Group Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Group Behavior - Essay Example Successful management of the conflict makes the team stronger. Knowing the origin of a conflict helps a leader determine whether it is functional or dysfunctional. Functional conflicts are productive while the dysfunctional conflicts are disruptive. Common sources of conflict in the team are the limitation of resources and the values, attitudes, goals, roles, personalities, interdependency and interaction of the team members. Allan C. Amazon has identified two types of conflict, namely the cognitive conflict and the affective conflict. Amazon’s research suggests that both types of conflicts are necessarily present in any kind of group, with the cognitive conflict being productive and the affective conflict being disruptive. Cognitive conflicts lead to the personal growth of the team members, identification of a workable solution, increased integration and cohesiveness of the team members whereas the affective conflicts lead to unresolved problems, waste of energy, decline in t he team’s morale and team division. Training of the team members in such core competencies as knowledge of conflict resolution methods, entrustment and cooperation are fundamental to the success of a team. The Monmouth University proposes a five-stage conflict management strategy. The five stages are awareness of the conflict resolution, training of conflict resolution, mediation, reinforcement workshops and program institutionalization. Conflict resolution requires a leader to remain impartial and promote mutual understanding among the team members. To help prevent the conflict from occurring, the leader should establish ground rules at the outset, develop team agreement on the way to resolve conflict, train the team members on communication skills, and focus on the team’s objectives. There are numerous reactive strategies that a leader may adopt to resolve the conflict. The leader can either adopt an authoritative style, a splitting