There has been no shortage of definitions of conflict. Despite the divergent meanings the term has acquired, several common themes underlie most definitions.
Organizational Conflict: Functions, Source, Positive & Negative Effects
What is Conflict?
Conflict is a process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something that the first party cares about.
Conflict must be perceived by the parties to it; whether or not a conflict exists is a perception issue. If no one is aware of a conflict, then it is generally agreed that no conflict exists.
Additional commonalities in the definitions are opposition or incompatibility and Some form of interaction.
Actually, conflict comes from the Latin word for striking, but it isn’t always violent.
Conflict can arise from opposing ideas; a conflict is a struggle or an opposition.
- If you and your best friend both fall in love with the same person, you will have to find some way to resolve the conflict.
- If you want to turn your empty lot into a community garden, but your wife envisions a shooting range, you have a conflict.
- If you’re torn between two different desires, you’re conflicted.
- If you schedule a dentist appointment that conflicts with a meeting, you’ll have to cancel one of them.
Conflict is a process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something that the first party cares about.
We can define conflict in the following ways, too:
- A serious disagreement or argument, typically a protracted one.
- Incompatibility between two or more opinions, principles, or interests.
- A strong disagreement between people, groups, etc., results in an often angry argument.
9 Functions of Conflict
Conflict serves many functions in organizations. These are:
Establishes identity
Through conflict, individuals and groups clearly establish their positions on issues.
Serves as a safety valve
To hold the group together. Through conflict, individuals and groups “let off steam,” which in turn enhances the communication process, leading to a better understanding of the issues within the group.
Increases group cohesion
When there’s a higher level of communication brought about by conflict, groups strengthen and become closer.
Tests the strength of individuals and groups.
Power struggles are inevitable in an organizational setting. Through conflict, the question of “who has the real power in our organization?” is resolved.
Spurs needed change
The commencement and resolution of conflict issues identify weak areas in an organization, which then hastens the resolution/elimination of those problems that might not have been considered if it weren’t for the conflict.
Mobilizes energy
This concept adds credence to the old adage “I work best under pressure.” When there’s conflict in an organization, the pressure members feel causes them to work with greater efficiency and fervor.
Causes competition to improve performance
Conflict causes some organizations, groups, and individuals to “try to outdo the others” or to demonstrate competence.
Enhances communication
As discussed above, the communication process improves because of the higher level of information exchange, and there’s a higher level of understanding.
Perspective of Conflict
Researchers have revealed that there are two perspectives of conflict, namely, cognitive and interactional.
Effects of Conflict on Organization
Conflict within an organization can lead to creative solutions. As organizations strive to achieve their goals, they are often met with challenges they must overcome as a team.
Challenges leave room for conflict between members, other organizations, communities, and other parties involved in the organization’s mission.
While “conflict” often has a negative connotation, the effects of conflict within an organization can be positive and negative.
Effect of Conflict on Organizational Performance
As conflict intensity increases, so does the level of performance.
However, this has a limit. After a certain point, an increment in conflict intensity badly affects performance. The graph can be divided into three zones based on the level of conflict—Zone 1 (low level of conflict),
Zone 2 (optimum level of conflict), and Zone 3 (high level of conflict). They are characterized as low motivational, effective, and psychosomatic zones, respectively.
Zone 1: Low Level of Conflict
When the conflict level is low, the behavior of the employees is observed to be apathetic, stagnant, and non-responsive. It can be described as dysfunctional conflict. An extremely low level of conflict can result in complacency and poor performance due to a lack of innovation. It may be due to low motivation.
If a group is in the low motivational zone, then there is the necessity of stimulating conflict to help the individual/group move toward the effective zone.
Constructive conflict may be fostered by dealing with any or all of these variables: task, work environment, interpersonal relations, changes in organizational structure and design, formal or informal communication, superordinate goals, attitudes, and needs of the employees.
While doing so, it should be taken into account that the employees feel the conflict generated as a challenge.
Zone 2: Optimum Level of Conflict
The optimum conflict level is the level where the conflict is characterized as functional. The behavior of the employee is observed to be viable, self-critical, and innovative
It is the effective zone leading to a high productivity outcome. Proper care should be taken to ensure that the level of intensity does not cross the upper limit of the effective zone.
The upper limit of the effective zone varies from person to person.
It depends on the tolerance level of an individual and is determined by
- job compatibility,
- job experience,
- attitudinal framework (negative/positive attitude towards work, people, and problems);
- personality makeup
- characterized by high emotionality/calmness,
- guilt complex/less guilt-prone, submissive/adventurous,
- low risk-taking/high-risk-taking,
- conservatism/radical/experimenting/dogmatism,
- external/internal locus of control, pessimism/optimism,
- and suspicious/trustworthy nature.
Zone 3: High Level of Conflict
If the level of conflict is allowed to lapse into an extremely high-intensity zone, the utility value of conflict becomes dysfunctional. It is expressed in terms of disruptive, chaotic, and uncooperative behavior. It can be described as the psychosomatic zone.
The performance of the employee in this zone is badly affected, and once an employee reaches this stage, it is extremely difficult to retrieve him back to the effective zone.
Identifying the optimal level of conflict for a specific situation requires a good understanding of the individuals involved and the nature of their assignments.
A manager needs a degree of creativity to determine strategies and tactics for reducing or, if necessary, increasing the level of conflict.
