In general, does conflict lead to favorable outcomes for team performance or does conflict more often than
Question:
In general, does conflict lead to favorable outcomes for team performance or does conflict more often than not lead to team dysfunction?
1) Explain both sides of this argument. Provide a persuasive argument for both sides of the argument;
2) Select a side of the argument and only argue that one side after you have explained both sides of the argument. Be compelling yet well researched.
Organizations face various challenges that they need to overcome in order to achieve their goals and objectives set forth by management. Such challenges can result in conflicts among teammates or colleagues at the workplace. Occasionally, these conflicts may result in favorable outcomes for team performance while other times it may lead to team dysfunction. This paper provides an argument of both possibilities and hypothesizes that conflict occasionally leads to team dysfunction. When employees are conflicting, one of them is bound to get hurt especially if it’s a team member who is not recognized by the other members. This may lead to the development of mental problems because of the elevated stress levels. The team members will have their personal as well as professional lives affected by the conflict between them and the other team members. As a result, the team member may avoid meeting or even training sessions because they want to maintain their stress symptoms on the low. This eventually affects the productivity of the team hence resulting to tram dysfunction.
Reduced productivity is as a result of the low focus that the team members have in work as they dedicate most of their time dealing with the conflict they are facing. Sometimes, a member may be forced to quit work and leave the organization hence increasing the employee turnover which is bad for the performance of the company. Conflict may also lead to violence between team members and this may eventually lead to legal action on the part of the employees and sometimes the organization. While some employees view conflict as a negative thing that later affects their workplace performance, others view it as a positive act that inspires them and keeps them motivated to do better than the other. When conflicting, some employees gain creativity as they try to develop solutions to some of the problems they are facing in the organization. When conflicting, the team members may find themselves listening to each other’s opinion with the aim of resolving the conflict or working towards the goals of the organization. Conflict can lead to a new respect among employees hence improving their performance as they communicate better among one another. Regardless of all the positive impacts that may come from conflict hence producing favorable outcomes for the performance of the employees, they occasionally end up damaging their relationship because of the negative professional interaction among them. I believe that when employees conflict, they occasionally affect their performance negatively because of the team is dysfunctional.
For example, if the management is conflicting they may try to overshadow one another with ideas that may eventually lead to less productivity in meetings hence the ideas shared are ignored because of the conflict in the workplace. Conflicting employees may find themselves even engaging in physical violence such as fights or damaging each other's items because they are conflicting between themselves.
This is why conflict is discouraged in the workplace and the personnel as encouraged to promote a positive relationship among them. The paper clearly provides a discussion of the negative and positive impacts of conflict in the workplace with reference to performance and productivity (Montana, 2008). As can be seen in the paper, conflicts lead to a negative relationship between employees or the management and these results into a poor performance. Conflict among employees may result in violence or an individual may consider leaving the organization, and both possibilities are extremely detrimental to the performance of an organization.