Team Playing and Conflicts in Organizations

My concept of team membership is that all members involved should be actively engaged in the pursuit of realizing the team goals. The team behaviors stated in the team player assessment module address this concept by requiring team members to direct their energies in accomplishing the group goals. The module’s documentation of the importance of collaboration and coordination of group activities is well in line with the concept of team membership. However, the module differs from my idea of team membership by emphasizing shared leadership. The realization of team goals requires a team leader (Babiker et al., 2014). It is my view that the success of a team requires the direction and guidance of a team leader. The team leader acts as the vision bearer for the team and is entirely in charge of the group. The module’s failure to include the aspect of team leadership in the team behaviors differs from my concept on team membership. 

I consider my openness to the ideas of other team members, commitment to group tasks, and excellent communication skills to be my strengths when working on a team. However, one of my weaknesses is the high level of expectations that I place on other team members. I expect that individuals should be self-driven when working on a group activity. I abhor any slackness in team behavior. I am focused on results; thus, I put a lot of demand on fellow team members to meet the team goals. Team members feel pressurized and consider my behavior as dominating. Nevertheless, my behavior often leads to the success of the group as team members remain focused on meeting the set goals. 

At one point in my career, when I was involved in a community training program on sanitation, I felt that I did not actively participate in the group activity. The training was a group activity, and different team members had various topics that they were to educate the community about. My topic of discussion was about the methods that members can use to ensure that their water was safe for drinking. I did not carry out any research on my topic for discussion, and during the presentation, I could only recall one measure, boiling water before drinking. I felt having let down the rest of the team members who had intensively discussed their topics and educated the community. My supervisor was in the habit of discouraging me, often trashing any effort I made as a wrong. The behavior had discouraged me hence the lack of motivation to participate in the group activity. His participation in the group activity as the team leader only worsened the situation. I felt more dissuaded to participate. 

I am one committed person to my roles, and when allocated a specific task, I not only set out to do it but do it effectively. Rather than simply accomplish a task, I strive to do it properly. As such, I regard myself as a performer. In one of the instances, while working with colleagues in a rapid results initiative to improve the quality of healthcare offered to patients, team members indicated that I was too keen on details. They regarded me as a perfectionist. However, as a team leader and especially on health-related matters, I believe that keenness to detail is mandatory to guarantee success. 

Social desirability bias is one of the biases likely to occur in this team player assessment module since responses more inclined to the left side are indicative of a team player. The decision to respond towards the left side inclined responses is what constitutes social desirability bias. Responses inclined to the left are regarded as “right” in the context of team playing. Therefore individuals are more likely to respond inclined to this direction despite them not being team players. 

I consider my team player style to be both communicative and collaborative. I believe that for the success of a team, proper communication is key to ensure success. When working in teams, I listen to the views and inputs of other members even when I am the team leader. In instances requiring further consultation, I give feedback to team members on time and the reasons for the particular decisions (Quinn et al., 2014). My collaborative team player style is evident from my inclination towards achieving the long term goals of the team and getting every team member on board to support the objectives. Achievement of long term goals requires urging members to be committed to the goals and use their every day actions to help achieve the long term goals. 

Part 2 

I find the non-confrontational strategy to be the simplest to use to handle conflict. The strategy does not involve any intellectual reasoning, persuasion, or bargaining in solving a conflict. Conflict is quickly put to an end by readily accepting the views of the other party or by walking away from topics that you know are more likely to cause conflicts. The strategy is less time consuming and less tasking than a solution-oriented strategy. The solution-oriented strategy is the most difficult to use in conflict management. By avoiding the temptation to use mere rules and regulations to impose one's views and emerge as the winner, the strategy involves reasoning and bargaining to achieve results that please all parties involved. The method turns out to be difficult because it becomes mentally engaging and time-consuming. One is also cautious not to hurt the feelings of the other party while at the same time, achieve results that are beneficial to all parties (Saeed et al., 2014). I mostly use the solution-oriented strategy in my workplace when conflicts arise amongst colleagues. 

My answers to this conflict handling assessment module concerning my work colleagues indicated that I use the solution-oriented strategy in solving the conflicts. However, if I were to consider my conflict handling strategy with my friend, my answers would indicate that I use the non-confrontational strategy. I realized that my friend is quite short-tempered, and often when I try to use a solution-oriented strategy whenever we have conflicts, his emotions spin out of control, and our conflict becomes aggravated. However, he is quite supportive despite his short-tempered behavior. Consequently, I have learned to avoid contentious topics, and whenever they do arise, I let his views to dominate. Even though this approach at times makes me appear as being on the wrong, it serves us both as it helps us maintain our friendship. 

My answers would also have differed when dealing with non-work related situations. In work-related situations, a solution-oriented strategy helps achieve harmony at the workplace to ensure all members are focused on achieving the organizational goals. On non- work-related matters, I am more likely to be compromising and let the other party have their way. After all, it only hurts me as an individual and not the organization. Thus, I would most likely use a non-confrontational strategy. The answers would also be different for different work-related situations. In a conflict with a colleague, I am more likely to use a solution-oriented strategy as no superiority or authority exists. However, when working in an organizational discipline committee, I am more likely to use the control strategy to handle the conflict as it involves following the rules and regulations governing the organization. 

The conflict strategies to use in handling conflicts are dependent on different situations. The nature of the conflict that is whether the conflict aggresses either party, influences the strategy to use. As the intensity of aggression increases, non-confrontational to solution-oriented to control strategies are more likely to be used in that order. The relationship between the groups involved in the conflict also influences the strategy to be used. In workplaces, solution-oriented and control strategies are more likely to be used due to the channels of authority available. Conflicts involving friends, spouses, and relatives are more likely to be handled using a non-confrontational strategy to ensure the stability and harmonious relationship amongst the parties. 

My habitual patterns of responding to conflicts show a mixed bag of control, solution-oriented, and non-confrontational strategies in handling conflicts. This is influenced by the different situations bringing the conflict and the desired outcomes. I will, however, adjust my strategy to mainly use the solution-oriented strategy. I find it to be a preferable model because it allows the input of different views. According to Rahim (2017), the strategy is quite crucial in shaping decision making at the workplace. 

I find my conflict management approach to be compromising. I find it acceptable to consider the views, opinions, and consideration of the other party to arrive at a reasonable agreement workable for all parties. No one person takes it all or loses it all (Quinn et al., 2014). The approach is useful in my work, especially when dealing with colleagues requesting days off in their work schedules to attend to other matters. The approach mostly works since we strike a balance of when they are to compensate for the hours they were absent. 

References 

Babiker, A., El Husseini, M., Al Nemri, A., Al Frayh, A., Al Juryyan, N., Faki, M. O., ... & Al Zamil, F. (2014). Health care professional development: Working as a team to improve patient care.  Sudanese journal of paediatrics ,  14 (2), 9. 

Quinn, R. E., Bright, D., Faerman, S. R., Thompson, M. P., & McGrath, M. R. (2014).  Becoming a master manager: A competing values approach . John Wiley & Sons. 

Rahim, M. A. (2017).  Managing conflict in organizations . Routledge. 

Saeed, T., Almas, S., Anis-ul-Haq, M., & Niazi, G. S. K. (2014). Leadership styles: relationship with conflict management styles.  International Journal of Conflict Management ,  25 (3), 214-225.