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Sonny Gray had a rough outing last Thursday night, even if the box score indicates he only gave up two runs. After escaping a fourth inning in which Gray labored through a single and three ugly walks, having given up only one run, manager Rocco Baldelli pulled the plug. As documented, Gray prefers to stay in games as long as possible.
As visible on the Bally Sports North broadcast, the manager and pitcher disagreed. Viewers could see some level of emotion, seemingly from both parties, as they talked it over in the dugout. What does that mean for the relationship between a player and a manager or the team overall?
Those who have read my writing, specifically those articles that delve into emotion, relationships, and psychology, will know that I don’t like to assume to understand everything between teammates and coaches in the clubhouse. However, this is an excellent time to examine conflict within a team and what interactions like the one Thursday can mean.
When I use the term "Conflict," the definition that I like comes from a 2003 article by Carsten De Dreu and Laurie Weingart (it’s been cited 4,500 times, so apparently, a lot of other people like it too): “a process resulting from the tension between team members because of real or perceived differences.” Conflict as a concept is pretty self-evident, but a definition always helps and serves as a basis for analyzing different types of conflict.
One way that conflict can be broken down is into task conflict and relationship conflict. This method of separating types of conflict is generally attributed to a 1995 article by Karen Jehn (cited over 6,000 times). It’s again self-explanatory: task conflict is conflict that arises out of performing tasks, and relationship conflict is conflict that arises out of interpersonal interactions. They’re both the natural result of people working together.
Let’s take a look at task conflict first. Task conflict isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A complete lack of task conflict actually indicates issues like a lack of attention or commitment or even something like groupthink. When people work together, they’ll disagree on the best way to do whatever the group wants.
For a baseball team, that disagreement can take the form of strategy and approach, for example. Players may have differing views with teammates and coaches about the best way to approach a plate appearance against a specific pitcher or even the right way to play the game (running out a grounder, etc.). If we use our imagination, we can see a disagreement between a hypothetical pitcher wanting to stay in the game for the fifth inning and a hypothetical manager wanting to pull his starter.
Hey, I didn’t use names. Those are in your head.
In that situation, it’s perfectly reasonable for a disagreement between the two to arise. It’s reasonable to expect a heated discussion. For the most part, there’s nothing wrong with that type of conflict. Opinionated competitors will have competitive opinions, and they’ll discuss them. I’d go so far as to say it’s healthy.
Relationship conflict, on the other hand, is seldom healthy. Relationship conflict refers to things like annoyances over other people’s actions, disagreements over non-team-related manners, or lack of trust. It’s again natural because who hasn’t been annoyed by one of their coworker’s simple presence? However, it should be avoided.
Within a baseball team, this type of conflict could be related to things like card games gone awry or a teammate eating animal crackers in the hotel bed. They could arise because one teammate is a general nuisance and pain in the tuchus.
Relationship conflict can also emerge from task conflict. Let’s consider another hypothetical. Imagine one player, who is a notorious hothead, batting with a runner on second (who would hypothetically later in his career chase a .400 batting average for the Miami Marlins). Imagine that as the batter dug in, he noticed that the runner was not paying attention and was instead facing into the outfield.
The two may have some understandable task conflict. The batter believed the runner should pay better attention, and conflict could ensue. However, if that conflict devolves into a shouting match, teammates start taking personal digs at each other, and feelings are hurt, it’s now relationship conflict (not saying that did happen).
Relationship conflict isn’t productive. It’s a hindrance to good team functioning. It must be worked through for a team to perform optimally, and it takes time away from more important matters. Even if it sits dormant, it can cause future task conflict to devolve into relationship conflict.
So, then, the key is keeping conflict on the task side. Saying things like “You are ugly!” takes players away from their objective—winning games—and refocuses their energy around interpersonal matters.
By all accounts, there was visible task conflict in Thursday’s game, but that doesn’t mean there was also relationship conflict. In his postgame comments, Gray was clear in his position; he wants the opportunity to work through trouble and compete, and he understands that, at times, the manager will make decisions that go against those wishes because Baldelli sees it as the best thing to do.
By his comments, at least, this seems to be firmly in the differences in beliefs category, and if it’s handled well, both parties can grow from it. Gray even acknowledged that the two likely need to discuss it. So long as it doesn’t become personal, that’s a good thing.
On the other hand, if there is conflict bubbling under the surface and one or more parties reach the point that they have active disdain for the other as a person, then you’re talking about trouble. To be frank, you’re probably talking about trouble even before active disdain gets involved.
Of course, I want to reiterate that I don’t know the actual status of their relationships. All I know is what a bunch of dry papers and books written by stuffy academics have taught me. So long as the episode between the manager and player avoids getting personal, even if it’s conflict that reappears a few times during the season, it’s not the end of the world.
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June 20, 2023 at 12:15AM
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Can Conflict be Both Positive and Negative on a Team? - Twins Daily
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