Conflict Identification and Resolution - Essay Example

Conflict identification and resolution: bus/organizational behavior Conflict Identification and Resolution Organizational conflict can be described as the situation of discord that results due to perceived or actual opposition of values, interests and needs between individuals working together. A conflict can assume several forms in organizations. For instance there is the unavoidable clash that occurs between power and formal authority and those persons together with groups affected. Consequently disputes exist over how division of disputes will take place, how various duties at the workplace should be executed as well as how hard and long employees must work. Additionally, jurisdictional disagreements exist amongst departments, individuals as well as between management and unions. Subtler kinds of conflict also exist and they involve personality clashes, jealousies, role definitions together with struggles for favor and power. Conflict may be contrasted with competition which is another situation whereby every party in a situation or event tries their level best with the group or individual who produces the most liked outcome becoming the winner. Thus, a sales challenge between teams or persons may be termed as a competition whereas a confrontation occurring between 2 individuals of a sales taskforce regarding which one ought to call a potential client may be termed as a conflict. Conflict has recently been conceptualized as assuming two forms (Baack, 2012). Thus in the context of an organization, functional conflict can be said to take place when the interests of an organization are served in some form like enhancement in performance or better cooperation amongst groups or individuals. Functional conflict can also be referred to as cooperative or constructive conflict. Additionally, functional conflict may involve an argument regarding how a retail shop can best be designed to facilitate its competitiveness in terms of customer friendliness (Baack, 2012). On the other hand, dysfunctional conflict assumes the form of activities that are destructive, especially those that obstruct organizational or group performance. There exist three classes of dysfunctional conflict that have been recognized; process conflict, task conflict and relationship conflict. Process conflict can be described as disagreement that occurs regarding techniques of performing a given task or doing a specific job. Task conflict on the other hand can be said to be a disagreement that occurs regarding the form of work that must be done as well as goals. Finally relationship conflict can be said to be interpersonal dispute (Baack, 2012). One very pronounced conflict issue that I am familiar with is discrimination at the workplace. Discrimination can lead to heated conflict, possibly resulting in legal problems in an organization or its shareholders. Discriminatory conflicts might emerge from such issues as personal prejudices arising from employees or employee mistreatment perceptions. A very good example of a conflict related to discrimination is that of a minority employee working in a group setting and feels that s/he is constantly given the most menial of works in the team. Such an employee might start to bear resentment against fellow group members as well as managers, and finally may lash out via reduced productivity or absolute verbal conflict. For this issue to be resolved, a manager should sit down with the entire group, discuss the manner in which job roles are delegated, and make necessary changes to make sure that the roles are equitably divided (Raines, 2012). There are numerous sources of conflict in organizations. Some of them may be at individual level while others may be at departmental or group level. They comprise the following; poor communication, differing values, differing interests, scarce resources, personality clashes and poor performance. When it comes to communication, various communication styles may result in misunderstandings between workers or between manager and worker(s).When communication is lacking, it usually pushes conflict ‘underground’. On the other hand, differing values result from the fact that every organization consists of persons with different perceptions on various things. Conflict will take place when there is no acceptance as well as understanding of such differences. Thirdly differing interest may lead employees to battle for their own individual goals, and in the process completely ignore organizational goals as well as well-being. Scarce resources quite often are another source for organizational conflict and may make workers feel they are in competition for the resources available so as to execute their work. This normally leads to conflicts in an environment that is resource scarce. Personality clashes may result in conflicts since all working environments comprise of individuals with differing personalities. Thus, unless there is understanding and acceptance of one another, employees are bound to clash. Finally dismal performance may lead to conflicts especially when one or more persons in a given work unit are not doing as well or not performing to the expected level, and if left unaddressed ,conflict is likely to occur (Raines, 2012). Since not every conflict is the same as the other one, managers must be aware that there are four conflict levels in an organization. It is not possible to resolve a conflict unless the level has been identified properly. The following are levels of conflict; firstly is intrapersonal also known as intrapsychic conflict and which occurs within a person. Thus, thoughts, ideas, emotions and values may conflict with each other. For example selling a product that one does not believe has enough quality may result in an intrapsychic conflict especially when one realizes