Final answer:
To mitigate internal team conflict, the HR manager should focus on clarifying team goals, expectations, and behavior guidelines, fostering a cooperative environment, and empowering team members to be proactive and accountable in their roles.
Step-by-step explanation:
To reduce unnecessary conflict within teams, the clarification of goals, expectations, and ground rules for team behavior is essential. Encouraging discussion is beneficial, but it's important to present it as a means to foster collaboration and input, not as a preliminary step before imposing authority. Imposing performance improvement plans or consulting superiors only upon underperformance can create a culture of fear and hesitation, rather than proactive problem-solving and collaboration. Clarifying expectations proactively helps team members understand what is required of them and how they should interact, which can prevent misunderstandings and conflicts before they arise.
A healthy working relationship with managers contributes significantly to job satisfaction and productivity. Managers should be approachable, open to feedback, and supportive of their team's career development. By focusing on a collaborative rather than a hierarchical approach, teams can become more innovative and effective. Conflict resolution skills are important, such as choosing words carefully, staying calm, asking open-ended questions, actively listening and paraphrasing to avoid misunderstandings, and focusing on problem-solving rather than placing blame.