Team building activities can help reduce conflict in the workplace. There are five main types of workplace conflicts: interdependence conflicts, differences in styles, differences in backgrounds, differences in leadership, and personality conflicts. One effective team building activity is the "Human Knot" where employees stand in a circle holding each other's hands in a tangled formation and have to untangle themselves without breaking the chain, which allows employees to communicate across perceived conflicts. Regular team building through interactive exercises improves employee collaboration, motivation, and productivity by enhancing role clarity and teamwork abilities.

1. Conflict Resolution 1
Team Building for Conflict Resolution
Angenetta Turner
Organizational Behavior
Instructor: Dr. Thomas King
Date: Monday, February 16, 2012

2. 2
Team Building for Conflict Resolution
Whenever anyone is in a management position, one of the most critical things to know is
how to combat conflict in the workplace? Managing people is never an easy job, however, one
must be able to encourage others and increase employee morale in the workplace.
The two things in the workplace that causes tension and stress among employees are
misunderstanding and miscommunication. Good communication can help improve effectiveness,
productivity and decrease conflicts. Conflict can mean different things for different people. Some
may think of it as fighting or even war type behavior. According to Bass, we have known that
conflicts occur when two or more individuals realize that, there has been a threat to their wants,
interests or concerns. Even though conflict is a normal part of the organizational/personal life,
we have a tendency to see conflict as a negative experience that is caused by unusual and
difficult circumstances. Those involved sometime see limited options and resources available for
seeking solutions.
According to research, there are five most common types of conflicts in the workplace
with personality being the most challenging and frequent occurring conflict. Other workplace
conflicts include interdependence conflict, differences in styles, differences in background and
gender, differences in leadership and of course personality conflict. These styles may vary
throughout the workplace. Let’s start by talking about interdependence conflict, it can be defined
when a person or persons has to rely on others output or input and or cooperation in order to get
their job done. When this does not take place it causes a conflict because it hinders someone else
from getting their job completed.
The next type of conflict that occurs in the workplace is difference in styles. Everyone
has a different way of completing a task and this can cause conflict. Some people are task

3. Conflict Resolution 3
oriented whereby others can be people oriented. Finally, one of the biggest sources of conflicts
can just be personality clashes. The number of personalities that float around in the workplace is
unbelievable. We have outgoing, lazy, disrespectful and motivated individual and when these
personality clash, sparks start to fly. No matter the type of personality, as a manager/leader they
must know of a good solution to solve these conflicts when they arise.
Knowing what we do about conflicts, there needs to be some types of team building
procedures available to deal with any type of conflict in the workplace. Team-building exercises
have been known to be a powerful way to connect a group, develop strengths, and deal with
weaknesses. However, in order for the exercise to work it must be well planned and carried out
with a purpose in mind. There should be a genuine purpose for your decision to do the exercise
instead of doing it because you felt like giving your employees/staff something to do other than
their daily jobs. Activities that focus on team building in the workplace will improve the
environment in any organization. It also has the ability to make all the employees more adapted
with each other. This should then allow employees to be more comfortable with one another,
which in turn will allow them the ability to work well with each other in order to achieve a
common work goal.
When creating or deciding on a team building activity for the workplace, we must
remember not to organize it as training. Team building activities for workplace was created with
its own achievements of realistic goals for learning and corporation in an informal environment
that consist of exercises and group games.
Throughout my employment life, I have had the opportunity to be involved with several
different team building activities that has proven to be successful, with everyone leaving a better
person than they came. Not all employees were interested in playing the team building games.

4. 4
However, they where reminded in advance of the importance and advantages the practice would
have in helping motivate them as they do their daily job as a team.
The Human Knot was a really good activity that involved everyone to work as a team
with the use of communication skills, collaboration and other useful tools needed to complete the
task. We started by forming groups of 10 people, the activity worked better with smaller
numbers. When we had too many people participating in the knot activity it became extremely
difficult. Everyone was then told to stand shoulder to shoulder. We then put our right hand up in
the air, and then told to grab the hand of someone across the circle from them. Everyone then
puts their left hand up in the air and grabs the hand of a different person. Our facilitator made
sure that everyone was holding the hands of two different people including the hands with
someone directly next to them. We were then given the direction to untangle with the solution of
making a circle without breaking the chain of hands. If someone broke the chain we had to start
all over again from the beginning, which happen twice. This activity proved to be a great team
building exercise for any type of conflict in the workplace. This activity allowed employees to
talk to one another no matter the conflict at the time. This activity ended with everyone smiling.
To add challenge to the activity, we were given a time limit with a reward for the first group that
completed it before the time was up.
In conclusion, team building in the workplace for me can be defined as "a facilitated
intervention activity that enhances organizational productivity and goals with the improvement
of individual role clarity and teaming abilities." The groundwork for all team building in the
workplace is having shared goals that all team members will be committed to doing. With
productive teamwork a company/organization will be able to work towards challenges, and
changes, with confidence. Working together on any team generates energy and enthusiasm for

5. Conflict Resolution 5
life.
References

6. 6
Bass-Jossey, Lencioni, Patrick (2002), The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/165639-7-types-of-conflict/ Retrieved January 13, 2012
Kinicki, A., & Kreitner, R. (2009). Organizational behavior key concepts, skills & best
practices. (4 ed., p. 167). New York,NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.