CONFLICT RESOLUTION – LEARNING TO VALUE DIVERSITY

The problem

Advent Financial Services (AFS)is a small Birmingham based insurance company. The HR department was concerned about one of the customer service teams because of poor performance, low morale, lack of communication and staff attrition.

Using the MVPI

Team “fit ”has more to do with motives and values than personality. The MVPI assesses values and priorities that we feel strongly about; the degree to which values are shared between team members will impact on their ability to work together effectively.

The team's MVPI profiles

Shared values – convergence

The most notable feature of this team's MVPI profiles is the relative lack of convergence, so shared values are minimal. Only on the MVPI Security and Tradition scales did most of the team members achieve a similar score. This suggests that these individuals may be somewhat formal, fairly conservative in their views, and may prefer to follow established procedures. They are likely to prefer a reasonably predictable and risk-free environment. They will probably tend to plan ahead and to take few chances with their career or their finances. On all other MVPI scales the team had very differing scores.

Different viewpoints –diversity

The areas of greatest diversity were found on the Power, Business and Culture scales of the MVPI. The range of scores on these scales suggests that there will be some very different priorities within the team. Attitudes towards status, authority, the commercial side of life and creative ideas, style and good design vary widely and it may be difficult to achieve any consensus on these issues.

Factions

There were three MVPI scales where the grouping of scores suggests two distinct factions; MVPI Recognition, MVPI Hedonism and MVPI Rationality. These may be areas where, in team discussions, two distinct camps confront each other. It may therefore be difficult to resolve issues related to these scales. Issues that may be difficult to resolve within this group include questions about remuneration, incentives and public recognition for achievements; about the purposefulness and seriousness of the work climate and the importance of fun and pleasure in one's work life; and about the relevance of objective and scientific approaches to problem solving compared to the role of more intuitive or less rigorous methods. The point is that people can be passionate about their values and same may have diffculty in appreciating or respecting the converse point of view.

Team development

The MVPI group profile provided important information about the culture or climate within the group as well as highlighting potential conflicts. Being aware of and respecting each other's values and sensitivities was an important first step in the rebuilding of this team. For example, those who were high on the Business scale could not begin to understand their low scoring counterparts'approach to work until they realised that the business of making money was not a top priority for them. Since there were few areas of convergence in this team, they had firstly to appreciate the implications of this for achieving a team consensus on a wide variety of work issues and, secondly, to learn about their colleagues'priorities and to appreciate the benefits of diversity.

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