Managing Conflict In The Workplace

By Author: Cordelia Mitchell
Total Articles: 1
Comment this article

Conflict is a common occurrence in any work setup due to reasons ranging from philosophical differences and diverge goals to power imbalance. If conflict is not managed properly, it leads to the breakdown of trust within an organization, which, in turn, results to poor work results. Conflicts have many limitations hence causing the need for efficient and effective conflict management within the affected work setup. These limitations include: reduced productivity, increased work-related stress, employee dissatisfaction, and poor work delivery to clients, absenteeism, and an increased employee turnover. It may also lead to litigation on claims of hostile work environment.
Purpose Statement
Conflicts at the workplace are a major cause of staff turnover, which costs much for any business. A strained relationship among the employees has been indicated as the major cause of employee performance problems. Practicing good management helps in avoiding unnecessary workplace conflicts as well as dealing with the inevitable conflicts effectively and professionally. This calls for the need to have a well-established conflict ...
... management process in order to reduce staff turnover and save time, money, and resultant damages. There is also the need to understand the main causes of conflicts at the workplace in order to establish the best ways of managing and resolving them.
In this research, I discuss the literature review to answer specific research questions necessary in understanding and managing conflicts in the workplace. The research questions are:
1. What are the causes of workplace conflicts?
2. How can workplace conflict be efficiently managed?
Literature Review
Conflict is defined as a sharp disagreement or opposition to ideas or decisions. It is a common and natural occurrence in the workplace, which results to low workers’ morale, absenteeism, and decreased productivity. It also results to time loss in trying to resolve the conflicts, which leads to low work performance. According to Afzalur, conflicts at workplaces are caused by various reasons which include:
1. Poor communication. Due to the existence of diverse communication skills, misunderstandings commonly occur between employees or between an employee and the manager in a work setup resulting to a conflict.
2. Diverse values. A work setup comprises of individuals who come from different backgrounds and who view the world differently. There is a major challenge among employees to accept, understand, and adopt values and differences of others due to the incompatibility of preferences, principles, practices, and beliefs such as religion, politics and ethics. If this is not achieved, a conflict is likely to occur.
3. Diverse interests. Different employees have different personal goals. These interests may differ from those of the organization. A conflict is likely to occur between the management and an individual employee who tends to pursue his/her interests, ignoring the organization’s goals and its well-being.
4. Scarce resources. It is a common feeling among employees that they have to fight for available resources within an organization in order to complete their jobs satisfactorily. A conflict is likely to occur due to the scarce nature of resources in the work environment as each employee tends to fight for his/her part.
5. Personality clashes. All work setups comprise of people with different personalities. They have different approaches to work and the way in which they resolve problems that emerge in the course of their work. A conflict is likely to occur if employees fail to accept and understand each other regarding work approach and problem solving.
6. Poor performance. All employees in a working environment should be result-oriented. If one employee has a consistent dismal performance, he/she is likely to have a conflict not only with the management, but also with his/her colleagues.
7. Organizational setup. Many organizations are set up in a way where there exists a certain line of command. Some employees feel there is inequality in the organization chart and are uncomfortable reporting to their seniors to the extent of avoiding them, resulting to a conflict. Some employees might also be interested in gaining power, which leads to a situation when they ignore the directions set by their seniors thus resulting to a conflict.
8. Environmental pressures. Some factors which are external to the organization tend to mount pressure to an organization to the extent of causing internal conflicts. These factors include economic recession, change of the government, high employment/unemployment rate.
Managers have the task of identifying and understanding various levels of conflicts. One should be able to sense potential conflicts and avert them before it gets too late. This is mostly achieved by paying attention to non-verbal feelings, such as lowered eyes, crossed-arms, someone facing away from a group during an address. These indications are important in assessing the available options in avoiding a potential conflict.
According to Ronald, the first step in managing work-related conflicts understands the conflict itself. There are different strategies used to deal with conflicts. They state that individuals have a personal or habitual way of dealing with a conflict, which mainly acts when someone is under pressure. It is therefore important to understand the conflict style before learning how to manage a particular situation. In the 1970s, Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Kilmann identified five styles of managing work conflicts based on their degree of assertiveness or cooperativeness.
1. Assertiveness. This style relates to the behaviour of the person concerned to satisfy his/her own concerns. The concerned person is driven by his/her desire to attain his/her set goals in life or work.
2. Cooperativeness. This style relates to the behaviour of the person concerned with his/her intentions to satisfy the concerns of other individuals. The person concerned is focused on creating good relationships with others.
