Various Principles and Theories of Conflict Management - the UAE - Case Study Example

NFLIСT МАNАGЕMЕNT РRINСIРLЕS АND THЕОRY Name of Student Institution affiliation СОNFLIСT МАNАGЕMЕNT РRINСIРLЕS АND THЕОRY Introduction Conflict is endemic in the organization workplace due to the varying cultures, beliefs, opinions, strength and weaknesses of individuals within the organization workforce. Conflict within an organization is inevitable,. It is also claimed to be pervasive in nature and also ubiquity (Castro & Nielsen, 2001). on the other hand, conflict also has a multitude of meanings however scholars claim that conflict within an organization leads to it to be considered ambivalence leading to uncertainty of the meaning of conflict, relevance and how best to cope up with conflict within the organization (David, 2012). Further, organization conflict is associated with the instability and equilibrium of the of the organization design which is linked to the irritability, inefficiency, violence and destruction. However, the scholars claim that organization conflict is fostered by antagonistic interaction between the organization workforces. In addition to this they also point out that conflict arises from the interaction of personal and group interaction among the organization workforce (Raines, 2012). This paper highlights the various principles and theories of conflict management using a real-life example from the UAE on how best conflict management utilises them to overcome challenges. Literature review The organization structure is characterized by a living system that in comprised of interacting units that is mutually dependent in their performance of various tasks and within a structure where the resources are scarce (Farooq and Hussain, 2010). Therefore, the possibility of conflict occurring in such a setting is quite high. Organization conflict in this case could be related to distribution of resources, basic nature of interaction between the organization workforce as well as the organization structure. Due to goal incapability within the organization workforce conflict is bound to develop in dynamic fashion (Oetzel & Toomey, 2003). Since conflict is not a predetermined concept within the organization, viewing it from a negative perspective does not always appear to be erroneous. In this case, Zartman (2007), argues that conflict within an organization is not always a bad thing as it might be perceived, thus, when implementing change and ensuring a smooth transition of change within the organization conflict has to be present. Kartz (2015), stresses that organization conflict occurs in a variety of forms with causes that vary. Further, he point out one form of conflict to be structural conflict which is related to the need for interdependence between the sub-units of the organization, role conflict which is related to conflict resulting to a set of prescribed behaviors within the organization workforce and resource conflict which relates to the conflict arising from competition of the organizations resources between the interest groups within the organization. Robinson (2015), on the other hand, identifies three main sources of organization conflicts. According to him, communication is one main source of conflict within the organization, communication in this case breed miss-understanding within the organization therefore causing conflict between the organization workforces. Organization structure is also another source of conflict within an organization as pointed out by Robinson, 2015. Persona attributes and thoughts is also another source of conflict which breeds differences in opinions within the organization. Lewiski (2013), claims that there are many ways in which conflict within the organization can be carried out similar to the forms and causes of conflicts. He stresses the importance of embracing conflict management principles in an organization (Zeffane, R., & Connell, J. 2013). Conflict management in this case can be undertaken by parties in the conflict or outside parties that are not involved in conflict. However, he emphasizes the importance of conflict management to find a solution to the resulting conflict and also help the parties involved in conflict to come to a solution. Moreover Jones (2010), claims that effective conflict management focuses on the principle of minimizing the disruption resulting from the conflict and also providing solution that solves conflict. On the other hand, Watson (2012), claims that conflict management entails the principle of limiting the behavioral aspects of the parties involved in conflict as a strategy for effective conflict resolution. In this case, he stresses that this strategy would be known by skilled administrators within an organization in order to ensure conflict within the organization is resolved quickly an in a more effective manner (Fontaine ,2012). However, since the organization’s conflicts vary depending with the causes and nature of conflict different organization are forced to adopt a procedures as well as a range of mechanism for conflict management. These procedure and range of mechanism as claimed by Watson (2012 ), should be aligned within the organization structure and be employed by the administrators and managers within the organization. The success of conflict management within an organization can be gauged by their efforts in limiting various conflict behaviors as well as their contribution in achieving a satisfactory resolution (Raines, 2012). Additionally, Freeman (2011), states that effective conflict management entails the principle of conflict avoidance and replacing coercive behavior principle within an organization through embracing behavioral social science hence ensuring that the organization manages conflict through acting in a facilitative and non-directive manner in the achievement of conflict resolution in regards to the structure and attitudes of interaction which revolves around conflict management. Blake and mouton (2010 ), also point out at problem solving as an ideal method for conflict management within an organization (Ahmad, 2015). However, they stress that for this particular method of conflict management to work there are a number of conditions that have to be present. These conditions include; situation requirements which range from; information informality and flexibility, attitude requirements which ranges from trust and confidence within the conflicting teams, perceptual