Question

how would you comment on the below student post?

There are two types of conflicts within a team: emotional and cognitive. Emotional conflict will come from interactions within the team and cognitive conflicts will come from team members disagreeing on matters for the project. For emotional conflict a lot of times a third party will be brought in to help mediate and come to an agreement and work through the communication barrier, cultural differences, or just their perceptions. For cognitive conflicts, some of those still apply but in addition, you can bargain or negotiate on ideas to maximize gains and minimize losses or find level ground where both parties benefit. At my current job my departments is split into two positions where one is customer facing and the other is in the back with repairs. Sometimes when I feel like conflicts are arising I will take individuals and pair them up with someone of the opposite position for 4-8 hours. In doing so, I think it helps everyone understand not just their role but the other person's role as well and they can gain the understanding why something may be frustrating and that they're not just being picky but how there is an actual reason behind doing things a certain way.

Answer 1

This is a good way of handling the conflict. During times of conflict, effective communication is the most import aspect. Also because, communication often breaks down during conflicts. Hence, it is utterly beneficial if someone moderates and re-establishes the communication channel under observation of ground rules. Also, making the one understand other’ position helps in a cross functional team and solves many issues. However, rather than waiting for conflicts to happen, employees may be routinely exposed to cross functional work. In addition to reduction in conflict, it will also fosters innovation