M4a2 TEAM DEV AND LEADERSHIP - Essay Example

RUNNING HEAD: Team Development and Leadership Team Development and Leadership INFO HERE Team Development and Leadership This paper highlights a situation involving a student study group assigned to create a singular group method of brainstorming and mapping critical methods to analyze cognitive dysfunction associated with psychology. The team included a diverse membership with all members striving for in-group status, therefore the social connections with the student group were considerably strong.

Previous affiliations among students in the academic and non-academic environment created its own dysfunction: fear of conflict. Fear of conflict was evident due to the emotional connections built over time between the team members, therefore passionate debates regarding more critical issues associated with the task at hand were replaced with veiled or irrelevant discussion about social issues among group membership. This created, in itself, a secondary type of dysfunction referred to by many scholars in academia and leadership philosophy as lack of commitment.

Why is this? Because individuals in the group did not consider the development of conflict as being vital to producing a basket of opinion, it did not provide the group with the foundations for quality and relevant ideas about cognitive dysfunction. The social connections within the group put members into the position where individuals would, to save their in-group status, avoid debatable topics that would have enhanced the discussion and improved cognitive mapping. According to Lencioni (2002) dysfunction is introduced into teams where there is a strong social connection and members will seek what is referred to as artificial harmony rather than worthwhile debate or discussion.

Katzenbach and Smith (1992) support this notion, suggesting that the conventional wisdom among in-group members, or where there are powerful, previous social connections, is to avoid conflict in pursuit of harmonious discussion not necessarily relevant to the actual, productive construction of conflict. This avoids the ability to create workable, differing opinions that somewhat flatten the quality of discussion toward the main goal assigned to the group. If left unchecked, Field (2009) iterates that it will become increasingly difficult to establish a sense of purpose for the group.

The team will become further more indecisive due to the desire to continue with in-group discussion more relevant to the social environment rather than academia. In order to overcome indecisiveness, lack of group clarity about goals, and fear of conflict, it would be pertinent for the group leader to actually inspire conflict so as to increase opportunities for debate. By taking a leadership role within the group and outlining the importance of constructive yet debatable discussion, the leader can establish more trust and inspire less fear of conflict as it pertains directly to establishing proper group goals.

In a situation such as this where in-group membership determines the scope and quality of discussion, thus introducing dysfunction as a norm in the group, input and direction is given from the start whereby individuals realize that conflicting opinions will not influence future social status. The plan to improve these dysfunctions is to create an environment where free discussion is facilitated by the group leader so that it becomes more natural for in-group membership to discuss their opinion, even if conflicting, thereby reducing fear of conflict and also establishing the cohesiveness required for effective discussion toward mapping cognitive dysfunction.

In this case, it is support given to the team by the group leader becoming a moderator to set the tone and goals of the group. The objective of the leader is to reduce fear of conflict by drawing on in-group needs. ReferencesField, A. (2009) Diagnosing and Fixing Dysfunctional Teams: three interrelated issues cause most team dysfunction, Harvard Management Update.Katzenbach, J.R. and Smith, D.K. (1992) Wisdom of Teams, Harvard Business School Press.Lencioni, P. (2002) The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Jossey-Bass.