Conflict in Teams LO15982

Brian Grill (brian.grill@prudential.com)
Sat, 22 Nov 1997 21:54:20 -0500

For months now, I have followed the conversations and discussions
contained in the daily Learning Organization Digest and have been very
impressed with attention and energy devoted to so many interesting topics.
Thank you all -- I've learned a lot!!!

Recently, I have been thinking about the role of conflict in teams and am
very interested in hearing what other people have to say about the topic.
While I understand that conflict exists in organizations of all structure
types (hierarchical, dictatorial, etc), I believe that conflict plays a
unique and vital role in team-oriented organizations -- especially within
teams where team members are equals. Unlike conflict situations in
hierarchical organizations where disagreements can be "settled" by an
authority figure, conflicts within teams often take a significant amount
of time to work through. It has been my experience that taking the time
to work through conflicts in team contexts often proves to be both an
enlightening and productive experience. I believe that when people openly
discuss differences in a safe, non-judgemental manner, conflict can be a
wonderful thing.

I am interested in learning more about the conflict within teams.
Particularly, I'd like to know about your personal experiences with
intra-team conflict, research done on the the topic, and general
information about productive ways to work through conflict.

-- 

"Brian Grill"<brian.grill@prudential.com>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>