Another great benefit of office conflict in teams is the "meeting of the minds." Conflict and the subsequent compromise born in this type of environment encourages "Thinking Out of the Box" which can lead a company to new focuses and ideas never found in a traditional independent working approach. There may be less conflict in a setting with independent workers, but they will lack the ingenuity created from conflicts in teams.
This atmosphere can also degenerate, creating disadvantages in the work place that in some cases surpass any positive net effects of Work-Team situations. Because of the fact that negative conflict always seem to outweigh the positive conflicts, many workers can feel bogged down by working in groups for many reasons. If everyone does not accomplish their fair share of the team's work, one person may become overwhelmed with his or her group responsibilities. The inability to compromise over a given solution to a problem is also cause for difficulty under Work-Team conditions. Too much conflict within any group can ultimately take up valuable time and destroy productivity leaving office personnel emotional and less apt to produce superior work results. The worker who is independent does not need to worry as much about conflict that will severe a working relationship, but sometimes the independent worker will miss out on conflict that inspires high-quality output as a good Work-Team will deliver more times than not.
Several issues can arise when individuals work together in a team. No team is alike, as personalities vary with each member. A very important thing that needs to be implemented early on is role playing. Each member has strengths and weaknesses, and a positive thing with teams is sharing talents and abilities to better the work performance. It is very important that each team spends time defining strengths and weaknesses, so that there is an adequate representation of skills.
