It is important for managers to understand what the most common causes of conflict are in the workplace. Often conflicts will begin as one type and evolve into another, or can be complex and incorporate various types of conflict. It is important for managers to recognize and identify the various types of conflict so that you can address the situation appropriately. The most common conflicts in the workplace are feelings of being undervalued, impractical expectations, stress, internal conflict, and poor management leadership. (Walker & Miller, 2015).
Organizational Stress and Leadership Organizations experience change constantly whether they planned for it or not. According to Tavakoli (2010), stress and resistance are not inevitable reactions to organizational change. Rather, what makes organizational change stressful or susceptible to the resistance of employees is the way people are treated during the implementation of the change. There are some situations where the change is forced, for example when a market shifts due to political agendas and the organization’s services or products are no longer desirable. This type of organizational change can cause companies to downsize and/or lay-off employees to cut costs (Lussier & Achua, 2015) which causes leadership and employees tremendous stress.
But the primary initiators of organizational conflicts can be listed down as Clash in project priorities, Conflict over human resources, Economic Conflict and Personality Conflicts. The conflicts emanate from various sources due to disagreement amongst the team members and fear and funds conflict (De Bono, 2005). The difference in viewpoint is one of the major reason for the conflict in the case study. Most of these differences are not usually important unless it arises an issue. Personality and emotionality conflicts intensify the problem situation which leads to the identification of the crisis situation.
In every organisation there is bound to be conflict among staff which is where conflict management comes in as it is the management of negative conflict within the company. Conflict can cause dysfunctional and functional conflict. Dysfunctional conflict causes group performance to be affected while functional conflict improves group performance. Conflict can exist between supervisor and subordinates or suppliers and customers. Conflict occurs when two or more people disagree.
A relational conflict occurs when the goals of interdependent people are incompatible and at least one person to communicate to others about the incompatibility (Froemling et at, 2011). Conflict also has phases such as: latent, perceived, felt, manifest, and aftermath (Hingst, Lindsay PowerPoint). Any conflict brings positive and negative consequences. We can also learn with conflict and how to manage them. And relational conflicts also bring some issues based on behavioral, normative, personality and moral conflict.
As a noun, conflict means a serious disagreement, typically a one that lasts for quite a long period of time. However, as a verb, conflict means being incompatible, at variance and also, clash. People often use the word ‘conflict’ to describe a process. According to Wikipedia, Conflict refers to some form of friction, or discord arising when the beliefs or actions of one individual is either resisted by or unacceptable by other individuals. In addition, Michael Nicholson, an English journalist defines it
According to the literature various factors facilitate conflict in organizations. Some of these factors include differences in attitudes, values, skills and behaviours, trust, communication, behaviour and relationship structure, competition for resources, coordination of systems, work distribution, and participation in decision making. All of these factors among others can lead to conflict in the workplace (Trudel, 2009). Given the importance of conflict in organizations it has been reported that managing conflict is considered crucial to ensure the long term viability and success for a business (Ozdemir et al, 2009). It has been further suggested that ignoring or suppressing conflict may result in distrust and defensiveness as well as negative effects on group self-improvement and productivity (Robbins, 2001).
The state of rivalry between two groups of the same union is said to be inter union rivalry. Inter and intra-union rivalries have been a potent cause of industrial disputes in the country. They are responsible for
Conflict perspective is when different people view an "absolute fact" about their society in a different way or with a different interpretation. The theory sees society as a dynamic entity continually undergoing changes as a result of competition for scarce resources. Conflict perspective surmises that our social life is shaped by groups and people who struggle or fight against one another over different valuable supplies and rewards, leading to particular distributions of power, riches and fame in social systems. It started with Karl Marx, the father of social conflict theory, and has since developed into a number of lines. These views generally detracted from other perspectives of Sociology like structural functionalism and ideological conservatism.
Conclusion Conflict in an organization can increase the overall effectiveness of the task at hand as having multiple perspectives often lead to conflict in an organization. They in any situation is inevitable and unavoidable but the consequences or the results of the conflicts can be determined. Conflict management is the principal that says that all the conflicts cannot necessarily be resolved but it's important to learn how to manage the conflicts arising due to unavoidable situation in order to minimize the effect of non-productive escalation. Also, this process requires skills that facilitate conflict resolution such as self-awareness about the conflict models, communication skills, along with establishing a structure for management of