Organizational conflict facts for kids

Organizational conflict, or workplace conflict, is a state of discord caused by the actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests between people working together. Conflict takes many forms in organizations. There is the inevitable clash between formal authority and power and those individuals and groups affected. There are disputes over how revenues should be divided, how the work should be done, and how long and hard people should work. There are jurisdictional disagreements among individuals, departments, and between unions and management. There are subtler forms of conflict involving rivalries, jealousies, personality clashes, role definitions, and struggles for power and favor. There is also conflict within individuals – between competing needs and demands – to which individuals respond in different ways.

Type

Conflict affecting organizations can occur in individuals, between individual and between groups. Conflicts within work groups are often caused by struggles over control, status, and scarce resources. Conflicts between groups in organizations have similar origins. The constructive resolution of such conflicts can most often be achieved through a rational process of problem solving, coupled with a willingness to explore issues and alternatives and to listen to each other.

Consequences

Unresolved conflict in the workplace has been linked to miscommunication resulting from confusion or refusal to cooperate, quality problems, missed deadlines or delays, increased stress among employees, reduced creative collaboration and team problem solving, disruption to work flow, knowledge sabotage, decreased customer satisfaction, distrust, split camps, and gossip.

The win-lose conflict in groups may have some of the following negative effects:

• Divert time and energy from the main issues
• Delay decisions
• Create deadlocks
• Drive unaggressive committee members to the sidelines
• Interfere with listening
• Obstruct exploration of more alternatives
• Decrease or destroy sensitivity
• Cause members to drop out or resign from committees
• Arouse anger that disrupts a meeting
• Interfere with empathy
• Incline underdogs to sabotage
• Provoke personal abuse
• Cause defensiveness

Conflict is not always destructive. When it is destructive, however, managers need to understand and do something about it. A rational process for dealing with the conflict should be programmed. Such a process should include a planned action response on the part of the manager or the organization, rather than relying on a simple reaction or a change that occurs without specific action by management.

Stress

Interpersonal conflict among people at work has been shown to be one of the most frequently noted stressors for employees. It also relates to strains such as anxiety, depression, physical symptoms, and low levels of job satisfaction.

Positive outcomes

Group conflict does not always lead to negative consequences. The presence of a dissenting member or subgroup often results in more penetration of the group's problem and more creative solutions. This is because disagreement forces the members to think harder in an attempt to cope with what may be valid objections to general group opinion. But the group must know how to deal with differences that may arise.

True interdependence among members leads automatically to conflict resolution in the group. Interdependence recognizes that differences will exist and that they can be helpful. Hence, members learn to accept ideas from dissenters (which does not imply agreeing with them), they learn to listen and to value openness, and they learn to share a mutual problem-solving attitude to ensure the exploration of all facets of a problem facing the group.

Inter-group conflict between groups is a sometimes necessary, sometimes destructive, event that occurs at all levels and across all functions in organizations. Inter-group conflict may help generate creative tensions leading to more effective contributions to the organization's goals, such as competition between sales districts for the highest sales. Inter-group conflict is destructive when it alienates groups that should be working together, when it results in win-lose competition, and when it leads to compromises that represent less-than-optimum outcomes.

Resolution

Conflict management

Constantino helps organizations design their own, ad hoc conflict management systems, Tosi, Rizzo, and Caroll suggested that improving organizational practices could help resolve conflicts, including establishing superordinate goals, reducing vagueness, minimizing authority- and domain-related disputes, improving policies, procedures and rules, re-apportioning existing resources or adding new, altering communications, movement of personnel, and changing reward systems.

Most large organizations have a human resources department, whose tasks include providing confidential advice to internal "customers" in relation to problems at work. This could be seen as less risky than asking one's manager for help. HR departments may also provide an impartial person who can mediate disputes and provide an objective point of view. Another option is the introduction of the Ombudsman figure at the organizational level, charged with surveying common causes of conflict and suggesting structural improvements to address them.

• Counseling - when personal conflict leads to frustration and loss of efficiency, counseling may prove to be a helpful antidote. Although few organizations can afford the luxury of having professional counselors on the staff, given some training, managers may be able to perform this function. Non-directive counseling, or "listening with understanding", is little more than being a good listener — something every manager should be. Sometimes the simple process of being able to vent one's feelings — that is, to express them to a concerned and understanding listener, is enough to relieve frustration and make it possible for the frustrated individual to advance to a problem-solving frame of mind, better able to cope with a personal difficulty that is affecting their work adversely. The non-directive approach is one effective way for managers to deal with frustrated subordinates and co-workers. There are other more direct and more diagnostic ways that might be used in appropriate circumstances. The great strength of the non-directive approach (non-directive counseling is based on the client-centered therapy of Carl Rogers), however, lies in its simplicity, its effectiveness, and the fact that it deliberately avoids the manager-counselor's diagnosing and interpreting emotional problems, which would call for special psychological training. No one has ever been harmed by being listened to sympathetically and understandingly. On the contrary, this approach has helped many people to cope with problems that were interfering with their effectiveness on the job.
• Conflict avoidance - non-attention or creating a total or partial separation of the combatants allowing limited interaction
• Smoothing - stressing the achievement of harmony between disputants
• Dominance or power intervention - the imposition of a solution by management at a higher level than the level of the conflict
• Compromise - seeking a resolution satisfying at least part of each party's position
• Confrontation - a thorough and frank discussion of the sources and types of conflict and achieving a resolution that is in the best interest of the group, but that may be at the expense of one or all of the conflicting parties

A trained conflict resolver can begin with an economical intervention, such as getting group members to clarify and reaffirm shared goals. If necessary, they move through a systematic series of interventions, such as testing the members' ability and willingness to compromise; resorting to confrontation, enforced counseling, and/or termination as last resorts.

Workplace conflict may include disputes between peers, supervisor-subordinate conflict or inter-group disputes. When disputes are not dealt with in a timely manner, greater efforts may be needed to solve them.

See also