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PART A. STUDENT AND ASSIGNMENT DETAILS

Full Name of student MUTUMA CHIRATIDZO Intake 32

Student I.D P1460980x Region HARARE

Mailing Address [email protected] Phone No 0772394883

Course: Conflict Resolution Issues And Strategies In Education Course Code MDEA 515.

Program Master of Education in Educational Management

2
Assignment Number TERM PAPER

TITLE: The role of team building approach in conflict management within an educational
organisation

PART B:MARKERS COMMENTS

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Overall Mark…………………………….Markers Name………………………………….

The paper is going to discuss the role of team building approach in conflict management within an
organisation. Teams improve productivity and efficiency with possibility of resolving internal team
conflicts which will spread to all organisational teams, thus reduction of organisation conflicts and
enhancing conflict management. Team building will enhance social relationships, defining of roles
within and between teams including creation of collaborative tasks. are some of the roles team
building play in conflict management. Two key terms team building and conflict management are
going to be defined, with a conclusion marking the end of the discussion.
B Definition of key terms

Team building – according to WikipediA, team building is a collective term for various types of
activities which are used to enhance social relations and define roles within teams, often involving
collaborative tasks.

OR

Team building is a management technique used for improving the efficiency and performance of the
working groups through various activities, (Prachi M. (2018)).

Team building is therefore a host of goal achieving focused management technics through linking of
organisational units so that each will realise its importance and that of other part of the
organisation.

Conflict management – according to N.C Madziyire (no year), conflict management refers to a
situation where you do not aim at removing the root cause of conflict but rather keep the conflict
under control such that it does not escalate.

OR

It is the process of handling disputes and or disagreements between two or more multiple parties
( Swetha Amaresan (2019)).

Conflict management is therefore a management tactic that seeks to mitigate effects or impacts of
disputes or disagreements while tacking advantages of such differences for the achievements of
organisational goals
C THE BODY

Basically team building will play an important role in conflict management as it addresses causes of
conflicts in organisations. Thus disagreements emanating from shared resources, differences in
goals, attitudes, role requirements, interests, perceptions, nature of working activities and so forth,
Madziyire (no year), R. Tshuma (2016), can be avoided or effects reduced, which is part and parcel of
the conflict management objectives. As put across by Carole A, Townsley, RV Armstrong and
Associates (2021), conflict emanates from differences in terms of power, values, and attitudes. To
take advantage of the team diversity in terms resources, knowledge and ideas, there are
disadvantages generated as the same diversity creates conflicts (Carole A et al (2021)). The coming
together of individuals and conflicts arising thereof, are mainly social, which when resolved,
contributes immensely to organisational conflict management objectives.

As team building would resolve conflict in communication, structural and personal factors, which are
the main categories from which conflicts can erupt (Varney (1989) cited in Carole A et al (2021)), it
would contribute positively to conflict management.

Social factors play an important role in the creation of conflict, and as such to these factors in team
building would have effective influence in conflict management, where such conflict even bring
some benefits to the organisation through improved team performance to some extent, (Lumen (no
year), to K Behfar, R Peterson, E. Mannix and W. M. Trochim (2008).

Social norms which are a key social factor, are defined the Lumen (no year), as shared beliefs about
how people behave that influences team performance. It was further explained that norms develop
through interpersonal interactions and are reinforced through interpersonal relationships. The same
author, talks of conversations between members during norm development on acceptable standards
of group or team behaviour by which appropriate norms, which support their collaborative
productivity are identified. The behavioural predictability associated with norms, bring about the
much needed team stability in an organisation.

Another aspect of team building, of a social nature having a bearing on conflict management, is
team cohesion which according to Lumen (no year), is the degree to which individual group
members desire to contribute to the group`s ability to continue as a functional unity, with benefits
like effective communication, resulting in a higher individual satisfaction and recommendable
resource allocation, which can effect control of conflicts caused by sharing of inadequate resources.

One other factor socially contributing to conflict management through teams is team roles, which
according to Lumen (no year), are sets of responsibilities and behaviours that establish expectations
for how every member contributes to the performance of the team.

Implications of social factors in education, with a look at social conditions such as those highlighted
by Grimshan (1999) cited in Madziyire et al (no year), as a component of the Social Psychologists
Perspective, in which social instability is regarded as a cause of violent behaviour in a society or
frustrations as also pointed out by Galtun (1998) in Madziyire et al (no year). An education manager
at an educational institute like a secondary school with all the staff, comprises a team. When the
team is well built, conflicts which may normally erupt, will be avoided if norms are well developed,
cohesion is intact, team roles clearly outlined, and with appropriate communication methods that
every member understands normally through the use of agreed ways.

To build a progressively viable team, conflict would have to be part and parcel of the team such that
all avenues are recognised and made use of, such that differences in opinion or perspective, for
example new way of doing things, like methods of setting examinations at a school, how to deal with
rowdy behaviour, how to correct persistence in late coming especially for leaner living close to the
school. Differences if accounted for will enable flexibility rather stagnant inflexibility and will also
eliminate or minimise team cohesion change resistant tendencies, with high possibilities of
performance improvement or at least maintenance in terms of pass rates and other areas like,
achievements in sports and general learner outcomes.

