Conflict is a common and essential aspect of team members. The argument on conflict's involvement in team participation and decisions may be seen in two different versions; the positive and negative impacts on decision-making. Team conflict can be categorized as substantive or emotional, which is the basis of this argument. Emotional conflict is caused by envy, insecurity, jealousy, annoyance, and indifferent personalities. With emotional conflicts, there is personal animosity between the parties; hence, their viewpoints will never reach a consensus, no matter how strong one party's explanation could be. Emotional conflict arises mostly from personalities such as hatred from physical appearance, family backgrounds, past defeat in competitions, or the most talked negative information about someone. Also, emotional conflict may arise from different working styles; for instance, a team where one party believes in working in a quiet and peaceful environment to enhance concentration, but the other party swear to be more creative when there is music in the background. Failure to reach a workable resolution leaves a frustrated team.
On the other hand, substantive conflict arises due to differences in goal-setting, task completion, and resource allocation. The conflict is mainly caused by different viewpoints over acquired knowledge, experiences, and facts (Humphrey et al., 2017). For instance, in an engineering firm, a computer engineer may suggest using specific software for its customization capabilities. Differently, the manager might suggest using another program since it's known for more detailed reports. Although there may arise conflict since everyone would wish their program to be applied, chances of higher productivity are developed. Such conflict eliminates the idea of groupthink, forcing the team to make choices based on rational decision-making. Groupthink causes too much cooperation to enhance sharing of the best ideas, especially when one party is afraid of the "so-valued" dominant members. The diversity of reasoning leads to workforce benefits, a mix of ideas and opinions, which improves team decision-making and performance. In my opinion, every team project manager should apply and support substantive conflict. Conversely, instructors should try their best to avoid creating a team where parties hold emotional conflicts.
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References
Humphrey, S. E., Aime, F., Cushenbery, L., Hill, A. D., & Fairchild, J. (2017). Team conflict dynamics: Implications of a dyadic view of conflict for team performance. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes , 142 , 58-70.
