ASSIGNMENT 8-1

TEAM LEADERSHIP AND CONFLICT COMPETENT TEAMS LITERATURE REVIEW

Karen Crump

Argosy University

Literature Review on Team Leadership and Conflict Competent Teams

Introduction and Background: Conflict Management Approaches and Resolving Team Conflict by Leaders

In any situation involving more than one employee, conflicts are bound to arise. In diverse teams for instance, the causes of conflict can range from divergent goals to philosophical differences to power differences and imbalances. According to Fisher, Hunter and Macrosson (2002), teams develop conflicts because of competing goals, failure to understand job responsibilities, self-centeredness, the intensive need to be individually recognized out of self-centeredness and disagreements about strategy and how to execute strategies . Conflicts inherently reduce the ability of teams to complete project tasks or effectively organizational goals and objectives.

Sound and effective team leadership demands that conflicts are reduced or minimized in teams. In the event that conflicts occur in teams, the leadership of such teams must embrace modern and effective strategies that limit the extent of damage. The paper gives a background information about some of these strategies. Firstly, right timing is an excellent strategy to resolve team conflict. In managing a conflict, timing is key. According to Fisher, Hunter and Macrosson (2002), the best time of taking action is when there is hard proof or evidence that one of the team members has a track record of constantly being in conflict with others or doing negative things that impact the performance of their colleagues.

Secondly, leaders should create a culture where the value of each person is well-known and respected. When conflict comes up, it often causes members of any team to become insecure about their value and place in the organization. Members of any team consider their leader a rock and therefore are a source of cohesion and stability. When members of the team understand that they are important pillars of the organization, they can tone down their differences and work towards a common good or the greater good.

Thirdly, leaders can find a common ground and then rebuild. Members of the team have one thing in common; they share the mission and values of the organization. The leader should use this common ground as a basis of rebuilding the team when feelings are hurt, tempers flare and people are tensed in the team. Fourthly, confronting the tension at earlier stages helps in preventing differences from blowing into large-scale conflicts. Leadership is most of the time about doing things that other people may not like (Runde & Flanagan, 2012). Confronting the tension head-on and earlier helps in preventing circumstances from getting out of hand.

Analysis of the Key Themes in the Selected Articles and Patterns of Similarities and Differences in the Articles

The articles selected for this literature review all talk about common themes in conflict management in teams, the role of leaders in handling these conflicts, dynamics of team conflict, team development and development of a diverse and an ethical culture in teams. Also, there are theoretical and practical approaches that were discussed in class that have come up in the selected articles. Therefore, the paper will address these common themes.

In “Belbin’s team role theory: for non-managers also?” Fisher Hunter and Macrosson (2002) established that Belbin’s team role theory is applicable to non-managerial personnel out of the 16PF5 personality questionnaire data that were derived from a sample of male and female volunteers drawn from local authority and industrial organizations. Belbin proposed that for a management team to be optimally operational, eight-related team roles need to be fulfilled (Fisher, Hunter & Macrosson, 2002). The special names that Belbin coined for the team roles include chair, team worker, resource investigator, sharper, monitor evaluator, company worker and complete finisher.

He further elaborated that some individuals are able to work in one or more of these roles, though he later renamed some roles. The authors in this article addresses the issue of generality of Belbin team role theory from two perspectives: firstly, the frequency of occurrence of different Belbin team roles within the positions of non-managerial staff, and secondly, the performance of non-managerial teams in a team decision-making practice created for training personnel in managerial positions (Fisher, Hunter & Macrosson, 2002). Primarily, the authors were comparing Belbin team roles for managers and non-managers.

What stood out from the data analysis is that Belbin team roles were the same for both managers and non-managers. In essence, it demonstrates that Belbin theory should be applied to lower levels of management since decision-making is almost the same across all the levels. Using Belbin’s team roles for non-managerial staff according to Fisher, Hunter and Macrosson (2002) can achieve greater organizational effectiveness through the assembly of well-oiled and better-structured teams.

