Team Conflict
Success as a team is harder to accomplish than success individually because of conflicts among members of the team, but well worth the effort because diversity creates new ideas, different opinions, and almost any project can benefit from multiple specialists. Conflicts arise in all teams and these conflicts derive from differences in the teammates. These differences can range from race, education, specialties, and backgrounds. All of which are necessary for the team to be more useful than an individual attempt at the same project or goal.
Teams have become inescapable in the business and academic world recently, but have been a part of everyday life for centuries. ¡§It is estimated that between 70 and 82 percent of U.S. companies use the team concept, making teamwork skills one of the most commonly required skills in the work environment.¡¨ (De Janasz, 2002). Teams have proven themselves more effective in solving problems and managing organizations.
Most businesses or educators start cross-functional teams in hopes of boosting productivity and quality. ¡§A cross-functional team is a group of individuals from various departments or organizational stations of the company or institution who are assembled to achieve goals not ordinarily achieved by single employees.¡¨ (www.ism.ws/tools/content.cfm).
Functional diversity provides the working team with new perspectives and ideas that no one person could derive alone. With these diversities also come conflicts. The conflicts come from each individual in the team having his or her own background and specialty that in turn affects their idea on the direction the project should go. These conflicts are the reason for setting up a team an ...