Conflict Can Benefit Or Hinder A Workgroup

Although many of us go great lengths to avoid it, sometimes it is just inevitable. People in the workplace setting will always have different ideas, values, and attitudes than others around them. A conflict can arouse in any given setting, and the affect it can have on those involved can either be negative or positive. Depending on the approach and strategies utilized during and after a conflict will determine the result of the conflict. Conflict helps people recognize legitimate differences within an organization or profession and serves as a powerful motivator to improve performance and effectiveness, as well as satisfaction (CCN, 2017). This paper will identify and explore a particular recurring conflict in the

Conflict results from real or perceived opposition to one’s values, actions, desires or general interests. Conflicts may occur internally or externally between individuals or groups; conflict within a team environment can cause frustration, and occasionally anger. However, conflict resolution can also often generate positive results for the team. Conflict management skills remain in demand; conflict may be managed successfully by reaching an agreement that satisfies the needs of both the individual(s) and the team as a whole

Conflict arises from various sources in the team setting (Capozzoli, 1995). The most common causes of conflict are values, attitudes, needs, expectations, perceptions, resources, and personalities. As we are all raised with different values, morals come into play when the team issue deals directly or indirectly with ones values, morals, or ethics. Conflicting attitudes can bring about problems as two or more team members prove to have differing goals in mind. Individual needs can cause rifts within a team when they are not satisfied. The expectations of team members are not the same on how the goal will be met. We all have different perceptions of life situation and interpret them differently. The lack of resources needed to complete a task can cause conflict. Differing personalities play a major role in team conflict.

A basic view about conflict is that it is a bad and destructive. However, conflict is not something bad at all times, sometimes if a conflict’s outcome can increase group performance and improve the quality of decision, according to Organizational Behavior, it is considered as a functional conflict outcome. Conflicts can help solve problems better and increase the understanding of the team. “Remember the Titans” is seen to have a functional conflict outcome, which is why they won every game they played.

There are two different types of conflicts that could happen in a work place which would be functional and dysfunctional. A functional conflicts is a healthy, constructive disagreement between a groups or individual. A dysfunctional conflict is an unhealthy disagreement that occurs among an individual or groups of employees. A functional conflict will leave employees on a positive note it would only bring awareness to both sides of the issue, improvement of working conditions due to accomplishing solution together, solving issues together to improve overall morale, and making innovation and improvements with an organization. A functional conflict is something everyone is known as a win-win conflict. A dysfunctional conflict stem from emotions and behavioral origins, will have a negative impact for both parties that are having the conflict and the company. Dysfunctional conflicts are commonly known as win-lose conflict (Lombardo, 2003). It is not good for you to try and avoid a work conflict, it only making problems bigger. Work conflicts often happens from communications errors such as poor information, no information and misinformation. Another reason why a work conflict could happen because of emotions. Work place conflicts could emerge in any number of forms but there are some general variety types of conflicts that are repeated on the basis such as conflicts with the boss, conflicts with peers, and

Conflict can be fixed and dealt with accordingly, regardless of the level of seriousness. Miranda and Bostrom (1993) claim that if a group makes sure each person has a particular task assigned, each member will then participate. They continue by stating that when open communication exists between team members, conflict can be resolved. The authors further state that conflict is inevitable. As long as conflict is dealt with quickly and sharing problems is important, it can be fixed. Making sure that the aforementioned strategies are put into place will allow conflict to be resolved. “Conflict is often inevitable because each of us has an innate preference regarding structure in solving problems” (Falcioni, 2007, para.5). However, if a team approaches this issue with the proper mind

All teams experience some type of conflict. How the team manages, that conflict needs be covered in the team charter. Beneficial conflict comes when team members have two opposing ideas. According to Winter, Neal, and Waner, "Managed appropriately, conflict can help people with different ideas analyze the various aspects of each idea and identify the best avenue or even new avenues for accomplishing a certain task." (2005, pg.68) Being able to come up with new ideas brings creativity to a team. Teams strive to come up with the best and most efficient solutions to projects and issues. The best teams come up with the best solutions.

