Question

During the last few weeks, this course has explored issues in culture, creativity, innovation, and conflict. Please consider at least one theory and one related tool and consider the application of these into your professional environment or into a professional environment in which you aspire to join. Finally, conclude your post with a question that you have that was triggered during the analysis of your chosen theory and related tool.(200 - 250 words)

Answer 1

Conflict at the workplace is any scenario or situation in which there exists disagreement among the team members. The conflict may lead to difference in opinion as well as can have the potential to impact the team synergy at the workplace.

Workplace conflict can arise due to:

• Change in the existing process
• Personal disagreement among team members
• Poor communication among team members

Usually, there are 2 major types of conflict in an organization -functional and dysfunctional conflict.

• Functional conflict: Healthy discussion among the team members about the different available alternatives for the problem at hand. Constructive discussion leads to find the most effective solution for the same. Example: Making the choice for the best resource for a project-work.
• Dysfunctional conflict: This type of conflict arises due to some confusions, miscommunication or ego/power clashes and is quite unhealthy in nature. No constructive outcome can be obtained in this conflict. Example: A and B try to be friendly in the front while in reality, they have ego clashes and usually try to out-perform each other.

The functional conflict can be considered optimum level of conflict in an organization as it facilitates healthy exploration of available options, thereby resulting in choice of effective solution for the problem.

Recently, I was working on a project at my workplace. In my office, projects are allotted on team basis where each team member is given a substantial job. Every team member is required to take ownership of his or her job. There was a member, Berry who had a habit of procrastinating work, because of which the entire project was suffering. I went to confront him regarding the same, but instead of feeling responsive, the person started blame-gaming and a conflict happened in the team.

This was a clear case of dysfunctional conflict. In my views, the difference in mindset of the entire team and Berry, eventually led to the conflict. Also I feel that the project leader, Mark was not able to perform his job well, because of which Berry lacked the ownership instinct.

As the tussle became quite evident and posed disturbance to the smooth flow of the project, I took the initiative to solve the differences between Berry and the team. I resorted to collaborative style of conflict management where I desired collaboration from each member of the team to solve the conflict at hand. Every team member shared his or her perspective and inhibitions. Berry was made to realize that he was affecting the overall synergy of the team. The team pledged to have mutual understanding of each other’s perspectives and inhibitions and support each other in any kind of challenging situation. This way, the collaborative conflict management technique was used to solve the conflict in the team and establish harmony and team synergy.

Question: How fruitful is functional conflict for innovative decision making?