conflict well, the teams were able to achieve their goals without
letting conflict get in the way.
Groups need mechanisms by which they can manage the
conflict, however. From the research reported above, we could
conclude that sharing information and goals and striving to be
open and get along are helpful strategies for negotiating our
way through the maze of conflict. A sense of humour and a
willingness to understand the points of others without insist-
ing that everyone agree on all points are also important. Group
members should try to focus on the issues rather than on per-
sonalities, and strive to achieve fairness and equity in the
group process.
Accountability
Successful teams make members individually and jointly
accountable for the team’s purpose, goals, and approach.^75
They clearly define what they are individually responsible for
and what they are jointly responsible for. From Concepts to Skills
on pages 182–183 discusses how to conduct effective team meetings.
TWENTY-FIRSTCENTURY TEAMWORK:
VIRTUAL TEAMS
When we think of teams, we often picture face-to-face interactions. Virtual teams,
however, seldom interact face-to-face and they use computer technology to tie together
physically separated members in order to achieve a common goal.^76 They enable peo-
ple to collaborate online—using communication links such as wide-area networks,
videoconferencing, and email—whether team members are only a room away or con-
tinents apart. With the greater availability of technology and increasing globalization,
virtual teams have become not only possible, but necessary. To the extent that work is
knowledge-based rather than production-oriented, virtual teams are also becoming
more common.
Providing that team members are comfortable with using technology, virtual teams
can do all the things that other teams do—share information, make decisions, com-
plete tasks. They can include members from the same organization or link an organi-
zation’s members with employees from other organizations (suppliers and joint partners).
They can convene for a few days to solve a problem, a few months to complete a proj-
ect, or exist permanently.^77 Often they can be more efficient at tasks as well, because of
the ease of sharing information through email and voice mail. Virtual teams also make
it possible for people who are in different geographical and time zones to work together.
Virtual teams can suffer from the limited social contact of team members. This can
lead to bonding problems, which the research on teams suggests is important for team
performance. One recent meta-analysis of 27 studies of virtual teams questioned whether
members of virtual teams ever bonded in the traditional sense.^78 Lack of bonding can
lead to slower and less accurate performance than is the case for face-to-face teams.
Virtual teams can also suffer from the absence of paraverbaland nonverbalcues in
their communications. In face-to-face conversation, people use paraverbal (tone of
voice, inflection, voice volume) and nonverbal (eye movement, facial expression, hand
gestures, and other body language) cues to provide increased meaning. In virtual com-
munications, team members are not able to duplicate the normal give-and-take of face-
to-face discussion. As a result, virtual team members often have less social rapport and
are more at risk of misunderstanding one another.
Chapter 5Working in Teams 171virtual teams Teams that seldom
interact face-to-face and use com-
puter technology to tie together
physically dispersed members in
order to achieve a common goal.OB IN ACTION
Reducing Team Conflict
➔Work with more, rather than less, information,
and debate on the basis of facts.
➔Develop multiple alternativesto enrich the level
of debate.
➔Develop commonly agreed-upon goals.
➔Use humourwhen making tough decisions.
➔Maintain a balanced powerstructure.
➔Resolve issues without forcing consensus.Source:Based on K. M. Eisenhardt, J. L. Kahwajy, and L. J.
Bourgeois III, “How Management Teams Can Have a Good
Fight,” Harvard Business Review,July–August 1997, p. 78.5 How do virtual teams
work?