StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight - Book Report/Review Example

Cite this document
Summary
The reporter underlines that team conflict is seen in management literature as essential to innovation and group-based critical thinking, but when improperly managed, it can spiral into bitter, emotional disagreements (Eisenhardt, Kahwajy, and Bourgeois 78).  …
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER92.4% of users find it useful
How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight"

Article Summary: “How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight”Team conflict is seen in management literature as essential to innovation and group-based critical thinking, but when improperly managed, it can spiral into bitter, emotional disagreements (Eisenhardt, Kahwajy, and Bourgeois 78). Eisenhardt, Kahwajy, and Bourgeois, in the article “How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight,” studied the dynamics of conflict, quality of decisions, and speed of decision-making for twelve top-management teams.

These teams operated in technology-based industries. Findings showed that only eight out of the twelve companies were able to use substantive conflict in improving the quality of their decision-making process and decisions (Eisenhardt, Kahwajy, and Bourgeois 78). These authors analyzed the tactics of “good fights,” where good fights mean that teams used conflict to generate creative and timely outcomes by lessening the impact of interpersonal conflict on their decisions. The tactics of a good fight are: working with more information and debating on facts; creating different avenues to broaden debates; sharing commonly-agreed goals; adding humor to discussions; preserving balance in the power structure; and finding resolutions without forcing a consensus (Eisenhardt, Kahwajy, and Bourgeois 78).

The tactic of having more information works through producing tight internal controls, where team members have the data they need to understand what is happening to the company and to make decisions based on facts. Eisenhardt, Kahwajy, and Bourgeois mention examples of companies that use their company controls to gather as much information as possible. For companies with limited information, managers have problem defending their ideas, which result to attacking personalities instead. Eisenhardt, Kahwajy, and Bourgeois assert that relying on facts help reduce interpersonal conflicts because the tendency to make guesses and assumptions are reduced.

Having more alternatives reduce unproductive group conflict because people consider more issues and dimensions of the decision (Eisenhardt, Kahwajy, and Bourgeois 79). With more alternatives, people consider more options, which reduce conflict. Furthermore, the process also connects the management team to one another because of their shared goals (Eisenhardt, Kahwajy, and Bourgeois 80). The process can be fun and creative, instead of being stifling. Management teams with only one or two options, however, tend to develop bitter quarrels (Eisenhardt, Kahwajy, and Bourgeois 80).

Teams with less interpersonal conflict share common goals, use humor, balance power, and do not force reaching the consensus. Common goals inspire people to collaborate and to overlook their personal ambitions (Eisenhardt, Kahwajy, and Bourgeois 80). Injecting humor into the company and management activities reduces the tension and stress of managing difficult decisions (Eisenhardt, Kahwajy, and Bourgeois 81). Finally, team members tend to accept decisions that come from a balanced power structure, even if they do not agree with them (Eisenhardt, Kahwajy, and Bourgeois 82).

Perceptions of fairness help reduce interpersonal conflict.The writer of this essay agrees with the authors’ argument that substantive conflict will reduce groupthink and maximize the role of team dynamics in producing creative decisions and products for the company. Indeed, more critical-thinking heads are better one. They tap each other’s strength in analyzing issues and problems and finding diverse alternatives. Furthermore, humor reduces workplace stress and enables people to defend themselves against embarrassment and disappointment.

The weaknesses of the article are its small sampling, and it does not consider how apathetic or overly aggressive members can be properly handled. The strengths of the article are that it considers the different causes of good fights (i.e. lack of relevant information and fair processes) and balances the need for speed and quality of decisions. It enhances the significance of the process of the decision-making too. Thus, an engaging decision-making process reduces the impact of interpersonal conflict on productive conflict.

Work CitedEisenhardt, Kathleen M., Kahwajy, Jean L., and L.J. Bourgeois. “How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight.” Harvard Business Review (1997): 77-85. Print.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight Book Report/Review - 1”, n.d.)
How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight Book Report/Review - 1. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/management/1784558-article-summary
(How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight Book Report/Review - 1)
How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight Book Report/Review - 1. https://studentshare.org/management/1784558-article-summary.
“How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight Book Report/Review - 1”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/management/1784558-article-summary.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight

Sports and Entertainment Management

No one can be perfect and a good leader always looks to find out his weaknesses and of ways to overcome them.... It seems a very useful tip for a leader but it can also have a negative impact.... The team members might take a lot of stress due to this excessive supervision which can have dire effects on their work.... Also, we have studied about various rules and principles that help pave a way towards success but rarely do we talk about the element of luck involved....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Organizational Change Issues

Liemandt may be observed to have developed an unfreezing stage where he went on an aggressive search for new skills for to start his idea of the TU team.... Liemandt provides a challenge and demonstrates how they can come together as a team and achieve a common objective.... In terms of how well a new TU team of employees learn technical skills, values and culture, one can observe that Liemandt has barred manager from involving any new team during their training periods until they are assigned to them....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Health Care Administration - Team Building

As a manager, the employees are reluctant to show their dissatisfaction to me may be because of the job loses meaning that they remain good and seem hard working employees when I am watching them out.... In a way it is good because it motivates that person who is being recognized by the boss but the problem is that we do not give appreciation as to the team as a whole usually.... I built an evaluation form for the emoployees but no concrete result was found from that because the employees were consciously aware that they were being evaluated therefore they were producing good n might be fake answers....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Virtual Team Management

In this day and age, it is always good to know a thing or two about the IT set up architectures and since I am very interested in such discussions, one such experience of virtual team management has helped me immensely in my personal growth and development (Beise 2004).... I did not have any prior experience of such a virtual team but this experience taught me quite a few aspects which are very dear to me now.... One such virtual team management experience that I can share here is of our IT department where we set up a wide area network (WAN) hierarchy between two cities, that are part of the urban landscape....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

How managemnet team cam have agood fight

The paper highlighted that in the past, a case study was conducted on top management teams in technology based companies.... However the opposite generally held true insofar as having good data encourages people to focus on issues and not personalities.... By avoiding scenarios where management is forced... Several examples were given to highlight how this tactic held true but for a contrary argument it was postulated by the authors that in scenarios where there is a absence of quality information people tend to argue over issues of opinion (Which is a foundation to interpersonal conflict)....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations

o lead effective teams, leaders must understand successful elements of a good team because leader can effectively teach only what they consistently model.... Leader's action, behaviors and decisions have direct impact on team members.... Hence, this model can be used to identify and validate any perceptions that managers might have with people in the team.... Determine whether a leader that is not a team player can be effective....
1 Pages (250 words) Research Paper

Discuss and Evaluate How Teams Function

However, if the teams do not manifest a good enough use of the resources, then there are dire problems that are waiting to happen for them... It means that the processes are done the fine way and the results are left up to the authorities who have to bring about a decision at the end of the day.... The teams are therefore always answerable to people with whom they have to interact and thus culminate the processes in entirety.... This forms the basis of success that an organization can look for whilst achieving its goals and objectives over a period of time....
9 Pages (2250 words) Essay

The Art of Managing Virtual Teams

a good project manager must fill the team with enthusiasm, determination and the will to succeed despite difficulties.... a good project manager will generally start with project scoping, defining the requirements and responsibilities of the project at hand and project staffing, looking at the resources and constraints at his or her disposal.... Keeping a project staff roster in which everybody's name, position, availability and contact details are included is a good step in initiating fast and effective communication in times of need....
3 Pages (750 words) Coursework
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us