Question

Read the dysfunctional team case posted under to answer the following questions.

What would it take to work with someone that you don’t get along with in a team? Nine months ago, the executives running your design firm decided to start using teams. Before that, all of the work was done on an individual basis. Ron the marketing guy would run some consumer surveys to try to identify new fads. He would pass this information on to the Susie in the art department, who would come up with some sketches of new products based on the surveys. She would then pass this on to production, where Maury would look at the sketches and see what kind of materials would have to be ordered so that Sharon could have a chance to work up some prototypes. Finally, about five months later, Marcus in sales would have some samples that he could take around to potential customers. But after switching to one team, where all these people could work together and share their ideas at each step of the process, that time was cut down just six weeks. The executives of your company were thrilled with these results, and no doubt, they patted themselves on the back for coming up with the brilliant idea of using teams. There is, though, just one thing that they didn’t take into consideration – the team members hate each other! Marcus thinks that Ron talks too much and dominates every single team meeting. Maury, who hates sports, thinks that Susie wastes all of her time following the University of Michigan football team. Susie, meanwhile, hates it that Sharon won’t stop it with stories about her kids. As for Marcus, nobody can quite figure him out, but almost everyone on the team thinks that he is racist. With all of these negative emotions floating around, your project team has become stagnant. The meetings are uncomfortable, to say the least, and the interaction between the members has become toxic. It’s been virtually impossible to get people to share ideas, reflect on others’ ideas, or even just look each other in the eyes. Most meetings, it’s plainly obvious that the only reason people are in the meetings is because they have to be. A few weeks ago, Ron and Maury went to senior managers and asked what they would need to do to not work in teams anymore. The managers, in turn, told them to tell everyone else that, in effect, they are stuck with what they got. The mangers are unwilling to give up the gains in productivity and speed, so the team is just going to have to learn how to work together. So here you sit, a dysfunctional team, with a directive from your bosses to learn how to get along. How do you do it?

1. Do the a-type conflicts (affective conflicts) among the team members increase, or decrease c-type conflict (cognitive conflict)? Why?

2. What are some ways that this group can decrease their interpersonal conflicts and increase its cohesiveness?

Answer 1

ANS- Affective conflict arises when people do not like each other and negative emotions prevail while cognitive conflict arises when the argument is over the task and not between people and how to find a best possible solution to the problem only matters The a-type conflicts(affective conflicts) among the team members decrease the c-type conflict(cognitive conflict) because when each person has some problem with the other person then they do not want to hear that person, they do not want to discuss anything as they hate that person specifically and therefore they cannot come together to discuss about the solution and thus there is no solution to the problem. It can be seen from the case that how the team members hated each other and negative emotions of different members floated around. The meetings were uncomfortable, the interaction between members became toxic. So, when the team does not work with each other then definitely the solution will not come out and hence cognitive conflict decreases.

Some ways by which this group can decrease their interpersonal conflicts and increase its cohesiveness are given below-

• Talk with everyone openly face to face so that if there is something negative it should come out directly and can be solved at that point only
• Remove negativity so that one can think in a positive way and positive thinkers does not face this kind of difficulty.
• Apologize whenever there is fault of themselves. When we apologize and accept our mistakes then it becomes easier to solve interpersonal conflict.
• One should think thoroughly and discuss this kind of matter with their closed ones so that they may help them to overcome it.