Introduction
The Tent City project is a construction initiative managed by this company. It achieves fluidity in its operation by dividing the workforce into teams with each team having its specific goals and objective. Each team has to perform the assigned task and in addition it must coordinate with other teams to ensure smooth progress in operations. The teams involved in this project are the engineering and planning, inventory management, customer relations, and operations teams.
Analysis
Teams generally are comprised of people with diverse backgrounds, aptitudes, personality characteristics, approach towards learning, and the way they react to the behaviors of others they encounter in day to day activities. Thus it is quite natural that conflicts come to pass within and amongst teams. Thus in today’s management scenario, conflict management assumes immense significance. (Zimmerman, 2006)
In this context we need to analyze teambuilding issues at the outset of the discussion. Teambuilding activities are a vital feature in every group and need to be directed towards an ideologically shared goal. The lack of team dynamics in the workplace results in the cropping up of conflicts. Dissatisfaction and annoyance start to creep in. Thus efficient team building should be in place to counter these misbalances. Teambuilding should organize the workforce and encourage them to acknowledge change and concentrate on incessant enhancement of initiatives and projects. It should also promote suppleness, improvement and creativity amongst the employees. Team dynamics facilitates the workforce to focus on designated tasks and inspire each other. They assist in building faith, reliability and enhance communication. (Black and Mendenhall, 2003)
One major issue in the Tent city project is efficient communications. The Tent City project team experiences an uncomfortable situation with the information they obtain from the Project Manager. The communiqué appears on the news earlier than the team receiving. Thus under such circumstances few conflict issues has been observed with regards to the different teams. It has been frequently observed that incapability to communicate and work effectively results in individual, team, or organizational conflict circumstances. In this case the key issues and the grievances must be taken care of before it affects the overall performance of the teams and stalls the project operations. Individual interviews may be carried out to identify the issue and subsequently needs to be addressed effectively. (Sims, 2006)
Other potential issues in relation to team conflicts may be identified as minute team conflicts and Team-wide disagreements.
Minute tam conflicts may involve situations such as such as disparity, insensitive or offensive remarks, or complicated behavior exhibited by some team members that may aggravate tension throughout the entire team and negatively impact efficiency. Team-wide disagreements or enmity thrust by inherent viewpoints can considerably decrease team fluency and holdup or interrupt the team’s productivity – be it in inventory management, engineering, customer relations, or internal operations for example human resources and finance.
With regards to conflict management here are some significant aspects to be considered by a manager. Conflict isn’t essentially always a negative feature. When occurring in an open and direct manner, it assists in handling issues and generating a constructive consensus. An organizational culture that holds such a viewpoint is called “constructive confrontation” and can be a constructive instrument. (Hofstede, 2005)
Conclusion
Conflict is the consequence of individuals hold dissimilar conjectures. It is important to reflect on what beliefs ones stance is based on and then analyze perspectives of the others involved. It is also important to concentrate on the issues rather than the involved parties. To a large extent conflict arises from underlying issues that manifest into problems in due course of time. Since they’re never brought to the fore, they never heal and leak out in all your interactions with that person. Thus as a manager it is important that one encourages his subordinates to be open, direct and honest.
References
Black, J. S., and Mendenhall, M. (2003). A practical but theory-based framework for selecting conflict management training methods. Human Resource Management, 28(4), 511-530.
Hofstede, G. (2005). Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. London: SAGE.
Sims, R L. (2006). Comparing attitudes across cultures. Conflict Management, 13(2), 101-113.
Zimmerman, D. (2006). On the Path of Success: Facts and Fictions. Auckland: IBL & Alliance Ltd.