How to Handle Conflicts in the Teamwork in Hospitality Industry

Human Resources Project:

“HOW TO HANDLE CONFLICTS IN THE TEAMWORK?”

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INTRODUCTION

The Mission of this research is to uncover all secrets and aspects how to resolve and handle conflicts in team working.

According to various sources up to 15% of the time on work spends on conflict and post-conflict situations (worries, self-assertion that she/he was right, etc.).

If the time wasted in the conflict, is taken as 100%, then:
• the fault of the leader/manager- 52%;
• because of the psychological incompatibility - 33%;
• due to improper staff placement - 15% [1]

But first off all, it is necessary to understand what is “team”. It is important to start from explanation that team and group is two completely different concepts. The group is a number of people working together, they achieve a certain objectives and can shares information but it will remain neutral. Meanwhile, a team is special kind of group which has common goals and shares all responsibility to achieve these goals. [2]Team have task-oriented work groups, team members have a positive relationship and cooperation among them. The biggest advantage for real team is the synergy effect, when the output is greater than the sum of individual input. Especially in hotel industry effective, coordinated and respectful team is 70-80% of successful enterprise.[3] Each team member don’t need to be afraid to express his/her own opinion, even if it will cause to conflict. Any team meeting or working cannot take place without conflicts. It is an integral part for any team existence.

Like many terms in management, the word conflict has many definitions and interpretations.
The most accurate definition of conflict is a lack of agreement between two or more sides which might be individuals or groups. Each side is doing all to insists on they own point of view and prevents the other side to do the same. There are typical for conflict disagreements in thoughts, feelings and actions.

Almost all people when they think about conflict they imagine war, violent behavior, pressures, arguments, aggression etc. As a result, there is an insight that the conflict – the phenomenon which is always unwelcome in organizations life. That, in fact, conflicts should be avoided as possible and should immediately be authorized and resolved, as soon as they appeared.

This attitude had a right to exist before, but not in nowadays. The modern view is that even in organizations with effective control, conflicts are not only possible but may even be anticipated and required. “In fact, disagreement is a natural consequence of a dynamic, active organization.”[4]

Of course, the conflict is not always positive. In some cases, it may interfere with the individual needs or even effect on achieving goals for the organization as a whole. For example, a House Keeping manager, who at the meeting of the committee argue only because she/he loves to do it all the time, finally on one such meeting everyone will be tired of such attitude and just would like a peace and harmony. As the result this situation will reduce the degree not just of satisfaction of the needs of belonging and respect and, possibly, reduce the ability of groups to make effective decisions. The group will take a debaters point of view in order to avoid conflict and all the related hassles, even without being sure that they made a right resolution.

But in lots of cases, the conflict can help identify a variety of perspectives; also can provide additional information that will help to identify a larger number of alternatives, or problems. When manager build a high-effective team he don’t want everyone thinking the same, because there will be no progress and growth and there wouldn’t be vide variety of ways were organization can move.

Conflicts can stimulus inspiration, “create more meaningful solutions, and strengthen team work” [5], and promote richer exploration of an issue.

This makes the process of group decision more efficient and gives to staff the opportunity to express their own thoughts and thus to satisfy personal needs in their respect and authority. It can also lead to more effective implementation of plans, policies and projects as a discussion of different points of view on these documents is prior to their actual performance. It can also fetch to more effective implementation of plans, strategies and projects of whole hotel. All resolutions of conflicts at the end of the day could be actually performed in life.

How do conflicts arise in teamwork?

In order to solve and minimize conflict issues in a working environment, the first step is to define and understand what creates conflict and to consider the typical sources of conflict. Once this is established effective management can occur.
Most of the time conflict happens when there is a perception of incompatible interests between workplace members. It is fundamental to understand that there are a variety of sources of workplace conflict including internal (interpersonal, organizational, change related) and external factors.
Culture and values are probably the two most important factors of arising conflict. They are the starting point from which results every other source of conflicts. In fact, culture being so closely linked to humanism and personality it embedded every form of conflict as conflicts arise from human relationships.
Culture shapes our perceptions, attributions, judgments, ideas about others, about ourselves and therefore builds our values. Most of the time cultures create conflict in imperceptible ways. “Cultural groups might share race, ethnicity, or nationality, but they can also result in diverse cleavages of generation, socioeconomic class, sexual orientation, ability and disability, political and religious affiliation, language, and gender -- to name only a few.”[6]
According to Pelled et al. (1999), demographic diversity is linked with increased difficulties in communication, co-ordination, conflict and poor group consequences. Individuals in culturally homogenous groups are likely to feel attracted to each other because they feel similar. However, in diverse groups, individuals feel less attracted to each other as they have less in common. [7]

Table 1 shows how managers especially in an international sector such as the one of hospitality should be aware of the importance of context in various countries and therefore understand individual’s behaviour in order to be able to deal with conflict when it comes to teamwork.

