Managing Conflict in Work Teams: A Research Proposal for Barclays plc

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Research Proposal
“Managing conflict in work team”
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Literature review..........................................................................................................................4
3. Methodology................................................................................................................................6
Reference list...................................................................................................................................7
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1. Introduction
Research aim
The primary aim of the research is to shed light on the cause of conflicts among team member at
workplace as well as determine ways to manage team conflicts and disputes in the banking
sector.
Research objectives
The research objectives of the study include:
 To analyse the primary cause of conflicts among team members in the Barclays plc
 To investigate the impact of conflicts among team members on the performance of the
Barclays plc
 To explore the various methods and solutions to manage team conflicts at Barclays plc
Data about the organisational context
Banking sector in the United Kingdom is considered to be one of the most influential economic
sector. Recently, the banking sector has been witnessing considerable amount of downturn due to
various economic and political changes. However, the major player in the banking sector is
Barclays plc. Barclays plc is a multinational investment bank having headquarters in London,
United Kingdom. Currently the management of the company has diversified their portfolio
business portfolio to include four major segments, including wealth management, corporate
banking, personal banking and investment management. Barclays plc has a long history in the
banking sector of the UK. It is considered to be the foremost bank to have developed the idea of
ATM, any time money in order to provide their customers with greater amount of flexibility and
convenience (home.barclays, 2019). Recently, it has been witnessed that the management has
been facing several issues in their department concerning the rise in the number of complaints
and disputes, which has affected the team performance.
Research questions
The research questions are:
 What is the primary cause of conflicts among team members in the Barclays plc?
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 What is the impact of conflicts among team members on the performance of the Barclays
plc?
 What are the various methods and solutions to manage team conflicts?
2. Literature review
In the current era, development of effective teams is considered to be an important method of
choice for quickly responding to technological and market changes, hereby, allowing an
organisation to sustain their business. Many research and studies have been conducted to analyse
the methods for finding the best methods for creating and developing teams. However, in this
study light has been shed on describing about reasons responsible for team conflict and the
possible solutions available.
Primary reasons behind team conflict
Major reasons identified for the team conflict is the loss of trust and faith among team members.
It has always been realised that once the faith and trust that exists between the team members has
been broken, it leads to an emotional response that leads to conflict. Another reason identified is
unresolved disagreement (Lipsky et al., 2016). Difference in opinions and ideas is a common
phenomenon among team members; however, in case it is left unresolved, it leads to
accumulation of emotions among team members, which leads to problems the next time any
disagreement is faced. Many times, it has also been stated that difference in personalities among
team members can lead to rise of conflicts. At many times, these differences are considered
major strengths but they also give rise to conflicts (Currie et al., 2017).
Different business policies and practices
It is the responsibility of the human resource management to take in charge of adoption and
implementation of internal business policies so that conflicts and disputes do not arise among
teams. A conflict resolution policy mainly involves different steps that are followed every time a
dispute emerges in the organisation, this is explained below:
Brief discussion with the supervisor or manager
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In the initial process, the employees must reach out to supervisor or senior manager with the
details about the dispute. It is then the role of supervisor to address the issues (Lipsky et al.,
2015).
Analysis of entire department
If the supervisor is not able to resolve the problem, review of the entire department is done to
find clues and gain more understanding.
Appeal of decision
In this process, a meeting is held with all the members concerned so as to facilitate development
of resolution.
Different theorists and scholars have proposed many models and frameworks as an effective
solution to team conflicts. In this section, McDaniel’s team mediation process has been
proposed, which includes following steps:
Enhanced communication
The first process is to promote the employees to build or develop communication skills. This
way the management can ensure that there is no communication gap between members, thereby
helping individuals to mediate their own disputes.
Individual certification
This involves individual certification of competency for every member for using the mediation
skills and comprehension of the process. This will ensure the development of interpersonal
conflict management skills.
Team empowerment
This step involves encouraging employees to solve their own conflicts. This also involves
development of a positive environment (Fairchild and McDaniel, 2017).
Collaboratively
This step focuses on helping team members to realise and resolve their conflicts collectively.
This way the team members can handle the conflicts at both extremes.
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On analysis of the above-mentioned theory, it can be stated that, it is an effective and reliable
method for resoling team conflicts. The major reason behind its effectiveness is that, unlike other
theories and models; it directly focuses on the source of conflict, thereby, removing any chance
of further emergence of such issues.
3. Methodology
In this study, both primary and secondary data collection method will be used to collect wide
range of data and information. This way the researcher will be able to ensure quality of the
project. Along with this, the researcher will select positivism research philosophy in order to
follow a systematic approach for data collection. In addition, the researcher will select deductive
research approach for developing the hypothesis of the study (Flick, 2015). This way the
researcher will be able to utilise the existing models and theories. Another decision that the
researcher will take regarding the preparation of the business project is selection of appropriate
research design. In this study, the researcher will select explanatory research design (Vaioleti,
2016).
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Reference list
Currie, D., Gormley, T., Roche, B. and Teague, P., 2017. The management of workplace
conflict: Contrasting pathways in the HRM literature. International Journal of Management
Reviews, 19(4), pp.492-509.
Fairchild, A.J. and McDaniel, H.L., 2017. Best (but oft-forgotten) practices: mediation
analysis. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 105(6), pp.1259-1271.
Flick, U., 2015. Introducing research methodology: A beginner's guide to doing a research
project. Sage.
home.barclays (2019). Home | Barclays. [online] Available at: https://home.barclays/ [Accessed
9 Mar. 2019].
Lipsky, D.B., Avgar, A.C. and Lamare, J.R., 2016. The evolution of conflict management
policies in US corporations: From reactive to strategic. In Reframing Resolution (pp. 291-313).
Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Lipsky, D.B., Seeber, R.L. and Avgar, A.C., 2015. From the negotiating arena to conflict
management.
Vaioleti, T.M., 2016. Talanoa research methodology: A developing position on Pacific
research. Waikato Journal of Education, 12(1).
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