requirements which entails the absence of need for one conflicting team to dominate the other and behavioral requirements which ranges from exhaustive search on solution, free formation and discussion of alternatives (Fisher, 2016). Blake and Mouton (2010), also claim that effective conflict management can only be managed through the theory of shifting the attitudinal and behavioral aspects of the relationship of the conflicting parties from being competitive related to one which is related to cooperation (Jones,2010). Nonetheless, the also argue that in most cases setting a common goal in conflict management leads to the efforts for achieving a common solution for the conflicting bodies to fall short this is because of the perception that these conflicting bodies are primarily defensive in nature, mainly have a temporary character and the thought of common-goal setting widens the conflicting since it appears as an effort to externalizing the perceived conflict (Ayesha, Hussain, 2016). Application of conflict management principles and theories in managing the UAE workforce Workforce in United Arab Emirates has become even more diverse due to globalization and as a result this has led to the rise of organizational expatriates flocking into the UAE. In most countries unlike the UAE there is conflict in organizations as its values and culture enables all the employees to peacefully coexist. Despite diversity being an issue, the UAE handles it carefully and in most cases averts conflicts. (Weihrich & Koontz, 2005). Various organizations have found it quite difficult to achieve a relative amount of success while handling workforce diversity in the UAE organization’s workforce environment. This has led to organizations in United Arab Emirates to adjust their organization structure and workforce policies in order to help foreign employees settle in well in the country’s workforce environment (Castro & Nielsen, 2001). Diversity of the United Arab Emirates workforce is related to the large percentage of foreign labor the UAE draws from outside it boarders especially from India, Pakistan, Philippines, China and Thailand. Workforce diversity with UAE organizations that draw a significant percentage of its workforce personnel from this countries leads to internal conflict as well as internal communication barriers due to the varying language and culture of these employees, however most employees in the UAE are able to communicate in various languages thus limiting instances of conflicts (Fisher, 2016). Therefore, conflict within most organizations in the United Arab Emirates rarely crops up. Moreover, the soaring oil prices have led to expatriates flooding United Arab Emirates workforce environment. The improved oil prices also benefited the country’s development and demographic growth that increase by a two digit growth rate leading to availability of more job opportunities which saw more expatriates flooding the United Arab Emirates (Cuppens, Boulahia & Ghorbel, 2007). On the other hand, the country;s entry in the phase of diversifying its economy also saw it investing in other sectors of its economy such as tourism, manufacturing, agriculture and mining. This led to a relatively huge demand of manpower in the country which also contributed to expatriates flooding the United Arab Emirates. However through various laws on employee protection conflict are hardly experienced in the country (Zartman, 2007). Workforce diversity has been identified by scholars such as Alper, Tjosvol and Law, (2000), as a key factor that underlines multiple conflicting situations which crop up in an organization. One of the identified conflicts in that are likely to crop up in an organizations is the diversity in cultural views (Oetzel & Toomey, 2003). This particular common type of conflict arises due to differences in attitude towards goals related to work and difference in needs that are met in different ways. The total population by the year 2013 stood at 8,064,270 and 32% of this population was made up of citizens of other countries (Bilal et al., 2016). The country has also experienced a staggering growth rate of 20% which has acted as an incentive drawing more expatriated workers into the country. The employed workforce in United Arab’s workforce is claimed to be comprised of 90% of Emirate’s working nationals and 15 per cent of foreign employees in the country. On the other hand the country’s domestic sector also comprises of an estimated 15 per cent of working foreign workers. It is notable the UAE is characterized by and evident “demographic imbalance” an issue which is also evident in the country’s workforce. In this case, it is notable that every occupation level of the country’s workforce is dominated numerically unlike other countries like the USA where this leads to conflicts in the UAE, the government’s strategy clearly states all nationalities are welcomed to work and live in the uae and as such conflicts hardly occur. Diversity if poorly managed leads to a lot of organizational conflicts , however most organizations in the UAE have done their best to avert conflicts by stressing the importance of coexisting as stipulated in the UAE workforce charter.In order to solve any conflicts that may arise in organizations in the UAE among its workforce, their organizational management has to embrace the principle of problem tackling. Under this principle the organization management is required to implement policies where the migrants and foreign workers within the organization are to acculturate and change gradually to conform to the societal norms in United Arab Emirates as it has always been (Lee & Lee 2011). The organization’s management will also need to implement policies that ensure the United Arab Emirate nationalities maintain their cultural heritage and the expatriates conform to it. On the other hand, in order to solve any conflict within United Arab Emirate the organization management should embrace the cultural identity theory (Jones, 2010). This particular theory can borrow some aspect from the Western perspective and it ensures that migrants adapt to living within the dominant cultural group within United Arab Emirates workforce. Additionally, this theory is also effective since it ensures that the organization management handles the brewing tension caused by the varying organization workforces’ ethnic and civic identity. This theory also ensures that the expatriates in the UAE identify