Conflict in Organisations

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Table of Contents

Introduction
What is organisational conflict?
Causes of conflict in organisations
Functions of conflict in an organisation
Dysfunctional conflicts in organisations
Managing conflict
Conclusion
Reference List

Introduction

The opposition or occurrence of differences between individuals or a group of persons is what is known as conflict. Conflict is a term that has been in the past perceived to be bringing about negative effects between or among a group of individuals. In the recent past, research has shown that despite its negativity conflict is also very important especially in organisations.

However, this depends on how you view it once it has occurred. Conflict is thus inevitable in any society whether between individuals or organisations (Jensen, 2009, p.1). Conflict may also occur between nations thus it can occur everywhere. This paper is a summary of conflicts that are in organisations and how they should be managed. If not well handled, conflict may bring about permanent differences which may not be desirable.

What is organisational conflict?

An organisation is made up of a group of people working together so as to achieve the set goals and objectives of the organisation. Each person in a group of people usually has their own way of thinking and behaviour hence the need to pool all the differences to be union. Organisational conflict arises when the members of the organisation fail to agree on certain issues and decisions.

The differences may be on matters concerning financial resources, interests and values of the organisations (DiGirolamo, 2006, p.2). It is said that not all conflict is bad though some may bring bad results, others are essential for the progress of the organisation. In an organisation the managers are therefore responsible for making sure that all its members are working as a team despite their differences so as to ensure smooth running of the organisation.

Causes of conflict in organisations

As mentioned above conflict is inevitable in organisations and thus is bound to occur because of the following reasons.

A major cause of conflict is the different ways of thinking among individuals and the way they perceive issues. The fact that people have different morals, values and ethics they handle issues differently.

The different motivation among people also causes conflict. People have different levels of satisfaction and motivation. Therefore, in a group of people each individual will be aiming to achieve a certain objective or goal which may not be similar hence causing conflict in the group.

Another cause of conflict is the difference in myths and philosophy. Each individual believe that their way of solving issues is the best and are usually not ready to face opposition and accept any corrections thereby bringing about conflict in the organisation.

Individual stress is another common cause of conflict whereby due to an individual’s internal pressure one is forced to take actions and decisions that are not worth making this in the end leads to opposition from the other members hence causing conflict.

Inadequate resources available to meet the objectives of the organization also may bring about conflict in the organisation. This occurs especially when the top management dispatches less resources be it raw materials, time, wages or any other resource to be involved in production and yet expects the output to be of the desired quality. This cannot happen as the employees may have some shortfalls and fail to achieve the set objectives hence not satisfying the management and at last causing conflict in the organisation.

Lastly the struggle of power in the organisation may also be a cause of conflict in the organisation. Individuals who are competing for a certain post within the organisation may always be at logger heads since each wants to fit in a certain position. This struggle creates enmity among the competing individuals and hence conflicting in everything.

Functions of conflict in an organisation

Conflict is not necessarily a bad thing if it occurs in an organisation, in fact it should be well received and instead be used as a stepping stone to the betterment of the organisation. Functional conflict is one that leads to improvement of the organisation. The conflict that occurs in such a manner is always welcomed by the organisation.

Functional conflicts lead to uncovering of matters that could be detrimental to the organisation if left hidden for longer time. Once there is a conflict in an organisation the affected members tend to disclose all that they have been hiding and hence the management is in a position to unravel the information from them. This is a very strategic tool that helps the top management of an organisation to be able to know what is happening behind their backs and take preventive measures or full control of the situation (Jensen, 2009, p.1).

Secondly, conflicts in an organisation helps the individuals to gain the knowledge and experience of solving problems as they arise. The lessons learnt from managing and coping with conflicts within the organisation gives them the power and strength in handling other problems that may arise in the organisation.

Conflicts also assist an individual to learn to be concerned with matters outside his or her personal scope as well. The individual learns the virtues to have so to comfortably live and work with the other people.

Dysfunctional conflicts in organisations

These are the disadvantages or negative outcomes that arise as a result of occurrence of a conflict.

The major problem that comes about upon occurrence of a conflict within the organisation is the renunciation of the people to work together as a team or group. In other words people now prefer working as an individual rather than working in groups where it is prone to occurrence of conflicts.

Others who fear conflict also opt to work on their own instead of having to disagree with the other members of a group. In such a case the organisation loses excellence performance which in most cases is brought about by pooling together of ideas and efforts.

Mediation is usually a difficult thing once conflict has occurred. Despite efforts by the seniors or top management to reunite members who have conflicted the affected members if stubborn on their stand and opinion then this becomes difficult and hence a problem in the organisation.

Sometimes members who have conflicted usually fail to tell the initial cause of the problem and how it can be solved if possible. Due to this the problem is not solved and the organisational operations and processes continue to be affected

Another major dysfunction of conflict is that of putting to a stop to all the processes and efforts been put so as to accomplish the goals and objectives of the organisation. Once a conflict occurs and the top management discover that it obstructs their means of achieving their goals they then halt everything to solve conflict at hand first. This in turn causes delay and at other times failure of goal achievement (DiGirolamo, 2006, p.5).

Managing conflict

When either of the aforementioned conflicts occurs in organisation the management should be in a position to deal with them simultaneously so that the functional conflict may not end up being dysfunctional conflict hence being a problem. There is however no defined formula to follow when dealing with either of the conflicts, it only depends on the mangers own intuition and way of thinking.

In some instances the decision to take no action or do nothing becomes the best option. At other times the decision to involve the affected parties becomes the best decision. This gives a clear indication that the whole issue of managing conflict will only depend on matters at hand.

Communication should be effective if at all conflict is to be properly dealt with. It is through communication that important details of any conflict is gathered and used to solve the problem. Inadequacy of information in an organisation is very detrimental as it leads to hiding of vital information which may only erupt with the fall of the organisation.

Therefore a very unique method of dealing with conflicts is mingling the conflicting individuals in one group. As a result the people will communicate with each other while in the group and hence end the conflict on their own without involving the management (Jensen, 2009, p.1). This is very simple and effective way of solving conflicts because it is less cumbersome and less involving while at the same time creating good relationship in the long-run.

Conclusion

The above discussion clearly indicates that conflict is present in every corner of the society thus inevitable. As to whether conflict is good or bad depends on how one perceives the whole issue. Therefore organisations are required to maintain a comfortable and desirable environment for both of them and the employees.

This reduces the possibility of occurrence of conflicts within the organisation. Each and every organisation should have an idea of the root causes of conflicts in the organisation which may include either one or a combination of the following: insufficient communication within and without the organisation, competition for resources and posts in the organisation, policies that are not well defined just to mention but a few.

Apart from the functional and dysfunctional conflict we have another conflict that is the ugly conflict. This type of conflict arises when the top management and at other times the employees try to stamp down conflicts without solving them. They in other words try to hide or eliminate the conflict.

Ugly conflicts can be indicated by the having conflicts that take a very long period of time before they lapse. Also when as manager you are not getting any incidences of conflicts in your organisation it gives an indication of ugly conflicts.

The fact that conflicts are healthy and common it will be abnormal for any organisation to function without conflicts. An organisation that lacks conflicts is questionable and is therefore an indication of ugly conflict. Occurrence of ugly conflicts in most cases depicts failure of the top management and are thus said to be responsible for it.

Reference List

DiGirolamo, J. (2006). Conflicts in Organizations. Web.

Jensen, M. (2009). Functional Vs, Dysfunctional Conflict. Web.

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