolution.

Managing Team Conflict

In reality, workers are unable to deal with disagreements with their team members in an efficient manner. Recognition of such conflict requires the leadership to intervene and search for a dispute settlement mechanism. One technique is the acquisition of punitive measures for workers participating in useless conflicts. Nevertheless, before the adoption of disciplinary action, inter-communication and intra-communication techniques are important.

This initiative requires Human resource managers to own excellent intrapersonal and interpersonal communication skills. These skills are utilized to aid in capitalizing on the social and personal skills of the team members that essential for settlement of disputes (Masters, & Albright, 2002). Undoubtedly, interpersonal communication includes an elementary approach in the resolution of conflicts in an organization in an attempt to disseminate numerous complex situations in addition to unfriendly situations, which may establish favorable grounds for conflict developments.

Team conflicts have negative and positive consequences. On the contrary, even nasty conflicts can also comprise certain elements of beneficial effects if effectively managed. Dealing with team conflicts demands the implementation of a variety of approaches and methods. Borrowing from the Thomas-Kilmann conflict resolution model, the methods include accommodation, challenging, teamwork, negotiation, and avoiding. According to mediation, reconciliation, arbitration might be a sufficient solution to workplace disputes. The suitability of any of these resolutions is dependent on the disputes encountered by team members and the desired results.

Team Leadership

A team leader needs to be equipped with a strong mindset for effective team management. There are a few qualities they should also learn during their tenure as team leaders to maximize their output. With good communication channels and enough opportunities for feedback, a team leader would rocket their team towards excellence. To begin with, the leader would need to be transparent with the other team members. By doing so, members develop a feeling of mutual respect between them and the leaders. Such relationships between workers and leaders blossom onto a happy and creative working space. It also encourages members to contribute new ideas thus enhancing their creativity. Secondly, based on the contingency view and systems view, constant communication, communication is crucial while working as a team. It is important to create an environment where team leaders would not shy away from giving honest feedback as the team members feel confident to voice their concerns while communicating with each other.

Constant communication and keeping in touch also strengthens the bond among workers and the team leaders. All of this comes down to the creation of a working environment where members and leaders are honest with each other. To add to that, the leader should provide valuable feedback since it is one of the best ways to support team members to grow into professionals. Even with the absence of negative feedback, the leader should always find time to check on the members while providing advice on how best they further develop their progress. Faulty areas that need work always come up in such discussions, which are why it is important to have them.

The team leader must ensure that there is a unity of command as well as the unity of direction. The team leader also must ensure that team conflicts are avoided or made constructive by ensuring that there are fairness and equity. In most cases, team discipline is important for team effectiveness because it will help in the division of labor and following the scalar chain of command. Finally, teamwork is what defines a team. A good team will only be effective to the level of team chemistry. Within a team, there is a chain of command that defines the subordination of all the individual interests.

Conclusion

As a team leader, it is the leader’s responsibility to ensure there is a good professional relationship among the team members. This can be done by encouraging collaboration among the members. One team could have various diverse skills that could be utilized by ensuring that everyone is aware of ongoing projects. This would encourage team members to add on to the project on where they feel they can bring value. As a team leader, the leader has the power to set positive boundaries of work, play, and even relaxation. The leader can do this by advising members on when and where they can work to avoid monotony and burnout. Workers need time to rest and reset to birth new ideas for creativity purposes. Both the theories of team management and theories of conflict management emphasize the importance of communication in the team. With clear communication, structure, team policies, and chain of command, teams can be effective in meeting the team goals. Good team leaders know how to communicate with their team members. Providing immediate feedback helps in eliminating differences among the team members.

References

Altmäe, S., Türk, K. and Toomet, O. (2013), "ThomasKilmann's Conflict Management Modes and their relationship to Fiedler's Leadership Styles (basing on Estonianorganizations)", Baltic Journal of Management, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 45-65. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/17465261311291650/full/html

Bagshaw, M. (2017). Irs Managing Conflict In The Workplace. London: Lexis Nexis.

Gramberg, B. (2006). Managing workplace conflict : alternative dispute resolution in Australia. Federation Press.

Masters, F., & Albright, R. (2002). The complete guide to conflict resolution in the workplace. Choice Reviews Online, 40(02), 40-1016-40–1016.
https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.40-1016

Shuldham, C. (2008). Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing Bessie Marquis Carol Huston Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing. Nursing Management, 15(2), 9–9.
https://doi.org/10.7748/nm.15.2.9.s11

Toofany, S. (2007). Team building and leadership: the key to recruitment and retention. Nursing Management, 14(1), 24–27.
https://doi.org/10.7748/nm2007.04.14.1.24.c4341.