Team conflict is conflict within a

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to in ...

. Conflicts may be caused by differing goals, values or

perceptions Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous syste ...

of the team members.

Types of conflicts

"Hot conflicts" have three common symptoms: * Team members persist in arguing the same points. * When the team reaches an

impasse A bargaining impasse () occurs when the two sides negotiating an agreement are unable to reach an agreement and become deadlocked. An impasse is almost invariably mutually harmful, either as a result of direct action which may be taken such as a ...

, talks gets personal. Accusations may be spoken out loud, and members may speculate privately about one another's motives. * Once negative attributions take hold, emotions flare and progress halts. Allen C. Amason, of

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Mississippi State, Mississippi, Un ...

, studied conflict and its role in decision-making. He stated that there are two kinds of conflict: cognitive — conflict based upon issues, ideas, processes or principles, and affective — conflict based upon

personalities Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that examines personality and its variation among individuals. It aims to show how people are individually different due to psychological forces. Its areas of focus include: * Describing what per ...

, emotions or values. Researcher Thomas K. Capozzoli (1995) classified conflicts by whether the outcome was constructive or destructive. Conflicts are constructive when people change and grow personally from the conflict; the conflict results in a solution to a problem; the involvement of everyone affected by the conflict is increased; the team becomes more cohesive. Conflicts are destructive when no decision is reached and problem still exists; energy is diverted away from productive activities; the morale of the team members goes down; the team becomes divided.

Workplace conflict

Team conflict is common in the

workplace A workplace is a location where someone works, for their employer or themselves, a place of employment. Such a place can range from a home office to a large office building or factory. For industrialized societies, the workplace is one of the ...

where it may hinder productivity and the achievement of team goals. If management of conflict is not effective, it can disrupt group processes, but successfully-managed conflict may benefit the group.

"Faultlines" in groups

Lau and Murnighan identify what they call "faultlines" as a source of conflicts within groups. As a supplement to traditional approaches of research that focused on

diversity Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to: Business *Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce *Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers * ...

characterized by variance of demographic attributes across a population, faultlines are hypothetical dividing lines that split groups into multiple sets of subgroups with each set based on different attributes. These attributes may be

demographics Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examin ...

, but also may be characteristics such as personal values or personalities. This work builds on work in

social identity theory Social identity is the portion of an individual's self-concept derived from perceived membership in a relevant social group. As originally formulated by social psychologists Henri Tajfel and John Turner in the 1970s and the 1980s, social id ...

and

self-categorization theory Self-categorization theory is a theory in social psychology that describes the circumstances under which a person will perceive collections of people (including themselves) as a group, as well as the consequences of perceiving people in group terms ...

, which explains the ways in which individuals favor other individuals with whom they share a common identity; per this model, individuals evaluate members of their subgroups more positively than other members of the larger group, which may lead to conflict when disagreements occur across faultlines. Lau and Murnighan identify three compositional factors for faultlines within a group: # The number of individual attributes apparent to group members # Their alignment # The number of potentially homogenous subgroups A group has weak faultlines if subgroups contain different members across sets, and strong faultlines if group members fall in the same groups across sets. For example, a team composed half of young male

entry-level An entry-level job is a job that is normally designed or designated for recent graduates of a given discipline and typically does not require prior experience in the field or profession. These roles may require some on-site training. Many entr ...

employees and half of older female executives has strong faultlines because each member falls in subgroups with the same other members across all three demographic characteristics. Subsequent work on the impact of these embedded subgroups, called "factions" when overlap in subgroups is structured into teams, has found significant negative impacts on group productivity stemming from task conflict, emotional conflict, and behavioral disintegration. Faultlines were found to better predict variance in a variety of group self-perception metrics than traditional metrics of group heterogeneity, including perceptions of team-learning,

psychological safety Psychological safety is the belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. In teams, it refers to team members believing that they can take risks without being shamed by other team ...

, satisfaction, and expected performance. It is important to note that while the concept of faultlines model may be seen as presenting diversity as a challenge to be overcome, diversity has been found to contribute significantly to team outcomes under certain circumstances. Respectful inclusion of the opinions of minority members can lead to increased creativity as the group incorporates their distinct perspectives. The challenges associated with inclusivity are not insubstantial, and may require strong

leadership Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the co ...

and norms of tolerance and respect to overcome.

Six-step procedure for dealing with conflict in teams

Conflict is a normal part of working in teams, because it brings creativity and helps avoid

groupthink Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Cohesiveness, or the desire for cohesivenes ...

. However, too much conflict can stop teams for doing their work and certain procedures should be followed to get back on track. Guffey, Rhodes, and Rogin describe their six-step process for dealing with conflict in teams:Guffey, Mary Ellen, Kathleen Rhodes and Patricia Rogin. "Business Communication: Process and Product." Toronto: Thomson South-Western, 2010. Print. # Listen: In order for everyone to understand the problem. # Understand the other's point of view: Active listening makes understanding the other's position easier. Show this by asking questions. # Show a concern for the relationship: Focus on the problem, not the person. Show that his or her needs are cared for and an overall willingness to resolve the conflict. # Look for common ground: Identify both sides' interest and see what you have in common. # Invent new problem-solving options: Brainstorm on new ways to solve the conflict and be sure to be open to new suggestions. #Reach an agreement on what's fair: Find a middle ground of whats fair and choose the best options after weighing the possible solutions.

References

* Alessandra, Tony Ph.D. & Hunsaker, Phil Ph.D. (1993) Communicating at Work. New York: Fireside Publishers. * Cappozzoli, Thomas K. (1995, Dec). Resolving conflict within teams. Journal for Quality and Participation. v18n7, p. 28-30. * "Resolve Hot Topics with Cooler Heads." Negotiation (May 2007): 12-12. {{refend Teams Interpersonal conflict