Managing a team in any organization is a critical component of the
organization’s success. Team managers should therefore consider adopting
effective team management strategies in order to achieve optimum performance
from their employees. Besides optimum performance, the management strategies
should also effectively address conflict resolutions among the employees among
other issues that can impact their performance. Some of the components of
effective team management include;

Ø Clear Mission

Ø Clear Roles

Ø Good Systems

Ø Proper Communication

Ø Healthy Relationships

Ø Good Leadership

The paper will also focus on the source of
conflicts in the company and propose techniques to be used to address these
conflicts.

Based on the six components, the teams in different location were
connected by virtual means. Despite connections, the teams in the different
locations continued to perform poorly because of a number of reasons. First
component of effective team performance is developing a clear mission to guide
the performance of each individual in the team. The organization had its own
mission, but the managers failed to develop specific mission for the specific
subgroup members.The various small teams failed to meet and share their own respective needs
and goals.The team manages in the two merger
failed to adequately define the role of each team player.

Secondly, the team manages in the two merger failed to adequately define
the role of each team player. This is detrimental to quality performance since
players in the team are not so sure of their respective roles and
responsibilities.It would have been good for the core team to have also met separately for
more in-depth discussions about
how they would work together specifying the role of each individual as
understand roles & responsibilities of others would prove important.

Thirdly, the management failed to
adequately use the available systems to improve interactions between the teams
in different locations. Agree on
strategy which was lacking between the two teams. The project manager failed to
develop action plan where there was no clarification of the procedures and no
one was held responsible. There was no welcoming ofcreativity within the groupFor instance, Didier strongly controlled the way meetings
were being conducted and the information which was being shared among members,
as a project manager, he failed to allow for idea exchange and the system was
not favorable for them to do so, instance, he frequently put together an agenda
for meetings without input from other team members. Further, he would allot
only l0 minutes for other issues not on the agenda and only if time permitted
which was a hostile environment for interdependency among team members. The US
counterpart felt that their ideas were being rejected which was a major
hindrance for the teamwork for PharmMed.

Interaction between the teams is important to the performance since it
promotes effective communication among team players. Communication is a key
component to effective performance because without it there will be little or
no sharing of ideas, issues and knowledge among other functions.Building strong relationships(What did they do or was locking in this
area?)between team members and other teams is also important
to the performance of the team. This was lacking from the first instance. The project
manager was not able to create such an environment and in many instances
including stopping discussion by declaring that the team as a whole need not be
concerned, filtering communication channels and information among the team
members. Team members should be willing to give and receive constructive
criticism and provide authentic feedback, was not present in the case of
PharmMed merger group. Karine, the global user lead, and Merline the global IS
lead, wanted to direct the focal points for passing information across sub
teams through her.

Leadership is also critical in this function because of a number of
reasons. Other than providing good management to the team, good leadership also
facilitate effective resolution of conflicts between team members which is
important in boosting the morale of team members. Effective, leadership was
lacking as the one present was dictatorial and one which lacks interpersonal
skills. Understanding, effective and all round leadership was missing.

The second issue that derailed the performance of
team players on the merger companies was emergence of conflicts.The conflicts among these teams came from
different sources(Conflicts sources？)ranging from management to systems. To begin with, the conflicts emerged
from the point of merging of the two companies where one of the team had to
abandon a project they had been initially working on for a substantial amount
of time. The project dubbed perspective had to be abandoned in favor of the new
project vigilance because of the merging. This in a way de-motivated the
employees who were working with all their efforts to see the project through to
its implementation. This therefore was a source of one of the conflicts to the
team. Secondly, the management of the two mergers did not effectively
synchronize and coordinate their activities. Synchronization includes combining
the team into one entity and having one communication channel. The top management
in the United States and France head offices did not work together in harmony.
This in a way was a source of conflict to the teams in the different locations.
The teams therefore could not effectively work together to achieve high
performance levels because of the management conflicts between the functional
units in the two mergers. The third source of conflicts was the use of systems.
The two mergers failed to effectively synchronize their systems to work
together in harmony. The necessary medium and communication medium was not set.
Exchanging of ideas in various stages was lacking.so many decisions which
would have been made collaboratively were made by individual that is team
leader or the project manager, for instance, during a core team teleconference;
the team was discussing important data country fields that would need to be
included in the system and how it would have affected the process, as the team
was exploring the implications of the changes, Didier stopped their discussion
by declaring that the team as a whole need not be concerned. Another instance
was when the cultural agenda was scraped off last minute without prior notice. All these factors contribute to the
development of tension between the team members.

