Even the most experienced leaders can strongly opposing views on the wise plan of action for the organization, especially given their diverse personal backgrounds or previous dive into another corporate culture. But these differences in approach does not necessarily lead to conflicts, which are counter-productive and damaging to the organization. To explore these questions, the authors conducted a study of organizational values (goals, the person or group believed to play an important role in the conduct of business, such as industry leadership, employee welfare and profit maximization) of the top management teams in 31 companies. The authors studied two specific types of team conflict and relationship problems. Task conflict is characterized by basic, thematic differences of opinion. This type of disagreement can be useful when it is guaranteed that a greater number of possible solutions considered. In contrast to the relationship of the conflict - is characterized by disagreement personalized, learner-oriented issues - is generally harmful. It erodes trust, making communication difficult, slow acceptance of ideas and lead to isolation and the politicization of the team members. The results showed that the behavior is due to the perception, not reality. In particular, the greater the perceived differences in organizational values among members of the management team and the Director General of acute conflict. It is interesting that any actual difference was not a factor. Thus, the fact that many of the top management teams too faced difficulties due to incorrect assumptions members. To reduce this trend, the authors advise companies to consider the following: create an appropriate atmosphere for the team, because perception is reality, to understand and manage, explore the gap between perception and reality, and to act decisively to correct erroneous gross «Hide.
by Andrew J. Ward, Allen C. Amazon, Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, Bradley R. Agle, Melenie J. Lankau Source: MIT Sloan Management Review 8 pages. Publication Date: April 1, 2007. Prod. #: SMR247-PDF-ENG
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