2.

Leading Teams and Handling Conflict

These teaching and learning materials are protected under the Copyright
Act 1987. Duplication, in any form, including digitally, is prohibited by law
and a punishable offence. ©2021
“Are you still an effective team?” –
Scene from the sci-fi movie, Oblivion
 Teams
• Unit of two or more people who interact
and coordinate their work to accomplish a
shared goal or purpose
• Benefits organizations and employees
– Improved productivity and quality
– Greater flexibility and speed
– Flatter management structure
– Better employee involvement and
satisfaction
– Lower turnover
3
 Value of Teams
• Valuable in organizations where work is
interdependent
– To successfully accomplish a task, a team
has to ensure:
• Coordination
• Information sharing
• Exchange of materials

4
 Team Team Development/
Performance/Purpose Process-oriented
▪ Accomplishing the ▪ Establishing effective
group’s goals, making relationships, creating
decisions and plans, an environment in
achieving results, and which individuals feel
solving problems valued, and facilitating
cohesion within the
team
Evolution of Teams and Team
Leadership

6
 Agile Teams (1 of 2)

An agile team is a small team focused on

one element of a large project. It has
complete responsibility along with all
needed member expertise to produce a
product or service.

Richard L. Daft, The Leadership Experience, 8th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned,
copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
7
 Agile Teams (2 of 2)
• Agile teams have the following characteristics:
• Small in size; typically made up of three to six
people
• Composed of employees from different functional
areas (multidisciplinary)
• Focus is on building solutions for distinct, small,
and manageable components of larger, complex
problems that are integrated into a comprehensive
whole
• Develop extremely close relationships with their
customers, both inside and outside the
organization
• Hold a daily 15-minute meeting, called a scrum
Richard L. Daft, The Leadership Experience, 8th Edition. © 2023 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned,
copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
8
Three key dimensions that help us understand
different types of groups:
▪ Purposes: leads to the structure and
processes needed to help group members
accomplish its purpose
▪ Structure: how group members relate to one
another
▪ Time: duration of the group
 Member recruitment and affiliation (sorority
Forming recruitment, first general body meeting, first floor
meeting).
Clarification of goals and purpose, building clear
Storming direction.
Establish patterns of working together,
Norming understanding of members and key players
builds.
Performing Tasks get accomplished.
Closure and finality (transition day, award
Adjourning ceremony, end of the year banquet).

… towards becoming a true team.

 Forming Be inclusive and empowering.

Storming Be ethical, open, patient, and aware.

Norming Be fair with processes.

Performing Celebrate accomplishments.

Adjourning Reflection of group experiences.

 Five Stages of Team Development

Sources: Based on the stages of small group development in Bruce W. Tuckman, “Developmental Sequence in Small Groups,” Psychological Bulletin 63
(1965), pp. 384–399; and B.W. Tuckman and M.A. Jensen, “Stages of Small Group Development Revisited,” Group and Organizational Studies 2 (1977), pp.
419–427

12
Healthy functional roles Dysfunctional roles
• Group-building roles • Special interest
▪ Gatekeeper pleader
▪ Encourager • Blocker
▪ Mediator • Clown
▪ Follower • Non-participant

• Task roles
▪ Information Seeker
▪ Opinion Seeker
▪ Opinion Giver
▪ Summarizer
▪ Clarifier

• Active member
 Dilemma for Team Members
• Reasons
– Have to give up their independence
– Have to put up with free riders
• Free rider: Team member who attains benefits
from team membership but does not actively
participate in and contribute to the team’s work
– Referred to as social loafing
– Sometimes, are part of a dysfunctional
team

15
 Five Common Dysfunctions of
Teams

Source: Based on Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2002)

17
 Elements to Lead a Team to
High Performance

Compelling purpose, Diversity of skills

Streamlined team
clear objectives, and and unambiguous
size
explicit metrics roles

Decision authority
Support and
over how to achieve
coaching
goals

20
 Team Cohesiveness
• Extent to which members are attracted to
and motivated to remain in the team
• Determinants:
– Team interaction
– Shared goals
– Personal attraction
– Presence of competition
– Team success

21
 Consequences of
Cohesiveness (1)
• Higher morale due to:
– Greater communication
– Friendly team climate
– Loyalty
– Maintenance of membership
– Member participation in team decisions and
activities
• Better performance leading to:
– Greater productivity
– Better member satisfaction
– Greater employee energy and creativity
22
 Consequences of
Cohesiveness (2)
• Can lead to lower performance due to
groupthink
– Groupthink: Tendency of people in
cohesive groups to suppress contrary
opinions
• Highly cohesive teams are:
– More productive with supportive leader
– Less productive when leader is hostile and
negative

23
 Team Norms
• Informal standard of conduct that is
shared by team members and guides their
behavior
• Provide a frame of reference for what is
expected and acceptable

24
Two Ways Team Norms Develop

25
 Team Competencies
Goal setting and performance management

Planning and coordination

Collaborative problem solving

Communication

Conflict resolution

26
 Team Member Roles

Task-specialist role

• Initiate ideas
• Give opinions
• Seek information
• Summarize and energize

Socioemotional role

• Encourage and harmonize

• Reduce tension
• Follow and compromise
27
▪ Relational leadership promotes consensus
models of decision making.
▪ Decision making should be:
▪ Purposeful
▪ Inclusive
▪ Empowering
▪ Process-oriented
▪ Most teams prefer to reach consensus on
critical issues.
▪ Teams are more than just a group of people
working together but doing their “own thing”
individually.
▪ Team members usually have more distinctive
roles than group members.
▪ Three common type of teams are:
▪ Functional
▪ Self-directed/Agile
▪ Cross-functional
Specific The goal must be clear to everyone.

