Response to the three articles listed below, backup your responses with 2022 article sources only and provide pdf for the article sources used. Do not use any of the article used by the articles already.
1. As I have advanced in my career it became clear that I needed to get comfortable with conflict. It took me some time, but now I recognize conflict as an asset. You want to hear unique and diverse perspectives to ensure you can continue to be innovative. However, you also want to ensure that everyone can continue to move forward even if as an individual you may not agree with the group collective. In Chapter 14, the authors delineate between when conflict can be beneficial versus a hinderance (Robbins et al., 2021). The chapter then dives into various types of conflicts and where the conflict occurs. To summarize, generally conflict is either based on relationships, tasks, or processes and typically occurs between two people, two groups or within a group. A recent article investigated how relationship conflict impacts team creativity (Ye, et al., 2022). Their findings echoed the sentiment in the books where if relationship conflict was very low or very high, it did negatively impact team creativity. Interesting though, the authors went further and examined how this may change with transformational leadership. In the event that there is high relationship conflict, transformational leadership helps to recover some of the team creativity, but interestingly there was no observable effect with low relationship conflict.
2. According to Robbins et al, power can be defined as the capacity, discretion, and means to enforce one’s will over others. (p. 213, 2022). An important aspect of power is dependence. The more people rely on a person in power, the more powerful the person becomes (Robbins et al, p. 213, 2022). People in power tend to gain followers and with that gain comes more power. In a job setting, this happens all the time, a manager or leader of a team has the power to make decisions that other team members cannot. Once the leader has this power, it is up to them to use this power or abuse it. A powerful leader can be weighed on many different scales, this being formal power and personal power. Both can be factors in how powerful a leader can become. My stance is a leader can lead without having power, but can all powerful people lead a team? As managers, one should focus on using their powerful position to influence positive tactics in their team. Power can sometimes be used as motivation to reach goals and new heights as a leader. Power is not always important to the leader but also important to the people that fall under the powerful person. In an article written by Du et al, it explains that employees’ power distance orientation which is defined as the degree to which individuals accept power can influence how employees perceive and react to leaders’ behaviors. This shows how if a leader abuses their power, employees may gain a positive or negative outlook on the leader. As a result, the leader may lose his sense of power, which is not effective for a leader on any level of management. The key to keeping power is using it in the right manner.
3. From the topic of Conflict and Negotiation, I opted to discuss Third-Party Negotiations. The excerpt discusses the roles and types of basic third-party negotiators. Those negotiations are handled by negotiators such as a mediator, arbitrator, and conciliators. When involved in a dispute, sometimes it is impossible for parties involved to amicably reach a resolution. In these scenarios, a neutral decision maker such as the negotiators are needed. Robbins and Judge defines the negotiators as follows; the mediator, who can assist with helping parties, but ultimately the involved parties find a solution on their own. Mediators cannot enforce a resolution. In contrast, an arbitrator can suggest/recommend a resolution and will dictate and/or determine the outcome of the issues at hand. Lastly, like that of an arbitrator, a conciliator can propose a solution that will potentially end the conflict. The effects of a third-party negotiator differ based on the conflict at hand. During an interview, Tom Kerr, noted that due to the complexities of bodily injury claims, many challenging claims can arise. Some of those claim’s result in very costly legal fee’s which sometimes makes recouping payments difficult from the liable party’s insurance carrier. This has prompted many claimants to utilize a mediator, to save money and reach an agreement more quickly (Kerr, 2022). A few years ago, I personally utilized the services of a legal meditator in lieu of an attorney for a bodily injury claim. Overall, the mediators fee was less and the process seemed more seamless due to the presence of the mediator. Essentially, the astronomical 33% that would have been paid to an attorney was removed, and we were able to reach a fair and quick agreement because of the presence of the mediator.