the need to sell and make individual income. Secondly is interpersonal conflict that occurs between persons. Many are times when persons in an organization engage in conflict. Consequently, personality conflicts frequently emanate from incivility in the workplace. Instances of incivility comprise of sexually unsuitable comments, ethnic or racial slurs ridiculing younger or older employees, sexual orientation derision as well as sensitive comments regarding mental or physical disabilities. Thirdly is intragroup conflict which may refer to occurrences between group members. Consequently disagreements arising out of operational techniques, goals and leadership may result in intragroup conflicts. Whenever conflicts are not well managed as well as resolved, the final results may be bad decisions together with inefficient functioning of the group. Finally intergroup conflict occurs between different groups like between departments in an organization or between various factions for instance ethnic groupings or male and female workers. Intergroup conflicts take place whenever disagreements regarding objectives, differences of perceptions about which team ought to be given a task or project, or budgetary allocations turn out to be the focal point (Raines, 2012). C. Some of the steps taken to resolve a conflict comprise of identifying the genesis of the conflict by searching for as much information as is possible. This is because the more knowledgeable one is concerning the conflict; the easier one can assist in its resolution. So as to get the right information, one should ask a series of questions so as to identify the origin of the conflict. Being the mediator, one needs to provide each party with an opportunity to give their part of the story. This will provide a deeper understanding of the circumstance in addition to demonstrating your impartiality. Secondly one should look past the incident. In most instances, it is not the circumstance but the perception of the circumstance that results to anger and finally resulting to shouting or any other visible disruptive sign conflict. Thus, the genesis of the conflict could be a small problem that took place long time ago; however the stress levels could have developed to the extent that the 2 parties have started attacking one another personally, instead of dealing with the real issue. This is where calmness on mediator’s part is needed so as to enable him see past the triggering event and analyze the real problem (Sande & Johnson, 2011). The third step involves requesting solutions and after gathering the viewpoint of every party regarding the conflict, the following step would be to get every party to identify the method that can be used to change the situation. In this step, the mediator listens actively to both parties and looks for any verbal nuance in addition to being able to read the body language well. Fourthly, the mediator must identify solutions that can be supported by both disputants. The role of the mediator is to listen for the most suitable course of action. In addition, the mediator should list the advantages of different suggestions, not only from the perspectives of the disputants, but also as regards the advantages to the organization. Thus for example one may discuss the need for more collaboration and cooperation to efficiently address departmental problems and team issues. Finally there should be agreement whereby the mediator is required to bring the two parties together to shake hands and embrace in addition to agreeing to adhere to one of the alternatives settled upon in step 4.In some cases a contract may be written and specification of time frames done (Baack,2012). For an ongoing conflict, one should employ the following steps; first and foremost the mediator should listen in addition to responding to both parties with empathy. Secondly the mediator should be involved via asking for the other individual’s thoughts, ideas, and opinions .Thirdly the mediator must not only maintain but also affirm self-esteem. Since a big part of the message the mediator is trying to pass is carried by the body language as well as the voice tone, s/he should remember to store everything in mind while responding. Finally, the mediator should attack and tackle the problem and not the disputant, s/he should also keep off blame game and instead ask the correct questions, focusing on the future and avoiding the past (Berman, 2008). Conflict outcomes can take place at the intragroup, intergroup and interpersonal levels. Sometimes positive outcomes may be hard to accomplish, in which case, some negative conflict aftereffects may result. Some positive outcomes include the fact that conflicts might act as safety valves that can assist in reducing pent-up pressures and emotions. This is because the moment an issue is resolved it will free up any built-up pressures that could have accumulated amongst the disputants. Secondly conflict produced by outside threats might raise internal cohesion. This primarily implies that such an external threat may serve to unify the employees more as opposed to bringing divisions. The third outcome is that conflict may bring about long-standing hostilities as well as hidden agendas to the fore. Thus after resolution of a conflict, issues that had been hidden for so long can be brought to the fore and this may serve as their end (Baack, 2012). References Baack, D. (2012). Organizational behavior. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Berman, L. (2008). 13 Tools for Resolving Conflict in the Workplace, with Customers and in Life. Mediate.Com Articles , p1-4. Sande,K.& Johnson,K. (2011). Resolving Everyday Conflict. New York,NY: Peacemaker Ministries. Raines, S. (2012). Conflict Management for Managers: Resolving Workplace, Client, and Policy Disputes. New York,NY: John Wiley & Sons,Inc. Read More