Measureable It is quantifiable.

The goal must be realistic and possible

Attainable
to achieve.

The goal is in alignment with the

Relevant direction of the organization and its
overall strategy.

There is a set time frame by which the

Time-bound
goal will be achieved.
▪ Team learning happens in dialogue with
each other and through reflection on shared
experiences.
▪ Dialogue and discussion are two slightly
different processes.
▪ Some groups mistakenly engage in
discussion in which members share their own
views with minimal attempts at true
understanding.
 Relationship Strategic
Executing Influencing
Building Thinking
Achiever Activator Adaptability Analytical
Arranger Command Developer Context
Belief Communication Connectedness Futuristic
Consistency Competition Empathy Ideation
Deliberative Maximizer Harmony Input
Discipline Self-assurance Includer Intellection
Focus Significance Individualization Learner
Responsibility Woo Positivity Strategic
Restorative Relator
 Relationship Strategic
Executing Influencing
Building Thinking
Allows the Advocates for Bring cohesion Assists in
group to move the team to the group making long-
closer to term decisions
accomplishing a Helps the team Establishes
task or goal make progress relationships Helps chart a
for positive and social future direction
Brings plans to change capital with
action group members
and constituents
 Virtual Teams & Global Teams
• Virtual Team - Team made up of
geographically or organizationally
dispersed members who share a common
purpose and are linked primarily through
advanced information technologies
• Global Team - Team made up of culturally
diverse members who live and work in
different countries and coordinate some
part of their activities on a global basis

34
 Characteristics of Virtual
Team
• Spatial distance limits face-to-face
interaction
• Use of technological communication is the
primary means of connecting team
members

35
Differences between Conventional,
Virtual/Remote, and Global Teams

36
 Virtual/Remote Team
Advantages
• Quickly assembles a
talented group of people to
complete a complex
project
• Solves a difficult problem,
or exploits a specific
strategic opportunity
• Diversity can fuel
creativity and innovation
• Saves time and travel
expenses
Disadvantages
• Delays in meeting
deadlines
• Little supervision and
greater trust on team
members
• Greater focus on results
than the process
• Provides guidance,
encouragement, and
support with little control
37
Skills of a Successful Virtual
Team Leader
Selecting the right team members

Starting off right

Using technology to build relationships

Agreeing on ground rules

38
 Team Conflict
• Conflict: Antagonistic interaction in which
one party attempts to thwart the intentions
or goals of another
• Types of conflict
– Task: Disagreement among people about
the goals to be achieved or the content of
the tasks to be performed
– Relationship: Personal incompatibility that
creates tension and feelings of personal
animosity among people
39
Balancing Conflict and
Cooperation

40
 Causes of Conflict

Competition for resources

Different goals

Lack of clear roles and responsibilities

41
 A Model of Styles to Handle
Conflict

Source: Based on Kenneth Thomas, “Conflict and Conflict Management,“ in Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Behavior, ed. M.D. Dunnette (New
York: John Wiley, 1976), p 900; and Nan Peck, “Conflict 101: Styles of Fighting,” North Virginia Community College Website, September 20, 2005,
www.nvcc.edu/home/npeck/conflicthome/conflict/Conflict101/conflictstyles.htm (accessed April 13, 2011)

42
 Conflict, Candour, Groupthink &
Preventing Normalization of Deviance
• It is important for leaders and teams and organisations
to accept that a certain level of conflict is actually
healthy. Conflict at moderate levels nurture healthy,
open dialogue, and can result in more optimal solutions
and innovative approaches.
• Developing a culture of candour, where people feel safe
to speak up and speak truth, is essential to helping
leaders, followers, and organisations stay on track, and
to prevent wrong-doing, excessive risk-taking,
recklessness, abuse, silence, and questionable practices
from being accepted as “normal”. When deviance
becomes normalized, leaders, followers, and
organisations set themselves and their customers up for
trouble, and disaster (Vaughan, 1996).
43
 Examples of Normalization
of Deviance

The Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion, The BP Deep Water Horizon Explosion,
1986 2010

44
 Negotiation
• Type of conflict management where people:
– Engage in give-and-take discussions
– Consider various alternatives to reach a
joint decision that is acceptable to both
parties

45
 Ways to Negotiate

Integrative

• Cooperative approach to negotiation in which

conflicting parties attempt to reach a win–win
solution

Distributive

• Adversarial negotiation in which conflicting parties

compete to win the most resources and give up as
little as possible
46
S.M.A.R.T. Goals help teams
resolve conflict
Specific The goal must be clear to everyone.

Measureable It is quantifiable.

The goal must be realistic and possible to

Attainable
achieve.

The goal is in alignment with the direction of

Relevant
the organization and its overall strategy.

There is a set time frame by which the goal

Time-bound
will be achieved.
 Rules for Reaching a Win-
Win Solution
• Separate the people from the problem
• Focus on underlying interests, not current
demands
– Demands - Create yes-or-no obstacles to
effective negotiation
– Underlying interests - Problems that can be
solved creatively
• Listen and ask questions
• Insist that results be based on objective
standards
48