Comparing with other team (3 persons a group), the possibility of the problems we encountered was higher. Everyone is unique in this world with his own character however while we work together, conflicts might appear especially a member with strong character exists. A person with characters such as dominant, emotional or bad temper would cause troubles or conflicts while working with others. A person with bad understanding or communication skill causes misunderstandings, too.
Apart from the individual personality, the industry which people come from might influence the way the work process and result. I am coming from investment banking industry, Fion is from finance, Cherry is from customer service while Fred comes from police force. Fion an upfront, straight forward and a quick temper person from private business while Fred is a mellow, layback and go-with-the-flow kind of person who is from public sector. A mellow who works with an upfront person and they are from two extremely industries, conflicts and tension appeared in the meetings. The rest of the team members, Amy and Cherry felt uneasy and annoyed.
During the meetings in the three assignment, Fion dominanted the meeting. She gave instructions, directed the team (she was not appointed as a leader) and decided the course work in her own preferences. The rest of the three team members obeyed and avoid talking back to her since she was so fierce that we didn’t want to confront her which might create fightings and arguments. However, it seemed that Fion always has a problem with Fred. She complained Fred’s slow motion and poor understanding of things. She sometimes even called Fred names such as “turtle”. Fion wants things quick and accurate. It is to do with her own personality and her working background. Working in a finance company, things need to be done accurate, effective and precise. Fred the mellow who works for the government (a bureaucratic structure) who needs to do things step by step; get approval layer by layer. It takes time to get one things done and it involves so many persons. We see there is a gap here. They are walking forward different extreme direction. Cherry and I who are between them were being torn apart.
We had several unpleasant meetings that Fion told Fred off. At one point Fred has no choice but to talk back to her. Fred did not understand why Fion is so judgmental while Fion has no clue why Fred never understands what she wants. An argument started. All of us were not happy.
I would say this is the personality conflict which culture involves. Working culture is also an important factor. To solve the problem we will need: listening skill, positive attitude, respect to others, give and take.
In this case, having effective communication skill is the best to solve the problem:
1. Listen all carefully and closely. Good listening skill helps us to understand what others need. Providing resources and help might be a win win solution.
2. Always maintain a positive attitude with others with different characters and from different cultures. Not only can this assist me with keeping up the morale of an office, but it can make it easier for people from a variety of other cultures to work together with me on a project.
3. Respect other’s values and customs. Try to develop the understanding that people can do things different from me. Realize that their way of doing things is simply different, rather than inferior.
4. Make an effort to learn what offends people from other cultures so I will not inadvertently commit the same offense out of ignorance. (ehow, 2015)
To solve the conflict, we had an ice breaking meeting. Each of us has time to express their feelings and what the need. Fion stated that base on her natural-born character and the business environment she is facing, quick tempered is created. She has difficulties to separate her attitude on business and school work. When she is in a working mode, she will become very quick tempered. Fred is a Buddhist. He believes in enhancing inner peace, let things go and does not always show much emotion. He does not say much. People might misunderstand him being slow by his inner peace; people also see him poor misunderstanding on things by his silent character. Cherry and Amy described the depressed feeling they had in the past meetings. Stand between them was uneasy. Both Fion and Fred apologized for the problem they caused and compromised a solution on the coming school projects. Fion promised to be more understanding on others position, respect others’ differences and be less self-focused while Fred promised to show more emotion and speak up more. We were happy with the result and I guess we will be always staying in one team in the future.
Martin, V. (2015) How to Work With People From Different Cultures, eHow, available from http://www.ehow.com/how_8780495_work-people-different-cultures.html, accessed 25 April 2015
沒有留言:
張貼留言