Question

• From a manager perspective, in what ways are power, conflict, and negotiation related to emotions and communication in teamwork scenarios? What is a strategy for managing conflict in a team?

Answer 1

Part A)

From a manager perspective here are the ways in which power, conflict & negotiation are related to emotions & communication in teamwork scenarios:

• The manager style of leadership & power execution defines how the emotions and communication work across teams. Managers working with people and having a democratic style are able to get consensus & leads to better synergy.
• if the style involves giving commands & not engaging team members for decision making then the emotional health of team members get affect. The lack of commitment comes into the picture & communication across various scenarios get affected.
• Conflict management defines the value of people of the organisation, it also defines the values & key processes that the organisation wants to follow and hence it impacts how team members feel that conflict is being managed by managers and it adds to the motivation and behaviour of team members.
• Negotiation is a key managerial skill and the ability to do it keeping both the parties objectives in mind creates more commitment, ownership and aspiration to achieve the goals for the team.
• It is important for people to cooperate willingly & not because of pressure or other reasons. It is important to have balance power management, conflict management process to ensure successful change management in the teams.

Part B)

Here are strategies & ways to manage conflict in a team:

• Step 1: Prevent it from spreading further: It is important to bring everyone together. The group together needs to share concerns and issues they are facing followed by a coordinated team process to create common goals and guidelines to prevent the cause in the future.
• Step 2: Reducing the dependence on each other - It's important that management and leadership take steps to define roles & responsibilities of each departmental member so that it can help reduce such excessive conflict and with the team working together for common goals negative feelings will also reduce.
• Step 3: Redesign the team & departments - In order to prevent further conflicts people facing issues are brought together as one group striving for common goals and objectives. It is easier to predict group behaviour when all who are facing issues are put together & conflict management also happened faster.
• Step 4: Improving team culture and department leadership - It is important to encourage departments and individuals to communicate freely, remove misunderstandings and be honest & open in our daily conversations.
• Step 5: Building an atmosphere of collaboration - All energies of the team need to guided in a positive manner to find a solution than focussing on old problems.

Also covering all the other strategies that can be used depending on the conflict:

1) Compromise:

• The strategy should involve showing neutral level concern for self and others involved from the team.
• The firm should focus on indicating that they are least interested to manage the particular conflict.
• If a particular situation has time limits attached and if the issues go forward it will impact the company compromise as a strategy should be used.
• It is also a great strategy when the parties involved are having neutrality in power and no previous solution has worked.

2) Avoiding:

• These strategies are indicative that there is a low concern for yourself and others involved in the conflict.
• The strategy is either very passive, low volume or indirect hence making it less effective in many situations.
• For example, A short duration having conflict can be avoided as it will have very less impact on the organisation.
• If the leaders are not heaving invested or emotionally involved in the conflict it can be easily avoided.
• Informal actions like hinting and joking to make someone understand all fall under the purview of avoiding.

3) Forcing a solution:

• Forcing a problem is a strategy used when there is a massive concern for self and extremely low concern for others.
• If someone is taking others for granted and creating a negative culture through his/her actions than a solution has to be forced for the interest of the organisation.
• It is considered to be a very direct and aggressive strategy as the environment of assertiveness is created.
• It is desired in cases where the solution will define the way forward for action otherwise things will stop functioning. Hence to keep the flow of operations a conflict is managed by forcing a solution.

4) Resolving:

• This strategy involves a high degree of concern for the person and usually is focused on reaching a consensus.
• This strategy requires proper communication and understanding from a mutual benefit perspective.
• It should lead to a win-win situation for the parties involved in the process. Since the case is resolved it sets a positive environment in the organisation and helps to address issues in the future.
• This strategy involves having flexibility and a quest for discovering solutions. It involves a careful understanding of the needs that are driving the conflict.
• Resolving involves behaviours like asking questions, reaching a solution point, providing feedback and listening carefully and equally.

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