Barriers to communication, Varney (1989) cited in Carole A. (2021), which include poor listening
skills, insufficient sharing of information, differences in interpretation and perception and missed or
ignored nonverbal cues, have a high conflict causing potential. An evaluation of the purposes of
communication which include, creation of awareness, understanding, persuading and influencing
others, establishing relations, S. Mutsau and A Maposa (2015), will bring out direct influence of team
building in the effectiveness of conflict management.

In awareness brought about by effective communication as an element of team building, every

In the education system for example, at a school, in building a team of both teachers and learners,
barriers to communication must be minimised so that communication is effective at optimised
levels. Teachers and learners at subject or department level, should be aware of what is going on,
have a clear understanding of procedures such as treatments of say agricultural experiment, which
can be feeding broilers using feeds from different sources including collection of data. Such
understanding will bring harmony to the whole team of which harmony in one departmental team,
will bring harmony in the whole school in general. In such a case, team building directly or indirectly
enhances conflict management.

Strategies for managing different types of conflicts and group performance and satisfaction have a
strong influence on conflict management. According to K Behfar et al (2008), discussing results from
a research report, that groups that improve or maintain top performance over time, should be
sharing three conflict resolution tendencies, which are:

-paying attention to the context of interpersonal interaction, rather than delivery style,

-discussing each component of decisions made together accepting and distributing work
assignments then finally

- assigning specific jobs to members with relevant task expertise, rather than use of other common
means, which could be volunteering, default or convenience.

Drawing from the results, there were suggestions that, teams that are” … successful over time are
likely to be both proactive in anticipating the need for conflict resolution and pluralistic in developing
conflict resolution strategies that apply to all group members “, which is a key factor in conflict
management.

Team building as argued by Varney (1989) in Carole A. et al (2021), would structurally resolve
conflict, a notion which was also highlighted by K. Behfar et al (2008), through accepting and
distribution of work assignments among group members.
Poor or inadequate organisational structure, listed as one of the major conflict causes of by Behfar
et al (2008), can be well attended to in team building, such that any structural conflict potential can
be corrected timeously, to effect conflict management. Poorly structured organisation can have
conflicts arising from overlapping duties or task in-specificity, which would ensure confusion among
workers as to who would do what? Team building would resolve such confusion by assigning, well-
coordinated specific task activities to every member.

In the education system, terms of reference play an important role in ensuring institutional structure
that would help every member to understand role requirements such that one can be well versed
with specific operational tasks, in a way that possibilities of confusing overlaps are limited to some
extent, as lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities, as a cause of structural conflict would have
been resolved.

At Machaya High School for instance, the sports manager builds a team of trainers in various
disciplines. Members of each make sub-teams. In the sub-teams, specific roles are clearly assigned to
both trainers and athletes. Some would be responsible for say, training equipment, food, uniforms
and so forth. In some cases, similar roles are coordinated such that inadequate resources are
equitably distributed to deal with conflicts that can arise from shared resources. It can be seen from
the above factors that in an effort to effect positive team outcomes, conflicts are amicably managed.
D CONCLUSSION

The paper has discussed the role that team building approach plays in conflict management.
Definitions of the two terms, team building and conflict management showed the link between team
building and conflict management. It was indicated through a study of a variety of literature from
different authors and researchers including the author`s personal observation and experience, that
causes of conflicts are mainly of a social, structure and communication nature. These factors were
explicitly discussed in the paper. On social, norms, team cohesion and team roles were discussed as
some of the building blocks of teams that facilitate conflict management. Efficiency in
communication which would bring awareness including necessary understanding, was also discussed
as a team building that would enhance conflict management and lastly structural aspects were
discussed which included assigning of tasks on the basis of relevant expertise, which would improve
team performance and individual satisfaction, thereby enhance team stability and therefore
effective conflict management. It was also expressed in the paper that team building highlight some
conflicts which would be necessary for team performance improvement or general organisational
development, which is an important aspect of conflict management.
REFERENCES

Carole A, Townsley, RV Amstrong and Associates (2021), Resolving Conflicts in Work Teams | The
Team Building Directory https://www.innovativeteambuilding.co.uk>... Accessed on 1/27/21

Choice-Ltd (No year), Team Building and Conflict Resolution https://www.choice-ltd.com>team-

George N. Root III (2021), Teamwork & Conflict Resolution-Small Business- Chron.com- Houston
Chronicle https://www.smallbusiness.chron.com>teamwor... Accessed 1/27/21

Lumen candela (no year) Factors Influencing Team Performance | Boundless Management –Lumen
Learning https://www.cources.lumenlearning.com>chapter accessed 1/26/21

Mr N. C. Madziyire (No year), Conflict Resolution Issues and Strategies in Education. Module DEA 515

Prachi M. (2018), Team Building https://www,theinvestorsbook.com/team-buil... Accessed 1/26/21

Reuben Tshuma, Sifiso Ndlovu, Sithulisiwe Bhebhe (2016), Causes of Conflict among school
personnel in Gwanda District Secondary Schools in Zimbabwe

https://www.iosrjournals.org Accessed on 1/26/2021

Shepard Mutsau, Angela Maposa (2015), Communication Skills (ZOU) Module BEDM 101

Swetha Amaresan (2019),5 Conflict Management Styles for Every Personality Type

https://www.blog.hubspot,com Accessed on 1/27/21

WikipediA (2020), Team Building – Wikipedia https://www.en.wikipedia.org>wiki>team_bui...