| ## Unit 7 Summary{-} |
| In Unit 7, you had the opportunity to learn about the approaches to leadership
and design of leadership teams. You have seen different techniques to
self-managing a team and the approaches to problem solving. You have focused on
creativity within a team and as an individual, and have considered why each one
has its pros and cons. You have learned how organizations can be more creative
and how to apply creative techniques into a group setting. |
| ## assessment |
| ### Assignment: Team Conflict Management Model (10%) |
| Complete the conflict management process for your team you began in last week’s
unit. Upload your dispute resolution process into Moodle no later than the end
of week 7. |
| See the notes below to help guide you as you design your conflict management
model. |
| What is Conflict Management? |
| Conflict management starts with an assumption that conflict is both normal and
healthy in all relationships. Conflict emerges when people have competing
interests, values, and roles or when people differ in their history, age,
gender, experience, ethnicity, etc. People experience conflict every day of
their lives. Conflict is more likely to occur as an internal process than a
process that occurs between people. |
| In Psychology, we use terms like cognitive conflict, cognitive disequilibrium,
or cognitive dissonance to describe the internal experience people have when
their internal cognitive representations of the world come into conflict with
their immediate experiences. In fact, all models of growth and personal
development have conflict or tension at the centre of the internal pressure for
people to change, adapt and grow. A concept of Positive Emotive Tension Theory
(PETT) posits that people are strongest when they are in relationships or life
situations that exert tension or pressure on them. The tension that is created
between people is a positive force that enables balance and perspective to
impact people’s decision-making. Most people try to resolve the cognitive
dissonance that is created between internal representations of the world and
external realities of life. The concept of conflict management is that we don’t
have to always resolve conflict. We can live in a world where cognitive
representations are held in a balanced tension for long periods of time. |
| Conflict is Good. |
| Interpersonal conflict management starts with an assumption that conflict is a
good and healthy aspect of relationships. Conflict helps us share our
perspectives, to learn about others and their diverse ways of seeing the world,
to challenge our worldview and to refine our thinking to improve our
decision-making processes. The starting point to become healthy in our approach
to conflict management is to accept that conflict is good and can help us to
learn, improve, and thrive in relationships. |
| Conflict Management Takes Time. |
| Although most people would naturally desire to avoid conflict or pretend it
doesn’t exist, conflict identifies a flaw in thinking, flaw in values, flaw in
communication, or a flaw in process. In order to understand the nature of the
flaw, we need to take the time to understand all perspectives, to allow each
voice to be heard, to provide a venue for open and frank discussion, and to
communicate each person’s value to the organization. |
| Conflict Management Requires Consistent and Stable Structures. |
| Because people naturally do not trust those who disagree with them, most will
assume negative intentions, vested interests, ulterior motives, or destructive
intent when they come into conflict with others. Because these negative
reactions cloud people’s judgements about ‘the other,’ a good conflict
management process must be structurally clear and consistent. Usually, this type
of management system is defined in organizational policy in order to ensure
people know where to take matters when there is conflict. |
| Conflict Management Requires Independent Processes. |
| Again, As with structure, the processes involved in good conflict management
revolve around perceptions of unfairness, power inequality, gender, race and
sexual orientation inequalities (that are all protected by the human rights code
and charter), etc. As a result, there must be clear processes that are
independent of these forces. My experience is that most organizations and people
within them are not inherently biased, but when it comes to conflict, perception
becomes reality. In designing your conflict management model, you must be clear
to develop processes that cannot be influenced unduly by role or title within an
organization. It should be noted from my personal experience that Christian
organizations are often the poorest at developing good processes for conflict
management. Christian organizations start with an understanding that people love
each other, have grace, should put everyone else first, etc. These assumptions
often stem from the ‘masks’ we put on to fit in to the Christian community.
Christians are just as prone to bias, jealousy, hate, competition, feelings of
inadequacy and unfairness, etc as other people. Christian organizations are
generally in more need of good conflict management processes than other
organizations are. |
| What does a good conflict management system look like? |
| 1. There is an underlying assumption that people do not mean to do harm or
damage and that they are trying to do what they believe it right. |
| 2. People’s feelings are always real. Whether we agree with how those feelings
arose or whether they are justified and proportionate, the experience of the
other is a real experience. |
| 3. People need help to manage conflict. People don’t know how to manage
conflict effectively and are usually prone to ignore the conflict rather
than manage it effectively. |
| 4. People don’t know how to communicate well regarding conflict. People may not
be able to contain their emotions and hold in their thoughts when it comes
to conflict. Often the emotion has been pent up for so long that when it is
time to speak, words are not organized well and thinking is not clear.
anger, rage, hostility, fear, crying all may emerge when discussing
conflicts. The person who is managing the conflict process must not take
things personally as they may initially bear the brunt of the pent up
emotional response. |
| 5. Conflict management must have an internal and an external process to ensure
that the issues can be addressed fairly and completely. |
| MODEL |
| Internal |
| 1. Initial conflict is brought to the attention of the other person. After a
frank discussion and presentation of issues and sides, the conflict is
either addressed or needs to be escalated. |
| 2. Immediate supervisor is brought in to hear both sides and attempt to mediate
the conflict. |
| 3. An internal conflict resolution system is engaged to manage the process. Two
sides are usually formalized at this point with written presentations from
both sides. A internal neutral third party (often HR) is brought in to hear
the sides and make a recommendation. |
| External |
| 4. If internal processes cannot resolve the conflict, an outside mediator with
training in such matters is brought into the issue. |
| 5. If the mediator is unable to manage the conflict effectively, arbitration or
binding arbitration is the final step. Usually arbitration brings closure, but
often underlying feelings remain. |
| 6. Depending on the organization, there is always the right to sue and take
legal action independently against the institution |
| ### Assignment: Forum–Harnessing the Potential of the Team (part of 10% participation grade){-} |
| For this week’s Community Activity, you will be asked to submit a post of the
class forum and discuss the following: |
| First reflect on your work in the past and find one example of good leadership
that harnessed the power of the team and one example of poor leadership that
failed to harness the power of the team. Please note that you should not use any
identifying information in your descriptions in order to ensure that other
students in the class cannot identify the members of your illustration. |
| Complete the questions below: |
| A. Please describe a time when you experienced a positive and functional team
that both worked well relationally and achieved the goals that were assigned to
the team. |
| 1. What were the main reasons why you believe this team functioned well? |
| 2. How did you engage the team process? Do you feel you were a positive player
in the team’s achievement? |
| 3. What role, if any, did the leader have in the outcome of the team? |
| 4. Do you believe the positive experience was mainly a function of the people
and the personalities involved or primarily a function of the situation the
team found itself in? |
| B. Please describe a time when you experienced a negative and dysfunctional team
that didn’t work well relationally or achieve the goals that were assigned to
the team. |
| 1. What were the main reasons why you believe this team functioned poorly? |
| 2. How did you engage the team process? Do you feel you were a positive player
despite the team’s lack of achievement? |
| 3. What role, if any, did the leader have in the outcome of the team? |
| 4. Do you believe the negative experience was mainly a function of the people
and the personalities involved or primarily a function of the situation the
team found itself in? |
| C. Finally, compare and contrast the positive and negative team experiences.
What do you believe was the largest single reason for the differences between
these two situations? |
| Post your response to this week’s community forum. |
| Checking your Learning |