The
team managers however tired their best to address these issues and adopt a
number of strategies to address them.(How do differentiation, task relationships and
resource scarcity apply here?) The MD, Lance Francine for instance wrote a letter to all the team
members in all the locations addressed to all the team players. In the letter
he tries to address most of the conflicts that were affecting the employees. He
effectively explained to the team players why the perspective project had to be
abandoned and instead embark on the vigilance project. This was a significant
step towards promoting communication in the mergers companies which as
discussed above is one of the most effective components that boosts team’s
performance. In the letter, he also included the name of his deputy as a sign
of interaction between the two merger companies. In the letter, Lance tires to
focus on some of the strategies that the company would use to resolve most of
the conflicts affecting the teams. One of the strategies he presents in his
letter to the team is appointing Halina Ducret and Teo Reynard to act as
sponsors of the sub-teams. The two were in a better position to handle most of
the challenges that were facing the vigilance project since they had experience
in database management and they were also senior managers in the respective
mergers. It was kind of win-win strategy in solving the problem. Before
Lance’s, people were not interested in solving the problem, team members were
storming out of the meeting creating unnecessary tension. Therefore only
Lance’s tried to solve the conflict.

The approach that Lance took in his email
message had a number of benefits and weaknesses(Which modes of conflict resolution were used?)as far as conflict resolution is concerned.
Acknowledging the presence of conflicts in the implementation of the vigilance
project had some impacts on the perceptions of the employees. On the positive
side, the employees felt that the new company had identified the challenges
facing the project and was committed to resolving the conflicts. On the
negative side however, the employees would lose trust and morale in
implementing the new project since it was characterized by many challenges.
Appointing Halina Ducret and Teoto lead the subordinate teams also had a positive
impact on the team since the two had adequate experience in the field.
Some of the players in the top management who thought they could do
better than the appointees however could also get de-motivated and even some
might end up discourage other team members from working towards successful
implementation of the new project.

The conflicting teams failed to effectively address a number of issues
that impacted the systems, and relationships. They for instance failed to learn
how the new systems worked after the merging of the two companies thereby
derailing the good performance. Secondly the team failed to build healthy
relationships with the new members from the merging companies. This negatively
impacted the team building between the two groups of employees from the
different companies. Despite the challenges facing the teams in the merger,
they however succeeded in building a strong leadership by allowing the
management to choose two of their team members to lead them in implementing the
new project. The team also allowed the management to successfully implement the
decision that was going to solve the conflict that was affecting the
performance of the two teams.

In conclusion, Lance could have however used a different approach in
addressing these conflicts in order to effectively solve the conflicts. He
should have begun by setting the objectives of the conflict resolution plan by
first identifying the behavior of individuals in the conflict. Secondly, he
should have identified the sources of the conflict in order to help him in
developing an effective strategy that would effectively satisfy most of the
needs of each party in the conflict. He could have achieved this by conducting
a inquisitive research in the conflict and soliciting facts from the parties of
the conflict. This conflict resolution plan would have helped him to
effectively solve the conflict that was facing the vigilance project and help
in promoting the performance of the employees in the team.

Disputes and differences are more likely to be worked out among
colleagues than dictated by those at the top. Indentifying the sources of
conflict, team leaders need to correct communication methods and role
Identification within the group and sub-team.Active listening to the concerns and needs of team
members and valuing their contribution should be a priority in addressing
conflict. This could help to create an effective work environment. Team members
should be willing to give and receive constructive criticism and provide
authentic feedback, was not present in the case of PharmMed merger group.