How would you act as a team leader/manager if some team members conspired along with others trying to malign the personality of an innocent member?

This kind of behaviour must be stamped on very hard.  If the case was severe enough this could be considered gross misconduct an/d result in instant dismissal.  In some cases it would be necessary to involve the police.  At the very least there has been a libel or slander.

If the manager has a good professional and personal relationship with his subordinates and has worked closely with them, its fairly easy to identify where the problem really is and even prohibit it.

However, these incidents don't necessarily indicate that the person being maligned is totally innocent. Similarly the employees involved in such an act are not always completely at fault. Rather in my experience any such incident has a past foundation and the reasons for which can be :

1) Professional superiority of the maligned which makes him a threat to others

2) Personal relationships or Social issues among peers

3) Managers obvious tilt or favoritism

The important issue here I think is to keep the teams serenity and professional environment intact as these episodes are fairly common. Any good team lead is normally aware of the circumstances but the better team lead is one who can stop them prior of taking place. If however such an incident occurs, I as a team lead will first try to get to the bottom of this and based upon the findings I will move slowly. My first step is to counsel the instigators and resolve whatever issues they may have or give them a verbal warning. Secondly I will counsel the effected person and while assuring him/her my complete support will also inform him about the reasons behind it as well as ways to avoid them in future.

Last but not the least, I will make the incident and its results known among my team to communicate my intolerance for them and that the leadership understands the team well and cannot be forced to take unwarranted actions based on hearsay.

I don't think that corrective measures/reprimand are required on first occurrence but this should be clearly communicated that1st time is the last time!

Thank you

I'll try to stop them and I'll stand by the person innocent , but after that I check of his innocence .

Thank you for your invite. In my observation leg pulling and internal competition would always be a part of a growing organisation. I would say innocent member should grow up and become smart member and raise his voice against any such organisational politics himself and learn to defend himself. I in my over years of career I did not have to spend much time in salvaging such issues so I do not know what more to suggest except we all have to learn to walk ourselves we should not expect our elders to hold our finger and protect us for all our life.

I try to ask politely and if I refuse to ask about the cause without a collision or disagreement