Team Dysfunctions

Essay by sy12424University, Bachelor'sA, October 2007

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AbstractIn the academic and professional world working among teams has been proven effective with successful universities and companies. When people are grouped among their peers human nature kicks in and conflict is inevitable. This paper is a reflection of the five major dysfunctions among teams.

Teams DysfunctionsThe foundations of a highly proficient team are trust, fear of conflict, commitment, accountability and results. Lack of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, as well as the inattention results will cause a team to be unsuccessful. This paper discusses the five dysfunctions teams face and adversely how open trust, communication, commitment, accountability and attention to results are essential.

The first team dysfunction is absence of trust. According to Lencioni, trust is required of team members who appear to be reluctant of each other and there appears to be unwillingness to admission of mistakes. Trust among team members is different than trust in general.

Within a team, members need to be able to trust that their team members have good intentions and ultimately goals that are beneficial to the team. This allows constructive criticism and ultimately helps team members to work on their inadequacies.

The next dysfunction within a team occurs when there is a fear of conflict. In Lencionis’ book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team; he claims that without a fear of conflict a team cannot engage in passionate, unfiltered debate about issues that are important to the project the team is working on. Conflict helps team members learn from each other and experiences. Conflict helps build the foundation of the project the team is working on and, reach the common goal, results.

Thirdly, lacking commitment can cause team dysfunction. According to Lencioni, he states teams who lack in commitment could lead to failure. There must be...