Nesterkin and Porterfield (2016) evaluate conflict management and performance of information technology development teams. The paper evaluates how cohesion and team support channels the impact of relationship conflict and the management of relationship conflict on the productivity of a team. The authors used questionnaire data samples from students working in teams to design software systems for organizations. The study established that cohesion and team support positively impact each other and the performance of teams.

Additionally, the findings support that the consequences of conflict management and conflict on the performance of a team are first mediated by team support then secondly through cohesion of teams, through indirectly. The main focus on the study is that the sustainment and attainment of productivity of teams depends on both attitudinal and facilitating factors; represented by elements of team cohesion and support (Nesterkin & Porterfield, 2016). The authors explain that team support is a synergistic interaction procedure without which team productivity is likely to be undermined completely or reduced.

Team cohesion on the other hand represents the feelings of attraction or belongingness of the team members to the group and indicates the attitudes of the teams towards one another. Essentially, when these two constructs are encouraged in a team environment, Nesterkin and Porterfield (2016) explains that team performance is likely to be optimal and conflicts reduced considerably.

Team relationship conflict, which is a major thematic area addressed by the two authors, minimizes or eliminates identification a member could have with his or her team, which consequently diminishes the intra-team enabling support systems thereby destabilizing the performance of the team. To drive performance, the authors suggest team conflict management since it buffers the detrimental consequences of all types of conflict by promoting resource usage efficiency, procedural justice and work effectiveness.

In the article, “A review of factors affecting individual performance in team environments: Theories and implications for library management,” O'Connor (2006) compiles an interdisciplinary of factors that affect the performance of an individual in a team environment or team environments. From the study, extrinsic and intrinsic performance factors were shown to impact the performance of an individual in team environments. The research article primarily focused on the dynamics of a group and rewards and punishments that are administered by managers.

O'Connor (2006) supports the idea that interdependent teams are best motivated when they trust both the collaboration and expertise of other members of their teams. The author identifies extrinsic factors which affect individual performance in teams as collective efficacy, social rewards and sanctions, social dilemmas, social loafing, future interdependence and social identity. These six factors, according to the author, are external and are out of the reach of the individual members of a team.

The author also addresses individual factors, which affect performance in groups or teams. O'Connor (2006) labels these factors as internal and therefore can be controlled by individuals in a team. Some of the factors he identifies include individual identity, desire to achieve, member role differences, team size, member commitment and status attainment.

Wakefield, Leidner and Garrison (2008) address conflict, leadership and performance in virtual teams. Today, companies across different industries are employing virtual teams in varied contexts, which include software development, research and development, and designing new products. Most virtual teams are culturally and geographically dispersed to facilitate around- the- clockwork and allow the most skilled and experienced team members to be assigned project teams. With increasing dispersion, virtual teams are constantly experiencing more diverse and greater conflict compared with ‘real’ teams.

In this article, Wakefield, Leidner and Garrison (2008) integrate the dynamic conflict model in distributed teams with the behavioral complexity in leadership theory to examine the roles that leaders of virtual teams must effectively use to reduce different levels and forms of conflict in virtual teams. The findings of the study are explicit. Firstly, the results of the study indicate that communication technologies can be effectively employed in reducing task conflict. However, the virtual team leaders must constantly monitor the teams to reduce conflict.

The dynamic conflict model in distributed teams theorizes that virtual team’s nature like technology mediation and distance makes conflict extremely difficult to manage and undermines the efforts to resolve them. In virtual teams, Wakefield, Leidner and Garrison (2008) identify three types of conflict: process conflict, relational conflict and task conflict. In the theory of behavioral complexity in leadership, Wakefield, Leidner and Garrison (2008) explains that effective leaders have a behavioral and cognitive ability to react and recognize to their environments.

In virtual teams, effective leaders must assume the monitor role and the coordinator role, the mentor role and the facilitator role. The authors explain that, based on the BCL theory, when team leaders, team members are capable of indicating less overall conflict and attribute greater effectiveness to their team leaders exhibits the internal roles of coordinator, mentor, facilitator and monitor.

