Competitiveness In Work Teams
Team Conflict - Competitiveness
Conflict can arise from different sources and generally these conflicts fall into 3 categories: communication factors, structural factors and personal factors (Varney, 1989). Competitiveness is a conflict that arises under personal factors.
The competing attitude is one where a person’s sole emphasis and goal is of winning their desires at the expense of others. Competitiveness also usually involves a power issue with others. Power is defined as a capacity to influence others. They interact with others with the goal of using their influence strategies to asserting their ideas and building a power base. These kinds of people are highly assertive and uncooperative. They can become the annoying expert that always tells of their own accomplishments at the expense of the team’s time. When used inappropriately, this style may be characterized by hostility, ridicule and personal attacks on other team members.
An example of competitiveness would be of an individual that may desire a promotion and in order to obtain it, he believes that he needs to stand out in the team as a better performer. This will lead him to contributions that are clearly only his and cooperate less with his co-workers. This lack of cooperation has a negative impact on the team. This can lead to resentment on the parts of his co-workers and a break down of team production and cohesiveness.
There are several ways to deal with this type of conflict in a work team. One of the best ways is preventative. Preventative steps can be taken to keep this kind of attitude from appearing in the work team. This can be accomplished by the following:
1. Select the right people. Making sure the right people are selected for a team can head off problems before they can get started. Look at their track record and how they communicate with others around them. Some other key things to look for are how well they...
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