Conflict Resolution Paper Essay

People deal with conflict every day and can choose how they handle the situation on their own terms. When dealing with a learning team in a school setting, one must count on his or her team members to accomplish his or her goals. During the duration of the course the team may encounter issues that will work against them in obtaining their goals such as lack of communication, personal interruptions, lack of commitment to the other team members, and lack of commitment to the assignment. When these kinds of conflicts arise in the classroom the team members have to use certain conflict management techniques, use their individual strengths and eventually come to a decision as a team. The Conflict At times one may encounter the non-participator in the group. The non-participator is one who neglects his or her responsibilities to work with the team (Engleberg & Wynn, 2010). A learning team participating in a course at University of Phoenix had a group paper that needed to be completed. However, not all team members were actively participating. The majority of the group wanted to start on the assignment in the middle of week three with the exception of one individual. The group used every resource—such as the learning team forum, the phone, and e-mails on their UOPX and personal account to contact the individual. By the middle of week three the team contacted the professor to inform her about the lack of communication. A couple of days later, the professor notified the group that she had not received a reply from the absent team member. The situation became critical to the point where the professor had to take time to contact enrollment to see if the missing team member had dropped the class. It turned out that the student was enrolled. The team was in a panic to create a contingency plan to determine who would pick up the missing member’s portion. This put unnecessary pressure on the group because of the lack of communication and participation. The day before the assignment was due the missing team member contacted the group stating that his portion would be submitted by the morning of the due date. The late response was very inconsiderate considering another member of the group was going to start on the missing portion, along with completing the final revisions. The group received a lower grade because the paper was lacking in readability and flow. The group was not pleased with the results. One more team project was due by the end of the course, and the team did not want to encounter the same problem on the final project. The team revisited the learning team charter as a method of enforcing the ground rules. Conflict Resolution Teams experience conflict within and between teams. When high performance work teams experience conflict, they handle it in a way that helps build team relations and promote positive change. Using effective conflict management techniques is the most valuable resolution for the team. The group agreed that positive techniques should be used. The first technique is to understand the underlining root cause of the conflict. Communicating with one another about the issue at hand allowed everyone to move forward in a resolution to the conflict as a team. Once the team agreed to understanding what the issue was, the team agreed on a time to be signed into a group discussion forum to work on the resolution. Next, the team communicated with each other about the conflict discussion topic and focused on the ideas brought fourth rather than who was presenting them. This focus was important because it allowed the team members to feel confident with expressing individual issues and allowed members to seek other member’s points of view (Belgard, Fisher, & Rayner, 1995). One of the most important techniques was engaging in listening actively and empathetically. By listening to other members the group could build on the teams common goals and work through hard feelings, which had been interfering with an interpersonal relationship within the team. When conflict techniques are well managed, an extremely positive and productive effect can enable the team to foster continued improvements. Learning about conflict and conflict management techniques is extremely valuable to organizations, teams, and individuals. Conflicts occur at all levels of interaction—at work, among friends, within families, and between relationship partners. If it is handled well, conflict can be productive, leading to deeper understanding and mutual respect. Conclusion Teams move through various stages throughout the timeline of a project. As they move from the forming stage to the second stage of storming, it is vital to the success of the team that they utilize conflict resolution strategies if they are going to move to the norming stage and be successful. The team was trying to work through the conflict of being unable to communicate despite many efforts by the team. They utilized positive communication conflict resolution techniques to understand and work through the problem. The team reviewed their charter and stressed the importance of working together and communicating which fostered an environment of mutual respect versus bashing the teammate that had not effectively communicated in the first three weeks. Due to the problems, they ultimately turned their part of the project in late. Through the 4 R’s (Wynn, 2012): Reason- identifying the reasons for the conflict. The team worked through the conflict by seeking to understand. They made every attempt to contact the member of their team who had not been communicating and sought to understand the problem using a positive approach. Reaction-ensuring that in the nature of teamwork, they remain unbiased. The team did not assume the nature of the conflict, and instead they continued to work through the issue until they found that the member of the team that was unresponsive. Results- by maintaining communication and a positive approach to the project and monitoring the progress, the team was able to identify at a critical point that one team member was not communicating and was not demonstrating an effort to contribute to the project. The team was able to identify this and work quickly to resolve the situation. The team continued to work through the issue until the team member made contact. The team took steps after this situation to review as a team the charter and ground rules for the team to prevent this problem in the next project. It is vital to track progress and maintain communication for success. After the teammate was finally reached, the final R, which is Resolution, was achieved. References Belgard, W., Fisher, K., & Rayner, S. (1995). Tips for teams. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, Co.. Engleberg, I. N., & Wynn, D. R. (2010). Working in groups (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.