Conflict Management in a Team Setting

Team Study (Marketing E Board) Conflict & Solution

In any given collective approach to an activity, there are bound to be some form of conflict, either explicit or implicit, within the team. There is need to have mechanism to identify the conflicts before they significantly interfere with the team activities and also set up tangible ways to solve the conflicts in a manner that the involved parties will be satisfied. This paper is centered around identifying the conflicts that were emergent in the marketing executive board, the reason for the emergence of the conflicts and the possible solutions to these conflicts that will permanently bring an end to the inefficiencies cause by these conflicts.

Team analysis

The marketing society meets every Monday during common hour and this particular meeting was a special one which was an adversary workshop which was led by the director of new projects. The workshop assumes the structure of lectures but with a more informal approach. The marketing E-Board meets on Tuesday night and therein, the president, the vice president and the treasurer set the tone of the meeting.

Team performance

The meetings held weekly portrayed high levels of disunity and lack of cohesion in the team. There were many people who showed up for the meeting but not all stayed to the end with many leaving after getting the food, a show of lack of commitment among many members. There was also a low participation among the members and lack of connection among the members where members do not know each other by name, a fact that hampered the overall performance of the team. The communication among the members was not effective and the three top officials are the ones who had the final say on who joins the E-Board.

Conflicts in the team

The most significant conflict in the team is lack of a defined goal towards which all members of the team need to focus their energy and action towards. This was prominently displayed when each member focused more on their individual committees and what needed to be done to their way and not caring for the vison of the organization. There was lack of collective approach to issues and each representative spoke of what they personally did and not what the entire committee did. The lack of common unifying goal or unawareness of the same was seen in different individuals pointing out what they have individually achieved or what their individual departments and had achieved. It is paramount to note that some of the achievements were not directly related to the organizational goals that were set and hence had little bearing in the progression of the organization. There were also other members who had the feeling that their assignments and their committees deserved more attention and resources than others, a factor that resulted in tension among the members and losing the focus on the collective goal even more.

This fragmented approach was due to lack of a well defined goal that informed the discussion among the members.

Solutions

There are various proposed solutions to the conflicts that the E-Board faced, the first being outlining well defined vision for the team and the guide towards achieving the vision. Each department must be informed of the vision and defined goals so that they can all work in convergence towards the goals as opposed to cross-purpose approach among the various committee members. There also needs to be performance objectives that will make contributions to be focused. The reward of performance will also help make the performance of individuals identifiable and appreciated hence better success for the entire team. The tasks at hand need to be made to be interesting, involving and challenging at the same time, an aspect tat can only be met when the goals are clear. Further, there needs to be team contract where the expectations of the team are set at the very beginning, hence each individual will commence the meeting with definite direction (Thompson, Leigh., 2014a).

There is also need to have clear roles defined for the committees and the responsibilities they owe the organization spelt out and be informed that with the roles and responsibilities each committee is equally significant to the organization hence the determining factor should be the set out goal as indicated by the organization.

The management needs to put in place an elaborate and clear communication system that would inform each individual of the goals of the organization and the expected outcomes. This way no single individual will have the possibility of missing out on the centrality and importance of the organizational goals.