During both action and transition phases, a team must manage three interpersonal processes: conflict, motivation and emotions. The ways in which a team manages potential conflicts has a big influence on the productivity of that team. Marks et al. (2001, p. 368) propose two types of conflict management strategies. Pre-emptive conflict management 'involves establishing conditions to prevent, control or guide team conflict before it occurs'. Pre-emptive conflict management is about establishing norms that will reduce or control conflict before it occurs. Team contracts or charters that specify how team members agree to handle challenging situations will help curtail the negative aspects of conflict in a team.
For example, a charter can specify that when a team is confronted with important decisions they can strive for consensus or they can vote on alternative courses of action.
Reactive conflict management involves working through a task, process and interpersonal disagreements among team members. Reactive conflict management techniques include identifying the parameters of conflict between the team members, compromising, being open, flexible and willing to accept different viewpoints. However, Behfar, Peterson, Mannix and Trochim (2008) found that a reactive approach to conflict management led to underperformance and low satisfaction in teams because the root cause of problems was not identified nor successfully corrected and communication came at a high cost.