I was involved in a group discussion this morning that started off with one group member immediately attacking another group member’s ideas. Conveniently our group has a designated leader who is in charge of diffusing the tension and making sure the team treats others with respect. I was looking over the chapter about leadership ethics just recently and noted “Leaders who respect others also allow them to be themselves, with creative wants and desires,” (Northouse, 2016 PG 342.) In this particular situation the leader did not work very hard to diffuse the problem, instead she took the side of the more aggressive team member though I feel as if the ideas were being attacked were partly hers. While she validated the aggressive team member (who was not a part of the initial decision making process) she encouraged the weaker team member to “just give in” in order to move the discussion along.
I am not the leader of this group but I did take it upon myself to confront the tension since the actual leader was not going to. An article in Forbes magazine discusses conflict and how difficult it can be to manage. Author Glenn Llopis says “Conflict resolution is about seeing opportunities that others don’t see,” (Forbes, 2014.) In this case I saw a bit of tension and bullying by the one team member who was not present at the initial meeting. Since the leader was not going to address the tension I asked everyone to pause and let team members discuss how they felt about the ideas presented. My altruistic behavior encouraged conversation and eventual consensus while alleviating the tension the group was experiencing (Northouse, 2016 PG 342.)
Llopis says, “Conflict should be embraced and dealt with-not just resolve a possible problem or detect an opportunity…” (Forbes, 2014.) If the team member had gotten his way without any discussion of why there would still be underlying tensions unresolved. Northouse’s toxic triangle might be extreme but two of us team members would fall under conformers as we feel our needs are unmet by the leader who gave into the more aggressive member, while the more aggressive team member might suffer from bad values because he is used to getting what he wants with little conflict. (Northouse, 2016 PG 340.)
The issues were finally resolved within our group and while the aggressive team member said he did not mean to stir everyone up, it was perceived he came in with an agenda to change the entire project already one third finished. We reached a consensus where little ideas changed and some stayed the same. Our leader could use some work on her leadership ethics with regard to aggressive behaviors and the tension associated with them. She could have paid more attention to the reason we were together in the first place and kept everyone’s interests in mind (Northouse, 2016 PG 347.)
Works Cited:
Llopis, G. (2104, November 28). 4 Ways Leaders Effectively Manage Employee Conflict. Retrieved November 20, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2014/11/28/4-ways-leaders-effectively-manage-employee-conflict/4/
Northouse, P.G. (2016), Leadership: Theory and practice. (7th ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage.
Matthew Scott Leibensperger says
Great post. You made all the right choices by stepping up and trying to alter the climate of your group by being just and fair. I was happy to hear your outcome was positive as you showed principles of ethical concern. Your post reminded me of when I first started my undergraduate degree and a conflict situation came about, in which it did not go as well as I would have hoped. The group consisted of five members (including myself) in a labor relations course assignment. Group tension was negative as one member of the group refused to do more work than originally expected. As the climate changed, each party in this situation moved the climate either to a positive or negative conflict, but never serving each other together as a community. As group leader, I knew the ethical choice was to speak up and present issues of concern, as I did not want the climate to be generated and sustained in an ineffective manner due to one member.
According to lesson 14, there are five principles of ethical leadership that Northouse presents(PSULW14, 2015). These principles provide a foundation for the development of sound ethical leadership. In order to have quality ethics these principles must be met by leaders: respect, serve, justice, honest and build community. Furthermore, to be an ethical leader, we must be companionate to the needs of others and treat them in ways that are just and caring.
In my case, the very first meeting established a negative conflict as respect was depleted. Sometimes one gets a feeling or cues that certain members of the group were uninterested or simply too busy to provide equal contribute. I had a bad feeling about one member, which validated my theory as he missed the first meeting, along with the second and contributed very little. Moreover, what made matters worse is the lack of respect, that showed very little sympathy and accountability for his behavior. After these incidents, as an ethical group leader I knew I needed to speak up and present issues of concern. I sent this member an individual email which expressed concern and empathy. Days later, I get a message back explaining, he has had some family issues and responsibilities outside of school (which I completely understand). He went on to say, “we all have good and back weeks and that any good group member would pick up his slack and continue to work on the assignment without judgement”. There were many other situations that showed lack of respect, serve, justice and honesty, although I continued to build trust with other members and felt that I did all that I could to create a positive environment for our group by attempting to reconcile issues. Lastly, I openly discussed aspects by sending out a group email, this time more compassionate detailing hopes and expectations. It is quite possible that this email may have adversely affected the community as all members knew where I was pointing the finger and these members sensed the true underlining reason. Long story short, my leadership abilities were unsuccessful as the conflict escaladed resulting in the group being split in two.
Penn State University Course Creator.(2015). Lesson 14: Ethics and Leadership. Retrieved from: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa15/psych485/001/content/14_lesson/printlesson.html
Edward Cochran says
I can relate to your predicament. It is a difficult situation when a leader does little or nothing to mitigate a potentially divisive circumstance. When an employee must take on leadership responsibilities in order to manage a group discussion it says a lot about the leader as well as the employee. Your group leader showed no principals of ethical leadership. Obviously there was no respect for the group member being attacked. “Ethical leaders are concerned about issues of fairness and justice” (Northouse, 2016). A priority for ethical leaders are treating all employees or followers equally. This seems to have been far from a priority for your group leader.
You stepped in and provided leadership (applause). You demonstrated self-confidence as well as integrity. Nice leadership traits. Whether you felt confident or not your decision to step up displayed that confidence. Leadership includes influencing others and your display of confidence showed others in the group that you believed what you were doing was right. (Northouse, 2016). This will influence others to do the same or at least perhaps to speak up.
Integrity involves honesty and trustworthiness. You would be viewed this way by other group members. Your stock just went up…by displaying the confidence and integrity to point out something that was obviously not morally right you established a base for other group members to perhaps feel more confident to stand on with you.
Reference:
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.