Project Teams and Leadership: The Functional and Dysfunctional Conflict

Project Teams and Leadership
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When accomplishing projects, there are many factors involved that will determine the success and completion of the goal. The leader plays a great role in whether it will be smooth and efficient but the responsibility does not only fall on the manager’s shoulders. The important factors to consider include team composition and dynamics, availability of supplies and resources needed, and also the effectiveness and qualification of the project manager in handling the project and the team as a whole. In this paper, the Ajax Project by CEBEX and how Tran as the project manager functions to achieve the main goal of the Ajax case with 30 hardware and software engineers as part of the team will be discussed in detail.
Tran as a Manager
In this case, Tran exhibited effective manager skills because of how he holistically thinks about the project and his team. He thinks ahead as well as provide solutions as to how he can help his team function better towards their goal. An example of this trait of his was when a two-day retreat was held to fix any gaps and issues between the hardware engineers and electrical engineers. He also demonstrated the ability to assign someone more capable of doing a task, such as when he let an internal consultant facilitate the retreat activities, which is an important characteristic that an effective manager should have for the whole team to function efficiently. The effectiveness of a manager greatly affects how the team work towards the goal, also determining whether a goal is achieved successfully or not (Ammeter & Dukerich, 2002). Some of the traits that Tran has that makes him an effective manager is the way he motivates his people, especially during times of glitches and disappointments, and also his ability to recognize his team’s effort and teamwork in the process of accomplishing their goals for the project. Lastly, he also has managerial skills that keep the team well-directed and organized by always updating them regarding the progress, changes, and objectives regarding the Ajax Project.
Functional and Dysfunctional Conflict
The presence of an effective leader is not the only determinant of the success of a project and the absence of conflict. There are still conflicts present that may be helpful or constructive to the whole team or may be destructive to the goal and dynamics of the team as a whole (Massey & Dawes, 2007). In the case of Tran and his team working on the Ajax Project, a conflict that may be considered as functional is the gap and differences in their ages and culture. This enables the ideas of the team to be more diverse with an increased possibility of finding ways to make the project successful. It also helps that one group of engineers have more experience while the other has an updated and new perspective that might be helpful in the advanced technology that the team is handling. But unfortunately, some of the conflicts are unhealthy and these are considered dysfunctional. An example of a dysfunctional conflict would be the personal issue regarding salary differences that the hardware engineers are feeling against the electrical engineers. This ...