Running Head: Cross-Functional Team

Building a Cross-functional Team

Introduction
Health care Inc requires a cross-functional team to ensure a deeper level of creativity
and better results. The team will be made up of individuals from different backgrounds,
education, multiple disciplines and work environment. In such a team, it is likely for the
views of the minority group to be ignored as the majority group tend to have more influence
over the minority. However, it is possible for the minority to influence the majority. This part
will look into how the minority can influence the majority.
The influence of the majority tend to be based on public compliance and is likely to
be a normative social influence since they are usually not concerned about what the
minorities think about them. The majority have the power to punish and reward with
disapproval and approval and this force the minorities to conform. On the other hand, the
influence of minority is an informational social influence and therefore they provide the
majority with new information or new ideals that make them reconsider their views. The
minority influence involves private acceptance or internalization; converting the majority
through convincing then that the views of minorities is correct (McLeod, 2007). There are
several ways the minority can have an influence over a majority as discussed below:
Behavioural style; the minority need to be consistent with their views as this will make the
majority to sit up, take notice and reconsider their position. The minority should also be
confidence in the rightness of the views they are presenting. Moreover, they should not be
biased in their views and should resist social pressure and abuse.

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Style of thinking; the minority can influence the majority by getting them to discuss the
arguments they are putting forward.
Flexibility and compromise; to influence the majority, the minority should appear flexible
and compromising in their consistency as the majority will see them as less extreme, as more
reasonable, moderate and cooperative.
Identification; the majority should be made to identifies with the minority to make them
accept the opinions of the minority. For example, an Asian minority arguing for the equality
of Asian in provision of health care has less influence than An American minority arguing for
the Asian equality in provision of health care. The American majority identifies with the
Asian minority. They see the Asian minority as different from themselves, as selfish and
concerned with endorsing their own specific cause (McLeod, 2007).
Explain the differences between real conflict and symbolic conflict
Real conflict is the underlying conflict of all the other conflicts. For example, there are racial
conflicts between a majority race and a minority race. This is not real conflict. It is symbolic
conflict. The real conflict might be because of religion or even more rudimentary cases of
rich and poor. Symbolic conflict arise form underlying real conflict that might or might not
be obvious.
Resolving Symbolic Conflict
When working with a cross-functional team conflict is inevitable since individuals
have different viewpoints which can escalate to conflict. Below is a plan which can be
implemented to handle such conflict to ensure the success of the team:
Recognising the conflict

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The first step towards resolving conflict is recognising it. You should discuss with the team to
acknowledge the conflict exist as well as discuss the impact of the conflict to the team
dynamics and performance. Everyone involved should agree to cooperate to resolve the
conflict and this might involve setting aside ones views for the time being. Above all
communications should be kept open. Those involved must talk concerning the issue and
argue their strong feelings. Communications also involves active listening (Alexander,
Richard, Kimberly, Rebecca, James and Dawei, 2005).
Analysing the situation
When the team is ready to handle the conflict, the next step is to analyse the situation and
every members ideas. Each member should be given an opportunity to state his/her position
and one should note the assumptions, facts and beliefs underlying every position. The team
should be divided into smaller groups to analyse and dissect every position and the related
assumptions, facts and beliefs so as to gain a better understanding of those positions. This
way it is possible to identify new ideas and solutions that can effectively resolve the conflict.
When the conflict is resolved you should celebrate and recognise the contributions everybody
made toward solving the conflict as this may build team cohesion as well as confidence in
their problem solving skills in addition to preventing further conflict.
Reach Agreement
Since now all members understand each other position very well, it is time to decide the
course of action to take as a team. With the assumptions and facts considered, it is easier to
come up with the best action and reach an agreement. You should agree what must to be
done, by who and by when. You should plan to reach an agreement within a specific
timescale. Moreover, you should define the decision making as well as evaluation tools to be
used (Alexander, 2005).

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References
Alexander, J. A., Richard L., Kimberly J., Rebecca W., James Z., and Dawei L. (2005).
"Cross-Functional Team Processes and Patient Functional Improvement." Health Services
Research.
McLeod, S. A. (2007). Moscovici and Minority Influence. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/minority-influence.html