Organization Paper

Organization Paper

The Situational Leadership Theory rests on two fundamental concepts; Leadership Style and the individual or group's Maturity level. (Hersey 1977)

Question 1

A good manager or team leader should be trained in the recognition of conflict. Recognizing and acknowledging the signs of conflict would assist management and workers in their decision to find solutions to resolve the conflict before it gets too advanced.

Many things can cause conflict in work teams. Some causes can be more apparent than others can (Jones 2000 pp 5-9). Lack of leadership is a major cause of conflict on a work team. Poor communication also leads to ongoing conflict in the workplace. Some conflict may even be the result of an organizational culture that encourages competitiveness rather than cooperation.

Of all of the causes of conflict between co-workers on work teams, it is believed that the most prevalent is lack of communication. When co-workers on a team communicate openly, several positive things occur: trust is built, listening skills are improved, and disagreements are usually resolved at the lowest level. The next most prevalent reason for conflict is lack of leadership. A good leader makes sure that his work team understands his or her goals and objectives, and that everyone is working toward the same result. He deals fairly and consistently with lack of performance, or people who operate outside the rules or guidelines (Campbell Liteman 2003 33-45). The team leader probably has the best opportunity to make sure that a team functions with a minimum of conflict. Differences of opinions, personalities and cultural backgrounds can cause conflict, but this can be minimized and possibility eliminated if the leader teaches the team to respect each other, and openly communicate concerns or questions in a timely manner. The leader of any work team should quickly recognize disharmony and lack of cohesiveness on his team and address these issues before they build into a major disagreement.

Question 2

It is critical to the success of organizational change to overcome these barriers. Organization development intervention brings methods of change to ailing organizations. If the resistance to change can be overcome, and the client is sincerely open to an innovative or "different" approach to the new or existing business situation, a major hurdle has been overcome toward the new system. There are several organization development interventions and they should be customized to the needs of the organization. Other vital keys to overcoming resistance to change ...