The five dimensions described in table 1 highlight all the factors, which could lead to conflict in a team on an internal basis.

• Poor Communication: different communication styles (verbal, non-verbal and visual communication) can lead to misunderstandings between employees or between employee and manager. • Different values: any workplace is made up of individuals who have different point of views and see the world differently. Conflict occurs when there is a lack of acceptance and understanding of these differences. • Different interests: individual workers ‘fight’ for their personal goals, ignoring organizational goals and organizational well being. That is why it is the manager’s responsibility to ensure group cohesion, and empowerment in order for each individual to feel part of the company. • Personality clashes: every working environment is made up of diverse personalities. Conflict will take place if colleagues do not understand and accept each other’s attitude to work. • Poor performance: when one or more person in the working place is not performing as good as he could and does not make efforts, conflict is inevitable. • Lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities: this is the manager’s responsibility when it comes to job description or even training to ensure the roles of each person within the organisation. • Stress: every human being can accumulate too much stress at a certain period of time and becomes very irritable. This leads to disputes and very poor communication. • Ego: this relates to human values and to the dimension of individualism versus collectivism. Some people might think only for themselves and do not take into consideration other’s point of view or even feelings. In any organization it is a must to create an atmosphere, which shows the example of community and caring in order to minimize self-interest and egocentrism. • Power and status differences, goal discrepancies, disputed authority boundaries, and allocation of resources is also major issues related to conflict. When looking at Hofstede’s work, the power distance dimension encloses these factors. It is fundamental to have a well-designed and clear hierarchy (also in terms of resources) within a team so that each member feels comfortable in its role. Especially in the hotel industry there are various sections, employees might criss cross roles and lose concentration on their official tasks and this would create conflict. It should exist a certain clarity, transparency and objectivity within the team.
It is important to understand that culture and values are part of the external factors of the organization and that from these two criteria follow internal factors such as the one described above. Today’s society makes it more problematic to answer individual’s needs and to be able to identify and recognize that each member has a personal identity so managers have to pay even more attention to every individuals in order to create an ideal work environment and to consider each member as a fundamental element in the company.
Conflict is inevitable within the workplace and as seen in the introduction, conflict can sometimes have pros and cons. It is not always negative once resolving it; it can bring positive factors into a team such as better cooperation and group cohesion.
Having seen the causes of conflict, the following part will be to analyse and understand how to handle these different types of conflict.

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

In the preset era of technological advancements and globalization, operating in teams has become inevitable. Cooperative working methods have several advantages:

1) Increases achievement and productivity

2) Allows for more supportive and committed relationships

3) Boosts psychological health, social competence and self esteem

It’s essential to imbibe effective conflict management resolutions in order to attain efficiency and accomplishment of goals at workplace. In most cases, it is not the conflict that impacts the team dynamics but the way the team responds to and manages the conflict.

Conflict management involves identifying and dealing with disparities and disputes in a reasonable and effectual way.

It implies producing an agreement that satisfies most of the wants ad needs of each party.

The first stage of conflict management comprises of ensuring the team structure has been formed effectively as it plays a significant role in diminishing undesirable conflicts. According to Bruce Tuckman a team must work though four sequential stages in order to succeed:

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1) Forming:

This is the first stage of team building where the team gathers and learns about the opportunities and challenges. This is followed by agreements of goals and objectives and the tasks begin.

2) Storming:

In this stage members express their viewpoints and ideas and confront each other’s perspectives. A slow down occurs in this stage due to differences and disagreements among the team members. However, the storming stage is essential for the growth of the team, as it enables members to think out of the box and come up with inventive and creative ideas. Hence, its crucial to be tolerant and patient in order to achieve the best of this stage.

3) Norming:

The team manages to reach a consensus and starts working in harmony. All team members take the responsibility to work towards the achievement of their primary goal.

4) Performing:

In this stage the team is inspired and knowledgeable and operates as a well-oiled machine. Team members are competent and function as a single unit minus any inappropriate disagreements.

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT APPROACHES

Thomas- Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument:

The Thomas- Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (1974) indentifies the five main styles of dealing with conflict that vary in their degrees of cooperativeness and assertiveness.

