No matter how great a team seems to work together, there maybe underlying problems that exist. Most problems, more than likely, come from emotional conflicts. Emotional conflicts may include job stress, personal problems, anger management issues or other problems that would affect individuals in different ways. One major problem is differences in people's backgrounds. Because so people work many different places in their lifetime, it is no wonder there are differences in opinions. These same people have probably been raised differently, with different beliefs and, not to mention, prejudices. Sometimes, people are conditioned to behave in a certain way because of past experiences or even past employment. For instance, a person who has always been in a position of authority might find it difficult to work alongside people he is normally used to managing. The conflicts might also be considered individual conflicts.
Another type of conflict that affects many work teams is cognitive or group conflict. Cognitive conflict is often effective in stimulating creativity because it forces people to rethink problems and arrive at outcomes that everyone can live with. Though this may produce positive results in the long run, team members may not see it that way initially. Some team members may see this as selfish behavior or an argumentative nature and not as a beneficial act toward the team. Nonetheless, here in lies another problem that needs to be dealt with.
Because conflicts in work teams cannot be prevented, it is necessary to keep open communication between team members. One way to do this is to set aside time for regular meetings. These can be meetings at the workplace or at an outside meeting place. At my most recent job, we had regular weekly meetings at work and one end of the month meeting that was held at a local restaurant. The weekly meetings were beneficial in helping each of the team members help each other.