Creating constructive communication environments.
Interdisciplinary teams comes with a lot of challenges. Interdisciplinarity means that every member of the working team is specialized in a specific scientific field, has a unique educational, professional and personal background. For an interdisciplinary team to benefit from this diversity, open negotiation and communication routes should be focused on. Dr. Jessica Jameson has developed a framework for creating constructive communication environments, which consists in listening, engaging, acknowledging, building rapport, and nurturing. I think that a good leader should ensure that every team member does their best to respect that framework, and that all team members participate equally in building this constructive environment. I believe that if this framework is respected, the powers within the team would be more fairly distributed, and that every team member would be able to advocate for themselves and speak up to propose ideas or solutions.
Powers in negotiation.
In her book Conflict Management, Barbara Corvette depicts the different levels of power one can use in negotiation. In Chapter 10, Barbara opens with personal power, which comes from having a good knowledge of ourselves, our personality, strengths and skills. Barbara then mentions that in a situation where hierarchy exists, the power of legitimacy and position power can also be present and used. If, for a person, the power of legitimacy or position does not play to their advantage, they might want to realize they might have expertise power, depending on their skills versus their opponent’s skills. Reward and coercive power can also be used, which are the real or imaginary power to affect someone else. Barbara states that reference and identification powers can also be used in negotiation, which is closely associated with charisma, and the ability to relate to someone else or to have someone else relate to yourself. The last useful power Barbara mentions, is situational power, which is the way that the facts and circumstances play in favor or against a person. I believe that it is necessary for a good leader to be aware of all of these types of power, to use them appropriately in the workplace when leading an interdisciplinary team, and also to understand how a team member could play these powers as well.