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1) Competing:

The completing style of conflict management is an authoritarian approach and involves only one side getting their say. This style can be useful when there is an emergency and a decision needs t e taken fast. This tactic is often referred to as win/lose approach to resolving conflict. However, the down side of this approach is that it can breed hostility in those on the losing side.

2) Avoiding:

The avoiding style of conflict management involves passive behaviors such as withdrawing or side stepping in order to prevent disputes which might be destructive to the relations of the team members. This approach can be adapted when the controversy is trivial or victory is impossible. However, this is a weak and ineffective approach to adapt.

3) Collaborating:

The collaborating style targets to meet the requirements of all people involved in the team. This style encourages team members to accumulate their viewpoints and reach the best solution. It helps in smooth teamwork and acknowledges that everyone member is equally vital.

4) Accommodating:

This style indicates a inclination to meet the desires of others at the expense of the person’s own wants. This is appropriate when the topic matters more to the other member or peace is more valuable that victory. However, this approach is less likely to give the best outcomes.

5) Compromising:

This style is often referred to as the “middle ground” approach. The team members give up something they desire and make concessions in order to reach a decision that is equally accepted by each member.

“I don’t want any yes-men around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their jobs.”-S.Goldwin[8]

Creative and intellectual conflict can be healthy when members disagree about results, interpretations, approaches, and philosophies, and they argue their differences in a healthy, constructive way, they can produce extraordinary results. On the other hand, unmanaged conflict can undermine the team’s effort and it’s shared goal.

Handle non-creative conflicts. Conflicts that are personal or are rooted in power plays have the potential to be far more destructive than creative conflicts. Your inability or unwillingness to address conflict openly can be one of the major roadblocks to team progress. If you sidestep an issue because you are worried about someone’s feelings getting hurt, the team won’t be able to move to the next task. The unresolved conflict will simply get worse, and could eventually shut down the team.[9]

Negotiation- Distributive and Integrative

Negotiation is the process of making cooperative decisions when the parties involved have discrepancies.

Negotiation is defined into two types: distributive and integrative.[10]

Distributive negotiation is focused on points of view stated by conflicting sides. The main question of the conflict is: “Who is going to get this resource?”.“Hard” distributive negotiation happens when each side is willing to get its own piece of the available “pie” but still trying to make the most of self-interests. It leads to competition, often finally to win-lose outcome or deadlock.

“Soft” distributive negotiation conflicting sides are trying to meet each other’s interests and lead the situation to a compromise. It means they will give up something valuable in order to reach an agreement, but still dissatisfaction will exist as the decision will be not what they originally wanted.

In integrative negotiation, sometimes called principled negotiation the main question is: ”How can the resource best be utilized?” It is much less confrontational and it allows a wider variety of options to be examined in the process. The result is more likely to be a “win-win” solution. The conflicting sides understand that they can use their energy, time, effort and attention in a more effective way to reach the consensus, rather than waste them on gaining personal benefits. Integrative negotiation is focused on interests, rather than positions.

To reach an integrative agreement conflicting sides should have:

-willingness to trust

-willingness to share information

-willingness to ask concrete questions

A lot of problems exists because of lack of communication and very important issues for the conflicting parties are: telling problem and making themselves truly understood and hearing problem-active listening and frequently asking questions to clarify what others are saying.[11]

Handling a conflict a manager should always mostly think about the interests of the company. Steps that manager should follow in resolving conflicts are:

1) Preserve dignity and respect. A focus should stay on resolving the conflict, rather than individual characteristics of sides involved. As a manager you should help the process of resolution and never blame an employee, especially during the conflict, so that everyone could feel respected.

2) Listen with understanding and be fully present , identify the issues, determine what issues may have created the conflict. Often real issues may be beneath the surface. Listen carefully to everyone involved until they had chance to explain each point of view, give an opportunity to talk to you on one-on-one basis, put yourself in each individual’s shoes and make your employees feel heard.

3) Find a common ground without forcing change and agree on the issues, but not try to force others into changes and ask them to agree with you or correct you and make sure that everyone will benefit from this change. It is very important for the employees to “trust you and respect you. If they believe that you are always looking out for their best interest, they are more likely to believe you”.

4) Discuss solutions and agree on the solutions. Ask your employees if they have some idea of solving the situation, let them have time for “understanding what really matters to them, discuss solutions with each participant until there is agreement on the issues”.

