Conflict occurs whenever disagreements exist in a social situation over issues of substance or whenever emotional antagonisms create frictions between individuals or groups. Managers are known to spend up to 20 percent of their time dealing with conflicts, including conflicts in which the manager is directly involved as one of the principal actors. In other situations, the manager act as a mediator or third party, whose job it is to try and resolve conflicts between other people. In all cases, the manager must be a skilled participant in the dynamics of interpersonal conflict. He or she must also be able to recognize situations that have the potential for conflict and deal with these situations to best serve the needs of both the organization and people involved.
Substantive conflict: is a conflict that occurs in the form of a fundamental disagreement over ends or goals to be pursued and means for their accomplishment.
Emotional conflict: is a conflict that involves interpersonal difficulties that arise over feelings of anger, mistrust, dislike, fear, resentment, and the like.
Levels of Conflict 1. Intrapersonal, or conflict within the individual. 2. Interpersonal, or individual-to-individual conflict. 3. Intergroup conflict.
4. Interorganizational conflict.
Intrapersonal conflict: is conflict that occurs within individuals due to actual or perceived pressures from incompatible goals or expectations.
Interpersonal conflict: is conflict that occurs between two or more individuals. Intergroup conflict: is conflict that occurs among groups in an organization. Interorganizational conflict: is conflict that occurs between organizations.
Constructive and destructive (functional and dysfunctional) conflicts
Constructive conflict results in positive benefits to the group or organization. It offers the people involved a chance to identify otherwise neglected problems and opportunities; creativity and performance can improve as a result. Indeed, an effective manager is able to stimulate constructive conflict in situations in which satisfaction with the status quo inhibits needed change and
development. Such a manager is comfortable dealing with both the constructive and destructive sides of the conflict dynamic.
Destructive conflict works to the group’s or organization’s disadvantage. It occurs, for example, when two employees are unable to work together due to interpersonal hostilities (a destructive emotional conflict) or when the members of a committee fail to act because they cannot agree on group goals (a destructive substantive conflict). Destructive conflicts of these types can decrease work productivity and job satisfaction and contribute to absenteeism and job turnover. Managers must be alert to destructive conflicts and be quick to action to prevent or eliminate them or at least minimize their resulting disadvantage.
Understanding stages of conflict
Most conflicts develop in stages, as shown in figure. These stages include antecedent conditions, perceived and felt conflict, manifest conflict, conflict resolution or suppression, and conflict aftermath. The conditions that create conflict, as discussed above, are examples of conflict antecedents; that is, they establish the conditions from which conflicts are likely to develop. In addition, managers should recognize that unresolved prior conflicts help set the stage for future conflicts of the same or related sort. Rather than try to deny the existence of conflict or settle on a temporary resolution, it is always best to deal with important conflicts so that they are completely resolved.
When the antecedent conditions actually become the basis for substantive or emotional differences between people and /or groups, stages of perceived conflict exists. Of course, this perception may be held by only one of the conflicting parties. There is also a difference between perceived conflict and the stage of felt conflict. When conflict is felt, it is experienced as tension that motivates the person to take action to reduce feelings of discomfort. For conflict to be resolved, all parties should both perceive it and feel the need to do something about it.
When conflict is openly expressed in behavior it is said to be manifest. A state of manifest conflict can be resolved by removing or correcting its antecedents. It can also be suppressed in that, although no change in antecedent conditions occurs, manifest conflict behaviors are controlled; for example, one or both parties may choose to ignore the conflict in their dealings with one another. This is a superficial and often temporary form of conflict resolution. Indeed, we have already noted that unresolved conflicts-and a suppressed conflict falls into this category-may continue to fester and cause future conflicts over similar issues.
Antecedent conditions
Felt conflict
Perceived conflict
Manifest conflict
Conflict resolution or suppression Conflict aftermathUnresolved conflicts of any type can result in sustained emotional discomfort and stress and escalate into dysfunctional relationships between individuals and work units. In contrast, truly resolved conflicts and/or make it easier to deal with them. Thus, any manager should be sensitive to the influence of conflict aftermath on future conflict episodes.
Conflict resolution: occurs when the reasons for a conflict are eliminated. Indirect Conflict Management Approaches
Appeals to common goals. Hierarchical referral. Organizational redesign. Use of mythology and scripts.
Appeal to common goals involves focusing the attention of potentially conflicting parties on one mutually desirable conclusion.
Hierarchical referral uses the chain of command for conflict resolution; problems are referred up the hierarchy for more senior managers to reconcile.
Decoupling involves separating or reducing the contact between the two conflicting groups. Buffering is a conflict management approach that sets up inventories to reduce conflict when the inputs of one group are the outputs of another group.
Linking pins are persons who are assigned to manage conflict between groups that are prone to conflict.
Liaison groups are groups that co-ordinate the activities of certain units to prevent destructive conflicts between them.
Scripts are behavioral routines that part of the organization’s culture.
Myths are proclamations or beliefs about a situation that deny the necessity to make trade-offs in conflict resolution.
Lose-lose conflict occurs when nobody really gets what he or she wants.
Avoidance is where everyone pretends the conflict doesn’t really exist and hope that it will simply go away.
Smoothing involves playing down differences among conflicting parties and highlighting similarities and areas of agreement; it is also known as accommodation.
Compromise occurs when each party involved in conflict gives up something of value to the other. Win-lose conflict occurs when one party achieves its desired at the expense and to the exclusion of the other party’s desires.
Competition is conflict management technique whereby a victory is achieved through force, superior skill, or domination.
Authoritative command is a direct conflict management technique where formal authority dictates a solution and specify what is gained and lost by whom.
Win-win conflict is achieved by collaboration to address the real issues in conflict situation and the use of problem solving to reconcile differences.
Collaboration is a direct and positive approach to conflict management that involves a recognition by all conflicting parties that something is wrong and needs attention through problem solving. Problem solving involves gathering and evaluating information in solving problems and