Resolving Conflict in Work Teams

A major advantage a team has over an individual is its diversity ofresources, knowledge, and ideas. However, diversity also produces conflict.As more and more organizations restructure to work teams the need fortraining in conflict resolution will continue to grow. Varney (1989)reports that conflict remained the number-one problem for most of the teamsoperating within a large energy company, even after repeated trainingsessions on how to resolve conflict and how to minimize the negative impacton team members. One reason for this may be that mangers and other leaderswithin organizations are not giving the issue of resolving conflict enoughattention. Varney's research showed that although most managers are awareof disagreements and have received training in conflict resolution, theyseldom assign a high priority to solving conflict problems. With this inmind, it is critical that team members possess skills to resolve conflictamong themselves.