Conflict prevention

A manager should always be able to foresee a conflict before it actually takes place by paying close attention to employees. To prevent a conflict by listening carefully you should be easy to talk to and it is more likely for the employees to come to you with their problems. “Never side with one person before hearing everyone’s side of story. This is the worst thing that supervisor could ever do. Remember there are always three stories: your story, my story and the actual story”.[12]

References:

❖ http://manager.mpfmargtu.edusite.ru/p17aa1.html

❖ Jean M di Giovanna, “Five Components Needed for High Performing Teams” Design Firm Management and administration Report, New York: April 2007, Vol. 7 Iss 4, p.3.

❖ John R. Walker and Jack E. Miller “supervision in the hospitality industry” 2010 p. 208-209

❖ Glenn Parker “20 steps to Success teamwork ” 2009 p.27

❖ Marty Brounstein “Managing teams for dummies” 2009 p. 179.

❖ Glenn Parker.(2009)Teamwork.20 steps to success. HRD Press, Inc., Amherst, Massachusetts.

❖ Pocket Mentor (2006) Leading teams. Boston, Massachusetts.

❖ Stephen P. Robbins.(2005),eleventh edition. Organizational behaviour.

❖ John R. Schermerhorn, Jr. James, G. Hunt, Richard N. Osborn.(2004).Core concepts of organizational behaviour.www.wiley.com/college/schemerhorn.

❖ Univeristy of Ocklahoma , human resources http://hr.ou.edu/employee_resources/conflictresolution/SourcesofConflict.asp

❖ K.W. Thomas and R.H. Kilmann. 1974. Thomas‐Kilmann Conflict, Five Modes for Reacting to Conflict ❖ Cherrington, David J. (1989). Organizational Behavior: The Management of Individual and Organizational Performance. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. ❖ Geerte Hofstede - http://geert-hofstede.com/ ❖ Deborah Borisoff, David Victor (1998): Conflict Management, A communication skills approach, Second Edition

❖ B. Charles Tatum, Richard J. Eberlin, (2006) "Organizational justice and conflict management styles: Teaching notes, role playing instructions, and scenarios", International Journal of Conflict Management, Vol. 17 Iss: 1, pp.66 - 81

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[1] http://manager.mpfmargtu.edusite.ru/p17aa1.html

[2] Jean M di Giovanna, “Five Components Needed for High Performing Teams” Design Firm Management and administration Report, New York: April 2007, Vol. 7 Iss 4, p.3.

[3] John R. Walker and Jack E. Miller “supervision in the hospitality industry” 2010 p. 208-209

[4] Glenn Parker “20 steps to Success teamwork ” 2009 p.27

[5] Marty Brounstein “Managing teams for dummies” 2009 p. 179.

[6] LeBaron Michelle 1993, Conflict and Culture

[7] William andO’Reilly, 1998; Milliken and Martins, 1996
[8] Stephen P. Robbins,2005,p.420

[9] Pocket Mentor,2006,p.57-58

[10] John R. GIJKLNO\Öêëòöû ' ( 5 6 B Z o y „ … ‹ Œ ’ “ ïÞïʹͦ–†vgVgVgVgVgVgVgVgVgVgVgVg hy1 hy1 0JCJaJmH sH hy1 hy1 CJaJmH sH hy1 hy1 5?CJaJmH sH hyfÒhú‘5?CJaJmH sH hyfÒh

wÝ5?CJaJmH sH hÑaÐCJ(^JaJ(mH sH 0jhyfÒh

wÝCJ8Schermerhorn, Jr. James, G. Hunt, Richard N. Osborn, 2004, p.320

[11] John R. Schermerhorn, Jr. James, G. Hunt, Richard N. Osborn, 2004, p.320-324

[12] John R. Walker & Jack E. Miller ,2010,p.386-391

References: ❖ Glenn Parker.(2009)Teamwork.20 steps to success. HRD Press, Inc., Amherst, Massachusetts. ❖ Pocket Mentor (2006) Leading teams. Boston, Massachusetts. ❖ Stephen P. Robbins.(2005),eleventh edition. Organizational behaviour. ❖ John R. Schermerhorn, Jr. James, G. Hunt, Richard N. Osborn.(2004).Core concepts of organizational behaviour.www.wiley.com/college/schemerhorn. ❖ Cherrington, David J. (1989). Organizational Behavior: The Management of Individual and Organizational Performance. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. ❖ Geerte Hofstede - http://geert-hofstede.com/ ❖ Deborah Borisoff, David Victor (1998): Conflict Management, A communication skills approach, Second Edition [6] LeBaron Michelle 1993, Conflict and Culture [7] William andO’Reilly, 1998; Milliken and Martins, 1996 wÝCJ8Schermerhorn, Jr. James, G. Hunt, Richard N. Osborn, 2004, p.320 [11] John R