These styles result in various ways of managing and solving conflicts within an organization. These ways include:
1. Accommodating. This style is generally unassertive and cooperative with the main aim of achieving results. In this case, the person concerned focuses on satisfying needs of other individuals before satisfying his/her own. This approach is characterized by self-sacrifice, and relationship preservation is preferred to attaining personal goals. This style is appropriate when the issue on the subject matter is more important to the other party and when peace is preferred to winning. It can also be used when the foregoing party is expecting favour from the other party in some other way. The advantage of this method is that it preserves relationships and someone acknowledges better methods of handling issues. The main disadvantages of this style are that it diminishes someone’s influence since he/she does not work towards attaining personal goals, which can also lead to resentment.
2. Competing: This style is driven by a hunger for power and achievement of personal goals at the expense of others. The assertiveness, in this case, is in its maximum, while cooperativeness is in its minimum. The person concerned aims at winning at any cost by defending his/her goals, needs and demands. This is useful in case of emergency or when a decision needs to be made fast. It can also be useful if the decision is unpopular or when defending someone who is trying to selfishly benefit from a situation. The advantage of this style is that a person is able to achieve his/her individual needs since he/she is assertive by nature. The main disadvantage of this style is that it can damage the relationship between other people.
3. Avoiding. This style is based on the principle of delay. It is neither unassertive nor uncooperative. The person concerned does not comply with either his/her wishes or wishes of the other party. This style is characterized by withdrawal and postponing dealing with the conflict. It provides a breather in case there is much pressure in the organization. It is useful when it is impossible to get a victory or when the controversy at hand is trivial, or when another person is in a better position to solve the problem. The main advantage of this style is that the delay may prove useful in making a well-informed decision. The disadvantages associated with this style include the fact that important issues are ignored since they are not dealt with. The other disadvantage is that it may lead to the utilization of more energy avoiding rather than solving the problem.
4. Collaborating. The main aim of this style is to create a win-win situation that is both assertive and cooperative. It focuses on finding satisfying solutions to the issues which are acceptable by the parties in conflicts by learning, listening, and attending to the organizational and personal issues. It results in effective problem-solving ideas although it takes much time and effort. Its main advantage is that it satisfies all the concerned parties which enhance cohesion within the organization. It also enhances commitment from both parties, which is healthy for the growth of the organization. It is useful when there is need to bring views of other people on board in order to get the best solution and in times of healing from a conflict when there is a need to collaborate with the other people.T he main challenges of this style are that it needs much time and energy, and it is not applicable to all conflicts.
5. Compromise. This style is aimed at finding a quick middle ground. It lies between the assertive style and cooperative style. The concerned parties mutually come to a conclusion by giving up something and splitting the difference. It is based on the principle of sharing. It is useful when the cost of conflict is higher than the cost of losing ground when someone is facing an opponent of equal strength and in case the concerned parties reach a dead end, and there is no any other alternative. The advantages of this style are that it is first in problem-solving with no or minimal time wastage if any. It also satisfies the needs of both parties since both parties mutually agree on the solution. Moreover, it is also vital in finding temporary solutions to pressing issues, and it offers an ideal back-up solution to collaboration style. The disadvantages of this style are that it concentrates on a short-term solution, and by avoiding long-term solution for pressing issues, there is a danger of such matters occurring again in the future. Another disadvantage is that the solutions made may be dissatisfying to both parties since they are not comprehensive enough.
The manager in an organization can utilize any of the above solutions to manage any kind of conflict arising in the workplace. It is critical for the manager to create good relationships with the employees in order to be able to implement these solutions. Successful conflict management will result to the increased understanding, which helps employees learn ways of achieving their goals without undermining others, increased group cohesion since team members develop stronger mutual respect towards each other and their faith in working together are renewed. Conflict resolution will also enable the employees to have improved knowledge since they will be able to examine their goals in close details.

About the author

Cordelia Mitchell is a student at the University of California and a writer on https://perfectessaysonline.com/buy-premium-essay-help. It's a popular and reliable writing service which offer a wide range of papers. They help students to make perfect their essay, report, course work or research paper. Her biggest dream is all around the world trip.

My friends call me Cor. My biggest dream is all around the world trip. I’m a student at the University of California and a writer on https://perfectessaysonline.com/. It's a popular and reliable writing service which offer a wide range of papers. We help students to make perfect their essay, report, course work or research paper. I’m happy to be a member of this team.