Dysfunctions of a Team Essay 2022

Running head: DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM
Dysfunctions of a Team
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1DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM
Introduction
Teams are important parts of an organization. It promotes a cohesive and synergic
environment through which an organization thrives. Team members share goals, visions and
objectives and help one another to reach their goals. Sometimes, teams become dysfunctional
and the reasons that might lead to a dysfunctional team has been described by Lencioni
(2002), in his book. In this essay, the concept of a dysfunctional team and its relevance to
management has been discussed. Moreover, it analyses a situation and the outcome, where
the concept could have been used but was not. Finally, it provides three take away points on
the effective implementation of the concept.
Discussion
1. Describe the topic (concept) in your own words in manner that
demonstrates you understand the meaning of the concept.
According to Lencioni (2002), the first dysfunction that a team can have is the
absence of trust. In order to be able to work effectively, team members need to have
trust on one another and be able to open and honest with other team members.. The
second dysfunction is the fear of conflict. Team members are bound to have conflicts
and more often than not it indicates that the people are committed and are sharing
ideas. Team members should be comfortable enough with each other to be able to
engage in healthy conflict which makes them see things from other’s perspectives.
The third dysfunction is the lack of commitment. When people in a team have
no trust and conflict among them, they are not committed to a decision that has been
made. Due to lack of insight into the topic they are not able to see the big picture or

2DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM
final outcome of it. The fourth dysfunction is accountability. When team members do
not have conflict and are not committed to the decision of the team, they have no
accountability (Lencioni, 2005). The fifth dysfunction is inattention to results in this
case team members are not unfocused on the collective outcome of the team and are
mainly busy trying to serve their ego or personal department and thus the motto of a
team collapses.
2. How is this concept relevant and important to management?
The concept of dysfunction of team is important to management as
dysfunctional teams cannot work as a unit and get a job done. They would not be able
to work for a common goal and they do not share a vision (Björk, Browne-Ferrigno &
Kowalski, 2018). Management has a role to play in creating and improving the
functions and productivity of a team. Thus, they must be aware of the barriers that
might reduce a team’s performance. Moreover, they are also responsible for providing
leadership and without knowing the problems in the team it is not possible to plan
improvement (Wilen, 2016).
3. Provide an example of a situation in which it could have been used but
wasn’t and the outcome
In an organization that I had worked before, I saw one of the most
dysfunctional teams and the outcome of it. It was a small company and the teams
were created on a cross department basis. The problem started with the lack of
leadership in the team. The high competition between the departments had already
created rift between the employees and when they were thrown together they were not
able to work properly (Bonavoglia, 2019). They would not share ideas, would not
listen to other members, they would conceal facts and findings, as all of them were