Managing team conflicts

Managing team conflicts

Introduction

Camelo posits that conflict management is the process of limiting the negative aspects of conflict while increasing the positive aspects of the conflict. It is the role of the management to oversee the operations in any organization. They are responsible for maintaining order and discipline among employees in an organization. There is however conflicts that arise among subordinates that even the management cannot solve them. It is crucial to have employees that follow the rules and regulations set by the company to keep up peace and harmony (Cruz, 2015). This will enhance the efforts towards goal achievement and growth in general. The management should be wise in resolving conflicts so that they can restore harmony and still able to keep up the teamwork.

The case given is of a multinational project organization that has ventured into three different continents with totally different time zones. Getting the team on the same page has proved a challenge for the project manager. The team also faces a challenge of long distances, the three teams are far apart and are suppose to do and deliver quality under the same management. This project team faces challenges like any other multinational company. This includes; communication issues, long distances and cultural diversity in the three different continents.

The manager had produced a plan on how to execute the project and ways of communicating among themselves. The teams however ignored it and decided to use their own choice of channels to communicate to the manager. This has affected performance of the project as information flow is not uniform and the manager finds it challenging to do his work.  The manager can solve the problem of communication channels by insisting on the planned method of communication. Using the models of solving conflicts, he can choose the collaboration method.

Collaboration involves give and take whereby both parties give up something to make a mutually acceptable decision (Martens, 2015). For this case, the manager needs to listen to the team members as to the reason why they like to use email for communication. He will then discuss with them on benefits of using the planned methods to communicate and how to use it effectively. Both parties have to reach an agreement where they can agree to integrate both methods or one can scale down the use of email and use more of the planned methods. At the end of it all, the manager will be able to solve the communication issues facing his team. He will also have built the teamwork as both contributed to the solution agreed upon.

After the agreement on the methods of communication, the manager can reiterate on maintaining focus on the plan. If the project will be executed out of plan, it can cause challenges to arise; it may raise the cost of the project, extend the completion time or even consume more resources than planned (Prasad, 2015). To avoid this, the manager should insist on the plan to execute duties. The manager should later conduct a survey to check whether the plan is working appropriately and is delivering so. He can access the channels used in communication to see whether information reaches the desired destination in time, consumes planned resources and that it is being utilized appropriately. If the communication systems are working according to plan, it should be maintained but if not, should be reviewed.

References

Camelo-Ordaz, C., García-Cruz, J., & Sousa-Ginel, E. (2015). The Influence of Top Management Team Conflict on Firm Innovativeness. Group Decision and Negotiation, 24(6), 957-980.

Prasad, B., & Martens, R. (2015). Top management team advice-seeking and environmental competitiveness impacts on technological innovation. International Journal of Technology Management, 69(1), 77-92.