Conflict within Teams and Creativity in Teams

Question 1

Part one

In most cases, conflicts occur due to lack of understanding between team members. People misunderstand each other as a result of different ideologies and opinions. Being the cause of conflicts, poor conflict resolution strategies complete the development of a conflict among group members. Although there are other predisposing factors in conflict creation, the above are the two main elements that constitute a conflict. A good example is a conflict that my team experienced. Members were asked to make their personal suggestion on how they thought was best to implement a certain initiative. Everybody came up with their own decisions and within no time, a number of members were arguing. This continued for some time and a conflict ensued. If there were clearly defined conflict resolution strategies in the group, the conflict could not have ensued.

The best conflict resolution intervention includes reinstating of clearly defined conflict resolution strategies, developing good leadership skills and to encourage good relations among team members. With good conflict resolution strategies, a conflict will be easily solved using the defined ways thus avoiding development of further conflicts. Similarly, good leaders will know how to best handle their team and avoid the occurrence of conflicts. They will encourage teamwork and good relations among members.

Part two

My creativity index is technology. I am passionate about technological advances and I will always strive to ensure that I make my teamwork contribution through technology. In order to enhance my creativity, I must read about new technological entries and also be passionate when it comes to technology. Similarly, I will welcome members ideas and opinions on possible interventions that I can consider in a bid to develop new technological devices.

Question 2

Part A

Team boundary management constitutes three aspects. The first aspect is the manner in which teams are constructed, team members’ relation to other teams, and how the teams change over time. The first aspect can either include self-selection or manager’s team selection. If members are willing to join the project or team, the manager will only define the team’s rules and objectives and watch from the sidelines as the team builds itself. However, sometimes members of an organization might not be willing to participate in that particular project and the manager will then be obliged to select members to each respective team.

The second aspect defines how members should relate to other teams. It clarifies if members are allowed to be members of more than one team or not. In as much as members have the liberty of joining more than one team, it is advisable that members should only pledge loyalty to one team. This will help improve dedication. The third aspect of team boundary management is the frequency of change in a team. Teams with minimal changes in the future are likely to perform well than frequently changing teams. Their live span should be long to allow for proper improvements. The trade-offs of internal and external ties within each type of a team are that internal cohesion enhances success while external ties reduce. (chron, 2017) If members of the same team relate well, they will definitely perform well due to the good cohesion and teamwork they have. However, when external ties are strengthened, team members will lack team loyalty and with thus focus on other teams giving their team less attention (Dr. Phil Richardson, 2017).

Part B

There are general roles that each team member is expected to perform at least one. They include sharper role, implementer role, finisher role, coordinator role, team worker role, resource investigator role, monitor-evaluator role, specialist role, and plants role. Personally, my role in the team is the specialist role. My technological creativity index makes me an expert in the team and I utilize my expertise to better the team and propel it to success.

Reference

Small Business. (n.d.). Retrieved September 16, 2017, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/

Dr Phil Richardson – Driving complex change management at C Level. (n.d.). Retrieved September 16, 2017, from http://www.philrichardson.co.uk/