Conflict in Organisations

Many people do their best to avoid conflict at all costs, but it is an occurrence that everyone must deal with from time to time. Understandable, the avoidance of conflict is glamorous, however learning how to handle the conflicts can make them seem less bothersome. Learning how to manage conflict is a key factor in becoming a manager and the execution of that learning can be very different from manager to manager. Shanker (2013) describes conflict management styles as an equation involving the disposition of the manager, range of situations the manager finds themselves in, specific strategies, and individual intentions. Every manager is different in their conflict management style, but the act of confrontation is present in most conflicts.

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

Conflicts in the workplace and interpersonal relationship are inevitable. Organizational conflict is common in the workplace because people always have divergent views on various issues, interests, ideologies, goals, and aspirations (Deutsch, 1990). Conflict exists in all kinds of environments because people compete for power, jobs, resources, security and recognition. People who seek power therefore, struggle with others for position or status within the group (Henry, 2009).

Conflict in the workforce can impact positive or negative. A positive outcome of conflict would be if an employee became more aware of the surroundings and understanding of a task or co-worker. The conflict then would be recognized as an educational purpose. Conflict starts when people perceive different outlooks with beliefs and goals; although, it can be avoidable, it might also help regain energy. There are different ways in resolving conflict in the workforce such as compromising, withdrawing participants, or conclusion. Situations are all handled differently. Managers should have a set of rules to stick by in order to keep issues resolved. Management of a business must know when to eliminate conflict and when to build on it (Rue, 1992).

Conflict in the workplace is something that’s been going on for centuries. Although we think of conflict as negative, it can also have a positive impact. In this paper we will look at both the negative and positive impact of conflict in the workplace.

In today’s complex business environment managers and employees face many obstacles relating to working in groups on assigned projects in order to complete those projects that ultimately contribute to the bottom line, or enables the company to remain a competitive force within their assigned industry. There are many reasons as to why groups experience conflict but one business I want to highlight refers to conflict within the organizational structure.

Conflicts are daily phenomenon experienced in every organization on a daily basis. They are unavoidable, and the organizations must learn how to cope with them to ensure

Conflict can be defined as “a process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or it is about to negatively affect, something the first party cares about”,(Huczynski and Buchanan, 2007). Huczynski and Buchanan (2007) also perceive conflict as a mental state which has to be acknowledged by the two parties involved to comply with its definition. In an organizational environment, conflict is strongly connected to managerial skills. There are different situations where conflict can occur but it is often a consequence of lack of communication, misunderstandings, disagreements which mean basic human

Conflict is inevitable when participating in day-to-day operations in groups, the workplace, and in life. How one approaches these conflicts can ultimately lead to the success or failure in ones professional, social or academic life. According to our class textbook, “Organizational Behavior,” conflict is when one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party. Sources of conflict can be real or imagined and there are multiple causes for conflict in the workplace, including but not limited to: inadequate communication, unclear boundaries and competition for limited resources. People tend to avoid conflict due to fear of harm, fear of rejection or to maintain positive relationships

Organisational conflict is an emerging lifestyle that is inevitable and a common sight attributable to the matrix structure adopted by many organisation as well as the present era of globalisation. Mary Parker Follett (1925) interprets conflict as a mere contradiction in interest and opinions between personnel inclusive of employees, employers and managers. However, Bisno (1988) and Coser (1968) elucidate conflict as “A process of social interaction involving a struggle over claims to resources, power and status, beliefs, and other preferences and desires. The aims of the parties in conflict may extend from simply attempting to gain acceptance of a preference, or securing a resource advantage, to the extremes of injuring or eliminating opponents”.

Conflict can arise from any one or more general sources in the workplace (McShane & Von Glinow, 2003). Conflict as it arises should be addressed immediately, as if left unattended can create

When studying organizational management this semester I found the discussion on organizational conflict to be the most compelling. Our analysis not only gave me understanding on how destructive team conflict is present in organizations, but also in any teamwork setting. Conflict is often a recurring problem for organizations, so it is vital for leaders to understand how to regulate it. Whether we were studying organizational change, devolvement, or leadership what was common to all was the presence of conflict and its effect on an organization.

Everyone who has ever held a job or professional position has experienced some time of conflict. Whether it was personal or between other co-workers, conflict is unavoidable. The workplace is best described as a professional melting pot. People who come together, from different backgrounds and opinions, to serve a common purpose are bound to have a disagreement (Lytle, 2015). This is something managers should always be prepared for and should even expect to occur. Conflict can be a healthy part of any type of decision making process if it is received by mature and self-confident individuals who can maintain professionalism (Nahavandi, Denhardt, Denhardt, & Aristigueta, 2015). For this particular paper, I will describe a personal problem in

Most conflicts that arise among employees in any organization are due to managerial actions. They vary from employing new people to leadership in the organization. This section describes some key issues that cause conflict.

However, there is a survey demonstrated that managers in Canada spend an average 3 hours of work time and extra 4.5 hours on organizational conflict every week (LeBlanc, 2010) which shows that organisational conflict bring negative impacts to workplace. It is obviously that high conflict in workplace reveal high turn over, grievance, lower productive force, human rights complaints and absenteeism (Byrnes and Cascio, 1984). As a result, it is considered that the issues, problems and disputes are inevitable in chaotic and kaleidoscopic workplace in nowadays because of the content changes(McDermott & Berkeley, 1996).