Chapter 8 of B&D focuses on group dynamics specifically dealing with conflict and conflict resolution. Working in group or office situations brings together a large group of personalities, perspectives, and ideas on how things should be run and it can arise to many problems amongst the workers unless handled before things get out of hand. One example I can thing of of poor group dynamics is from a television show called Archer. It involves a CIA type organization and the agents have very different approaches on how they believe their "missions" should be performed. Sterling Archer, the main character, is a spur of the moment kind of guy who does things on the fly and doesn't put that much planning into the situation which often results in the group getting caught or running into problems. He does things to the beat of his own drum and is quite the hothead. The other main agent is Lana Kane, she is very methodical and tends to want to plan things out more and does not want do things "on the fly" like Archer.
Because of their difference in ideals and views on their job the other characters in the show are constantly having to resolve conflicts between the two of them. Although Sterling is more of a on the go kind of guy and gets them into some tough situations, his wit and quick thinking always gets them out of their problems. On the other hand when Lana runs things they never seem to run into any trouble, but because of her planning they sometimes miss out on their targets. They are constantly arguing over who is really in charge and the "top agent". As the show has gone on over the seasons their conflict resolution seems to be working and they seem more and more willing to work together in order to stay alive and keep their agency afloat.
Overall , good conflict resolution and group dynamics is very important in keeping a team together and working well. If a team does not work well together they have a hard time being successful and must be able to resolve conflicts efficiently in order to keep things running smoothly. With a wide variety of personalities in any given group it is also important to keep an open mind and not be so close minded that your own personal ideals are correct and be open to the fact that other's may have ideas that will help the overall team efforts.
I don't know that show, so I'll ask a basic question. Are each of their leads aware of their own weakness as you described them? If so, then there might still be having to deal with the bad outcomes that emerge from time to time as a consequence of the weakness, and people can be temporarily upset when that happens, but I'm not sure it is properly called a conflict.
ReplyDeleteIn contrast, if people find no flaw in themselves and only in others, as you said in the last paragraph they don't keep an open mind, then conflict can emerge because the bad outcome then has to be blamed on somebody and that person comes under attack as a result.
The tricky part with this is that there are some situations where what was referred to as a weakness above actually is a strength. So the real issue is being blind to those situations where it is a weakness and only acknowledging those cases where it is a strength. That selective look at experience can then be the source of conflict.
I would say that Archer, the wild, on the fly one is unaware to his downfalls whereas Lana, who is very keen on planning, knows she is like that. Archer is constantly pointing out the flaws in the other characters in the show and responds very poorly to criticism from others and believes he is always right. I would say that like you said Archer has a real problem differentiating when his actions lead to positive or negative outcomes, since he usually is able to make things work out in the end he never really acknowledges his wrongdoings and really tends to focus on the positive outcomes he has. That in turn just adds to the conflict between him and the other main characters.
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