EFFECTS OF DISTANCE ON TEAM DYNAMICS AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Conflict: is conflict good, bad, or ugly? Conflict itself is none of these. Conflict can make a team successful or conflict can make a team fail. The good, bad, or ugly is the direct result of how people working in a team handle the conflict. Managing the conflict can be as challenging for a team as the work the team is trying to complete.
A Team by definition is "A team is a formal work group consisting of people who work together intensely to achieve a common group goal." (The learning team toolkit, chapter 15)
Team dynamics by definition is "the unseen forces that operate in a team between different groups of people." (http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/team-dynamics.html, para 1) These forces act upon a team and become the conflict and challenges. The manner which the team handles the conflict and challenges will determine if they become a benefit or an issue.
With the vast changes in technology in the 21st century, many companies have gone regional and/or global. With this globalization comes a workforce with more challenges that ever before. These challenges create conflict. Challenges including language differences, time zone differences, and even differences in culture have become present in today's workforce. These challenges will create the team dynamics we will work under, for better or worse.
Having a team, work or learning, spread across different geographic locations has benefits. When working on a product that will target people all over the world, team members for each of the different regions will be able to contribute facts on the region that team member resides. Facts like buying trends, income trends, and targeted audiences. Having regional team members will also help with d ...