themselves with the Arabic and islamic culture which characterizes the UAE workforce environment. Moreover, it helps in ensuring that these expatriates are able to shift from their sub continental culture to the culture of the strongest social groups of the UAE (Ahmad, 2015). This theory based strategy is convergent to the Western strategy where it is used in bridging the gap between the local workforce and the expatriates in a given country. On the other hand the organization managers of UAE based organization should also embrace of Camilleri and Malewska-Peyre’s, 1997 concept where they should value their aspirations of adopting the cultural heritage of the home communities (Fisher, 2016). This strategy could be mediated by the need to belong to a recognizable majority group an aspect which can be claimed to be borrowed from the social identity theory. Thus, the management of these organizations forms the organization culture of multiculturalism in order to ensure that the expatriate workforces joins the majority dominant community and also adopt their practices as stipulated by the UAE government (Pfeffer, 2010). The organizations within United Arab Emirate should be keen to ensure that they do not allow the expatriates to domicile within the ethnic communities of the Emirate’s and not assume multiple identities rather conform to the cultural identity of the majority group within the country to avoid conflicts. The policy makers in United Arab Emirate should on the other hand come up with policies or laws which focus on adaptation to the United Arab Emirates culture within this country’s business environment (Oetzel & Toomey, 2003). These policies should be strategically implemented to make the Arabic culture in UAE more dominant which will outrightly require expatriates to adopt it. These policies should also focus on breaking the bond between the Arabic and sub-continental culture making the Arabic culture more dominant than the others (Storey, 2011). On the other hand, these policy makers should strive to implement policies which make the Arabic culture in United Arab Emirates to have a seemingly high pervasive influence over the other cultures as well as all its forms and linkage with other cultures as this will be instrumental in avoiding and managing conflicts. Adopting this particular strategy will influence the behavior and attitude of both the local emirates as well as the foreigner including the expatriates enabling them to have a valuable view of the Arabic culture in UAE and to adopt it (Cuppens, Boulahia & Ghorbel, 2007). United Arab Emirates based organizations should also adopt the correct business oriented attitude principle in order to ensure that the correct ethical values are adopted for purposes of ensuring that the divided workforce which characterized the country’s workforce conforms to one culture, the Arabic culture which is more domineering in this country (Yousef, 2010). The top managers should also adopt the leader-member exchange theory (LMX) since it is suited for the diverse workforce similar to that of the United Arab Emirates. Thus, this leadership theory should also be transitioned to all subordinated within this country’s organization workforce. Under this leadership theory, the top managers should treat their followers in a collective manner through embracing average leadership technique (Williams, 2010). This leadership theory is also suitable for members with high exchange relationships for instance, between the subordinates and the leader. Thus, it ensures effective sharing of information between the leaders and their followers, delegate more responsibilities to them, and allow more participation from them in the process of organization decision making and as such avert conflicts (Castro & Nielsen, 2001). On the other hand, through embracing this leadership theory the organization workforce is more willing to do more that the listed tasks in their job contracts and description. This leadership theory also involves provision of tangible rewards by the organization leader to the workforce which include pay rise, as well as other special benefits (Elizabeth, 2011). This leadership theory also fosters the development of mutual trust between the organization workforce and its leaders. Embracing the leader-member exchange theory (LMX) will foster positive outcomes on most organizations in the United Arab Emirates through eradicating possible conflict within these organizations (Fisher, 2016). In this case, this theory is related to the organizations workforce commitment as well as distributive justice which is likely to lead to a fair culture within the organizations in the United Arab Emirates. Besides, this leadership theory also fosters fairness in workforce compensation ensuring that the organization workforce is rewarded as per their commitment and efforts hence limiting the possibility of favoritism which may brew to organizational conflict (Zeffane & Connell, 2013). This leadership theory ensures that all biasness in an organization are eradicated therefore ensuring that there is not conflicts among the workforce personnel on the basis of race, religion and ethnicities (David, 2012). Moreover, by embracing this leadership theory leader are more inclined to use collective judgment and policy making strategies which ensures equal treatment and justness in policy formulation within the organization workforce. In the long end this leadership theory helps ensure that diverse workforce in United Emirates organization is managed easily without any issues or possible future conflicts. Conclusion It is evident that United Arab Emirates workforce is characterized by a diverse workforce which is comprised of expatriates from various countries and but as a country it has tried to limit conflicts through its robust conflict management laws more on employees. This is attributed to the countries rich resources and soaring oil sector which has led to provision of a significant number of job opportunities which have led to foreigners flooding the country’s workforce. With minimal conflicts the UAE has grown tremendously in terms of productivity and organizations’ stability within its economy. However, with the implementation of the right theories such as the leader-member exchange theory (LMX) as a number of principles the country’s workforce seemingly looks quite promising and will keep on growing. 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