Managing Conflict in Teams

Essay by amyewatsonUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, March 2004

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Managing Conflict in Teams

Conflict exists everywhere. An airplane traveling through the sky is in constant conflict with the forces of gravity and wind resistance. A moving vehicle is also in conflict with surface upon which it travels. Conflict can be both good and bad. If the forces of gravity overcome the airplane, that would be bad. If there were no conflict between the moving vehicle and the road known as friction, the vehicle would be out of control. While these examples are of a physical nature, we will look at conflicts arising between different people in different situations, and ways to overcome.

A team is usually a small group of people that have the same goals and belong to a larger group of people with the same goals. People have formed teams for as long has man has been on the face of this earth. Most early teams were known as tribes that banded together for survival purposes.

While teams are not ideal for every situation they are used in many different environments and they have evolved just as much as man has. Large corporations, small businesses, and schools, are just a few that use some form of a team. Whether it is a team that has been formed to complete one specific project, or a focus group that has a more permanent task of customer satisfaction, it is possible to ensure that teamwork increases both employee satisfaction and productivity. Each team has different components depending on the desired effect and desired impact that they want to achieve. The benefits of teams working together can be pretty obvious. The collaboration of multiple people working together on a project offers different views and opinions. It is this same benefit of multiple opinions that can also become the downfall of any...