CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

NATURE OF CONFLICT

• Conflict refers to collision or disagreement.

• The conflict may be within an individual when there is incompatibility between his or her own goals or events, may be between two individuals or between two groups in an organisation.

• Chung & Megginson define conflict as the struggle between incompatible or opposing needs, wishes, ideas, interests, or people.

• Conflict may be COGNITIVE or AFFECTIVE

Cognitive Conflict

• It refers to differences in perspectives or judgements about issues.

• It can air differences of opinion & develop better ideas & solutions to problems.

Affective Conflict

• • Affective conflict is emotional & directed at other people.

• It is likely to be destructive because it can lead to anger, bitterness, goal displacement & poor decisions.

Question

• According to you which conflict would be beneficial to the organisation ?

• ANS…Cognitive

Competition & Conflict

• Track events are examples of competition since each runner attempts to run faster than the others, but no one is allowed to trip or interfere with the other.

• On the other hand, games of football, hockey & cricket involve both competition & conflict because each team acts directly to interfere with the activities of the other.

CHANGING VIEWS OF CONFLICT

FUNCTIONAL CONFLICT

• Functional conflict refers to confrontation between two ideas, goals & parties that improve employees & the organisation’sperformance.

• Well managed conflict helps workers anticipate & solve problems, feel confident, strengthen their relationships, & be committed to the organisation.

• Potential benefits of conflict are the following –

1. Conflict increases awareness of what problems exist, who is involved, & how to solve the problem.

2. Conflict motivates organisational members to consider problems. They are energised & psychologically focused on the problems & motivated to put plans into action.

3. Conflict promotes change. Persons are more aware of injustices, inefficiencies, & frustrations, & see the need to correct them.

4. Conflict enhances morale.

Organisational members deal with & clear up their frustrations & resentments. They conclude that their relationships are strong enough to withstand stress & to handle difficulties. They also learn about each others needs, styles & values through conflict.

5. High quality decisions result when people express their opposing views & perspectives. They share their information & check each other’s reasoning to develop new decisions.

6. Conflict stimulates interest & creativity. Being in conflict often sparks curiosity & stimulates viewing problems from several perspectives & combining the best of these positions to form a creative solution. Conflict is exciting as people learn about what makes them & others angry, frustrated & willing to fight.

7. Conflict provides a forum for all members of the organisation to be self – critical, & to be critical of the organisation as a whole.

• When the level of conflict is low, such as at point A on the curve, performance suffers.

• Employees find the environment too comfortable & they become complacent (unconcerned).

• On the other hand, when the level of conflict is extremely high (point C) performance suffers because of inadequate co-ordination & co-operation.

• The organisation is in a state of chaos because of disruption & interference in critical activities.

• Individuals spend more time defending themselves or attacking others than accomplishing productive work.

• Maximum organisational performance occurs somewhere between the two extremes, where there is an optimal level of conflict.

• In this situation, at point B on the curve , there is sufficient conflict to stimulate new ideas & a creative search for solutions to problems.

Conflict

PROCESS OF CONFLICT

Latent Conflict

• When two or more parties need each other to achieve desired objectives, there is potential for conflict.

• Latent conflict often arises when a change occurs.

• Conflict is likely to be caused by a budget cutback, a change in organisational direction, a change in personal goals or the assignment of a new project to an already overloaded team.

Perceived Conflict

• This is the stage at which members become aware of a problem.

• Incompatibility of needs is perceived & tension begins as the parties begin to worry about what will happen.

• But no party feels that it is being overly threatened.

Felt Conflict

• At this stage, parties become emotionally involved & begin to focus on differences of opinion & opposing interests – sharpening perceived conflict.

• Internal tensions & frustrations begin to crystalise around specific , defined issues, & people begin to build an emotional commitment to their position.

Manifest conflict

• Parties engage in actions that help achieve own objectives & thwart <prevent (someone) from accomplishing something> those of others.

• Conflict behaviours vary from the subtle, indirect & highly controlled forms of interference to direct, aggressive, violent & uncontrolled struggle.

• At the organisational level, strikes are the result.

Conflict Outcome

• The conflict finally results in an outcome which may be functional or dysfunctional.

• If handled well, the result is functional conflict.

• If mishandled, the consequences is dysfunctional conflict.

• As conflict proceeds through the stages, resolution becomes more difficult.

• It is usually easier to achieve win – win outcomes when the conflict is recognisedearly before frustration & negative feelings set in.