The topic that I am going to address is helping teams and team members to work efficiently and effectively. Based on my experience in a public hospital, particularly in Radiology department for two years, I find that team conflicts are one of the main reasons of low performance. In Radiology department, there are many units such as MRI, CT, US and X-ray .Each unit has at least four technologists working as a team. Recently, the X-ray team who consists of four people who work together for long time has received three new members. The reason for this change is that the head of department wants to increase productivity to reduce the long lists of patients. However,the older workers said that they were not comfortable with the new young employees. They claimed that their team was broken and some obvious tensions including sabotage and complaints arose. The young employees also expressed that they cannot collaborate with the old members. As the result, the performance of a whole team decreases.
Nature of problem: team conflict.(Define terms, background information and rationale (how can you approach the structure way) , background information. How can team conflict influence team performance specifically and organisational performance in general?
Team conflict between two groups in a team.
First group is the old employees and the new young employees.
The terms functional or dysfunctional—describing the nature of conflict
Allen C. Amason, of Mississippi State University, has studied conflict and its role in decision-making. He suggests there are two types of conflict:
Cognitive – conflict aimed at issues, ideas, principles, or process
Affective – conflict aimed at people, emotions, or values
His studies showed the presence of both types in any group setting; but he’s clear to explain that cognitive conflict is constructive, while affective is destructive.
Analysis
1. Source of conflict:
2. Intergenerational difference:
Definition of intergenerational difference. And those groups that you are comparing and contrast.Intergenerational interaction is dramatically increased, and unstated assumptions, perspectives, and expectations of people can cause conflict.
Personalities, values and norms
Certain personality types lead to potential conflict. Many of the undesirable traits attributed to each group are a result of intergroup behavior. Values and belief: Most important is differing value systems. Value differences are the best. Explanation for differences of opinion on various matters. Each group is prejudiced against the other because of their values, norms, and perceived threats to the sanctity of their specific group.
Age and its impact on hierarchy and decision making process.These behavioral and attitudinal relationships are present between Generation Xers and Baby Boomers throughout all industries.10
Today, all generations work side-by-side; positional hierarchy is not related to age. The least senior members of the workforce are frequently expected to contribute to decision-making.
3. Organisational subcultures
Old team members create strong sub culture within their team. New members follow the official organisational culture. Those two cultures may be overlap or contradicted to each other (source).
Analysis: the old members feel like the team was broken since their subcultures may be contradicted to the official organisational culture which is brought to the team by new members.
Watson (1969) emphasizes the role of culture and conformity to norms in his analysis of team resistance to change. He suggests that team resistance is based on conformity to norms, systemic and cultural coherence (whereby a change in one part affects other parts), vested interests, the effect of outsiders, and the sacrosanct (whereby some elements are considered unchangeable).
Rejection of outsiders – When there is a high degree of in-group identification change which is initiated from outside the team is resisted.
4. Communication
Interpersonal conflict occurs when two people have incompatible needs, goals, or approaches in their relationship. Communication breakdown is often an important source of interpersonal conflict. When two parties lack the opportunity to communicate, they tend to rely more on stereotypes to understand the other party in conflict. For example,Stereotyped the Generation Xers and the Generation Xers have stereotyped the Baby Boomers, leading to a high degree of intergroup conflict. In this case, those employees in the X-ray team do not communicate to each other. This leads to misunderstanding, and then they feel hard to collaborate.
A critical evaluation of two or three alternative interventions aimed at resolving the problem, and a justification for your preferred intervention. This evaluation should look at risks and problems as well as the benefits associated with each intervention; A discussion of the key issues in implementing your preferred intervention.