In the Journal, authors Singleton, Toombs, Taneja, Larkin, & Pryor (2011) contend that conflicts can have a positive functional effect or a negative dysfunctional outcome for an organization. A functional conflict can stimulate critical thinking, leading to the development of new tasks which could benefit the organization and its employees. A

People will have disagreements everyday. Commonly, people cannot find ways to agree because we are all different in many ways. Our family upbringing, religious beliefs, cultural background, traditions, ethnicity, and gender are some of the factors that allow us to form our perceptions about life. These characteristics cause us to have diverse opinions on the way we handle various situations. Whenever a group people try to apply their viewpoints to certain circumstances, the outcome is usually conflict. "Conflict is defined as two or more individuals who fail to agree or have

When with a group of people sooner or later you will run into conflict with one another. There are four levels of conflict that can happen with any team. Level 1 having the easiest resolution and level 4 having the most difficult resolution. The first level of conflict is fact or data. Having conflict on a fact is very cut and dry, there is only one outcome. Data can either be unfinished or done improperly which can have more than one outcome. This can cause arguments in a group (Griffith, Dunham, 2015). I had conflict when I worked at a concession stand. There was a miscount of the money at the end of the day. My coworker and I had a disagreement on who was right and it result both making a miscalculation. The second conflict comes from the processes and methods that the members participate in.

In the contention of viewing conflict as whether undesirable phenomenon or not, it has been widely accepted that the presence of conflict in the workplace is inevitable. According to Rahim (2002, p. 207), conflict could be define as “an interactive process manifested in incompatibility, disagreement, or dissonance within or between social entities.” As this conflict occurs in the workplace, the existence of conflict is not only limited between people in an organisation, but it is also occurred between organisations, where it involves employees, employers, managers, units or departments. While several research focused to identify the source and analyse the amount of conflict at interpersonal, intra-group and intra-group levels, the others also examine the various styles of managing conflict in the workplace. However, workplace conflict could be caused by different influencing factors, which have been addressed into several main themes by conflict management scholars. In carrying out the studies, many of them differentiated workplace conflict into two types. First, affective conflict or relationship conflict or emotional conflict which usually engage incompatible feelings and emotions; and second, task conflict or substantive conflict or cognitive conflict which usually emerge disagreements on job content issues (Riaz & Junaid 2011). Examining influencing factors that causes these types of conflict and determining the style to effectively manage the conflict are considerably

Functional or constructive conflict is described as a process which can "facilitate the attainment of the group 's goals and to improve performance"(Mckenna, 2006). It is helpful for individuals or groups to create innovative thoughts and approaches to solve problems, and to performance better in the long run. Perlow (2003) also argues that constructive decisions will be finally made by reasonable people even they hold different opinions in uncertain conditions. This means functional conflict focuses on finding a resolution to the problem.

The myth that I focus more of my research is ‘conflict in teamwork is unhealthy’ because I personally experience it at the workplace and it very common myth that most people hear throughout their adulthood but I want to introduce a new perspective on this myth. Some people conclude that all conflicts are just bad and it must be avoided or at least managed (Brenner, pp1). The reality is when we single out the people that are assumed to be causing conflict and we call them bad apples, and then we will end up with people who never question or challenge the status quo. When people go back and forth exchanging ideas or some might call it arguing but they are digging more and more to the truth and that is what the workplace needs. Even identical twins have differences on how they approach situations. It’s actually very healthy to see conflicts in a group or team. Hackman states that, disagreements within team are actually good as long as its work related (Hackman, pg1).

Conflict is inescapable, having the ability to recognize, understand, and resolve conflicts are important in both personal and professional lives. Myatt (2012) states that conflict in the workplace is unavoidable; if left unresolved, workplace conflict may result in loss of productivity and the creation of barriers that can inhibit creativity, cooperation, and collaboration. It is vital to embrace conflict and address problems through effective conflict-resolution tactics because if not handled appropriately, conflict will escalate. “If not handled properly, conflict may significantly affect employee morale, increase turnover, and even result in litigation, ultimately affecting the overall well-being of

Conflict is a "state of disharmony brought about by differences of impulses, desires, or tendencies" (Rayeski & Bryant, 1994). Although many people and organizations view conflict as an activity that is usually negative and should be avoided, conflict is a natural result of people working