Conflict Resolution - Week 8

Is Conflict Good or Bad?

  • Negative outcomes

    • Lower performance

    • Higher stress, dissatisfaction, turnover.

    • Less information sharing and coordination

    • More Organizational politics & power struggles

    • Wasted resources

    • Weaker team cohesion (when conflict within team).

  • Positive outcomes

    • Better decision making

      • Tests logic of arguments.

      • Questions assumptions.

      • Generates creative thinking.

    • More responsive to the changing environment.

    • Strong team cohesion (when conflict with outside opponents).

Functional Versus Dysfunctional Conflict

  • Optimal conflict perspective: organizations are most effective when they experience some level of conflict. Too high & too low, are bad.

  • Functional = Constructive, Benefits indivvidual, group or team.

  • Dysfunctional = deestructive, Disadvantages individuals, teams or organization

Prespectives on Conflict

  • Unitarist Perspective - The organisation is an integrated, co-operative, harmonious whole. The team has a common shared loyalty and one focus of effort.

  • Pluralist Perspective - Conflict is an agent for evolution and internal and external change. It is not good or bad. Conflict requires careful handling and attempts to reconcile.

  • Radical Perspective - Conflict is a feature of society influences and the disparity in power between owners and workers. Conflict is part of the class struggle.

  • Interactionist Perspective - Conflict is judged as a positive and encourages change and innovation. Conflict is a sign of a healthy organisation (up to a point).

Organisational Conflict - Behaviour intended to obstruct the achievement of some other persins goals at the individual, group or organisational level.

Organisational Misbehaviour- ‘Anything you do at work which you are not supposed to’ (Ackroyd & Thompson, 1999) Usually interpreted as anything unacceptable to management.

Conflict - involves action

  • “They praised the team, so I threw their computer out the window and vandalised their car”

  • “Susan is a fool. They won’t listen to anyone and I refuse to follow their instructions”

Disagreement - Involves a difference of opinion

  • “I think the team is headed for the championship and they think they’re headed for the trash”

  • “Susan thinks we can heandle a bigger workload, but I am not sure, so we are going to talk about it”.

Overview

Organisational conflict → Behaviour intended to obstruct the achievement of some other person’s goals at the individual, group or organisational level → organisational misbehaviour (‘Anything you do at work which you are not supposed to’ Usually interpreted as anything unacceptable to management)

  • Potential sources of conflict

    • Differences in perception

    • Limited resources

    • Depatmentalisation

    • Work activities

    • Role definition

    • Inequitable treatment

    • Violation of territory

    • Environmental change

    • Bullying and harassment

    • Organised conflict

    • Overt Individual conflict

    • Latent conflcit

  • The management of conflict

    • Clarify goals and objectives

    • Resource distribution

    • HRM

    • Non-monetary rewards

    • Interpersonal skills

    • Group activities

    • Organisational processes

    • One-to-one conversations

    • Informal social processes

A closer look - sources of conflict

  • Why does conflict emerge in organizations between people and groups?

    1. Group identification and intergroup bias - ‘in group vs out group’ based on personal characteristics (race, gender) or job function. Also based on role conflict we might have.

    2. Interdependence - Conflict that arises when groups are mutually dependent on each other to achieve goals. Ex. sales staff w/ production.

    3. Differences in power, status, and culture

      • Power: when power is unequally shared

      • Status: often based on role, reputation. Authorities vs partisans

      • Culture: conflict arises due to differences in beliefs and values.

    4. Ambiguity- conflict due to lack of clarity in goals, jurisdictions or performance criteria. When present, ambiguity breaks down formal and informal rules that govern interactions.

    5. Scarce resources - power is magnified when resources are scarce and there are battles to hold these positions of power.

    6. Communication problems

      • Poorly stated messages or incomplete information can escalate conflict.

      • Conflict causes emotive messages and emotion affect clarity of messages.

      • Less communication amplifies conflict.

    7. Differentiation

      • Differences in training, value or beleif systems, and experiences.

    8. Incompatible goals

      • One party’s goals seem to interfere with other’s goals.

Bullying & Harassment

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