Managing Conflict in the text book Group Communication

Read this text for a somewhat different perspective on managing conflict in the workplace. The text refines the definition of conflict as something that occurs between interdependent people and must be expressed. While we have looked at the causes of conflict, This text examines the dangers of conflict in four ways. As you read through the text, you will learn about the roles leaders can take, such as motivator, delegator, structuralist, and promoter of constructive deviation.

Leadership and Conflict

The Leader as Delegator

No leader, even the leader of a handful of other people in a small team, can handle all the challenges or do all the work of a group. In fact, you've probably encountered leaders throughout your life who either exhausted themselves or alienated other group members - or both! - because they tried to do just that. Beyond accepting the sheer impossibility of shouldering all of a group's work, a leader can attempt to prevent or manage conflict judiciously by acting as a delegator, turning over responsibility for various tasks to others.

Warren Bennis, a pioneer in the field of leadership, wrote that such delegation is a vital component of the leader's role. When it is practiced skillfully, according to Bennis, delegation may confine conflicts to the levels at which they occur and free the leader to conduct higher-level undertakings.