There is a close relationship between Wickramasinghe and Nandula (2015)’s “Diversity in team composition, relationship conflict and team leader support on globally distributed virtual software development team performance” and Wakefield, Leidner and Garrison (2008)’s “Research note—a model of conflict, leadership, and performance in virtual teams’ since both of them address conflicts in distributed teams. In the first article, Wickramasinghe and Nandula (2015) digest diversity in the composition of teams, relationship conflict in distributed teams and the role of a leader in supporting distributed team performance.

Primarily, the two authors are investigating whether diversity in composition of teams leads to relationship conflict, and, relationship conflict consequently leads to team performance, and whether support by team leader moderates the consequences of relationship conflict on performance of the team. The study established that diversity in composition of teams is a recipe for relationship conflict, relationship conflict contributes to performance of the team and support of team leaders moderates the same relationship.

Lastly, Woehr, Arciniega and Poling (2013) explores the consequences of value diversity on effectiveness of teams. The goal of the study was exploring the potential effect of within-team value diversity with respect to task performance and team processes. The findings of the study showed that value diversity among members of a team has no significant effect on task performance. However, diversity with respect to many value dimensions has substantive unique impact on team process criteria.

With workforce diversity increasingly becoming a concern in the recent past, leaders are constantly faced with the dilemma of value conflicts, which degenerate to ineffective team performance. The study established that performance of tasks within teams are not affected positively or negatively by limited or lack of congruence across members of any team (Woehr, Arciniega &Poling, 2013). However, the study found out that diversity of values has significant effects on team process variables like efficacy, cohesion, task and relationship conflict. Diversity leads into lower cohesion between teams, more conflict and lower team efficacy.

Impact of Leadership Approaches and Development of Conflict-Competent Teams

From the analysis of the literature, there are leadership approaches that are desired in teams, especially when looking at distributed teams and diverse teams. Additionally, effective leadership approaches and strategies are desirable in developing conflict-competent teams. Leaders must appreciate differences between members of each team. Appreciating differences is a key element of leadership that helps in reducing any conflicts that may arise between members of the team.

In diverse teams for instance, leaders must appreciate cultural differences between team members. Secondly, team leaders must develop an inherent culture of open and constant communication with the team members, especially in virtually distributed teams. The focus of effective communication is not only based on passing out vital information but also listening keenly to any challenges or concerns that have been raised by team members are responding to them appropriately.

Runde and Flanagan (2012) explains that building conflict competent teams require a lot of engagement both from leaders and members of their teams. Creating the right climate in teams is vital for creating conflict-competent teams. Creating the right climate takes a lot of effort (Runde & Flanagan, 2012). Firstly, team members and their leaders must have effective attitudes. Secondly, there should be a lot of trust in the teams where members can openly share their experiences and concerns transparently without being victimized.

Thirdly, members of the team should feel safe and have behavioral integration, which brings forth cohesion. Constructive communication is another important element of building conflict competent teams. Runde and Flanagan (2012) explains that constructive communications involve reflective thinking and delayed responding, listening for understanding, perspective taking, expressing emotions and techniques for staying on track.

References

Fisher, S. G., Hunter, T. A., & Macrosson, W. D. K. (2002). Belbin’s team role theory: for non-managers also? Journal of Managerial Psychology, 17(1), 14-20.

Nesterkin, D., & Porterfield, T. (2016). Conflict management and performance of information technology development teams. Team Performance Management, 22(5/6), 242-256.

O'Connor, M. (2006). A review of factors affecting individual performance in team environments: Theories and implications for library management. Library Management, 27(3), 135-143.

Runde, C. E., & Flanagan, T. A. (2012). Building conflict competent teams (Vol. 129). John Wiley & Sons.

Wakefield, R. L., Leidner, D. E., & Garrison, G. (2008). Research note—a model of conflict, leadership, and performance in virtual teams. Information systems research, 19(4), 434-455.

Wickramasinghe, V., & Nandula, S. (2015). Diversity in team composition, relationship conflict and team leader support on globally distributed virtual software development team performance. Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal, 8(2/3), 138-155.

Woehr, D. J., Arciniega, L. M., & Poling, T. L. (2013). Exploring the effects of value diversity on team effectiveness. Journal of Business and Psychology, 28(1), 107-121.

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