Furthermore, simply increasing conflict when it appears necessary is not in itself sufficient. For conflict to foster creativity, it must be channeled and directed. Maintaining conflict at an optimal point is a difficult managerial challenge.
9 Positive Effects of Conflict in an Organization
- Social Change,
- Decision Making,
- Reconciliation,
- Group Unity,
- Group Cooperation,
- Inspire Creativity,
- Share and Respect Opinions,
- Improve Future Communication, and
- Identify New Members.
Social Change
Conflict contributes to social change, ensuring both interpersonal and intergroup dynamics remain fresh and reflective of current interests and realities.
Decision Making
Conflict serves to “discourage premature group decision-making,” forcing participants in the decision-making process to explore the issues and interests at stake.
Reconciliation
Conflict allows for the reconciliation of the parties’ concerns, which can lead to an agreement benefiting both parties’ needs, and, often, their relationship and organizations.
Group Unity
Conflict strengthens intragroup unity by providing an outlet for group members to discuss and negotiate their interests within the group. Without intragroup conflict, the health of the group typically declines.
Group Cooperation
The conflict between groups produces intra-group unity as the conflict provides the opportunity for increased intra-group cooperation while working towards the group’s common goal for the conflict’s outcome.
Inspire Creativity
Fortunately, some organization members view conflict as an opportunity to find creative solutions to solve problems. Conflict can inspire members to brainstorm ideas while examining problems from various perspectives.
Share and Respect Opinions
As organization members work together to solve a conflict, they are more willing to share their opinions with the group. Conflict can also cause members to actively listen to each other as they work to accomplish the organization’s goals.
Improve Future Communication
Conflict can bring group members together and help them learn more about each other.
From learning each others’ opinions on topics relevant to the organization’s growth to understanding each member’s preferred communication style, conflict within an organization can give members the tools necessary to easily solve conflicts in the future.
Identify New Members
Within organizations, members actively participate in each meeting, enjoy serving on multiple committees and have an opinion on each topic the group discusses. Some members seemingly contribute little to the group and observe more than talk.
Conflict within an organization can inspire typically silent members to step up and demonstrate their leadership skills by offering meaningful solutions to the problem the group is facing.
6 Negative Effects of Conflict in an Organization
6 negative effects of conflict in an organization are;
- Mental Health Concerns,
- A decrease in Productivity,
- Members Leave Organization,
- Violence,
- Distract Primary Purposes, and
- Psychological Problem.
Mental Health Concerns
Conflict within an organization can cause members to become frustrated if they feel as if there’s no solution in sight or if they feel that their opinions go unrecognized by other group members.
As a result, members become stressed, which adversely affects their professional and personal lives.
Organization members may have problems sleeping, loss of appetite or overeating, headaches and become unapproachable. In some instances, organization members may avoid meetings to prevent themselves from experiencing stress and stress-related symptoms.
Decrease in Productivity
When an organization spends much of its time dealing with conflict, members take time away from focusing on the core goals they are tasked with achieving.
Conflict causes members to focus less on the project at hand and more on gossiping about conflict or venting about frustrations.
As a result, organizations can lose money, donors, and access to essential resources.
Members Leave Organization
Organization members who are increasingly frustrated with the level of conflict within an organization may decide to end their membership. This is especially detrimental when members are a part of the executive board or heads of committees.
Once members begin to leave, the organization has to recruit new members and appoint acting board members.
Organizations risk dissolution in extreme cases when several members leave, or an executive board steps down.
Violence
When conflict escalates without mediation, intense situations may arise between organization members. Unfortunately, organizational conflicts may cause violence among members, resulting in legal problems for members and possibly the organization.
Distract Primary Purposes
Conflict can distract individuals and groups from their primary purposes, leaving them with less time and resources for other activities.
When a conflict involves “heavy contentious tactics,” it can cause the individuals or groups involved in the conflict and individuals or groups not involved in the conflict to divert time and resources away from other needs.
Psychological Problem
Conflict can have both short-term and long-term effects on the physical and psychological health of the individuals involved in or affected by the conflict.
In worst-case scenarios, the psychological consequences can include deep trauma and diminished coping mechanisms.
6 Sources of Organizational Conflict
The sources of organizational conflict are discussed under the following heads:
Competition for scarce resources
Because the vital resources of money, manpower, time, materials, and equipment are limited, allocating them to groups produces conflict, for some groups will certainly get less than what they want.
Inherent conflict
Standardized procedures, rules, and policies that regulate behavior tend to reduce the likelihood of conflict. But at the same time, resistance to the control that they impose is fostered. Moreover, in a complex organization, the number of levels of authority may create problems that increase the potential
for conflict.
Line-staff relationships
The differences in the task responsibilities of line and staff members, while enabling them to accomplish their respective tasks, also increase the likelihood of conflict between them.
Differences in goals and values
Groups within an organization often find it difficult to agree on action plans because they usually develop different goals and objectives. Similarly, many conflicts arise because some believe that, a popular value should be applied to all situations, thus exceeding those whose values are different.
Organizational ambiguities
Conflict may occur when goals are questionable, and roles are not clearly defined. In addition, adequate standing operating procedures (SOPs) or nonsystematic approaches to mission planning and problem-solving may also increase conflict.
Others
Personality clash, power and status conflict of interest, communicative breakdown,etc.
Cognitive Perspective of Conflict
This perspective of conflict emphasizes how and what people think or what goes on intellectually in a given situation. Individual’s interpretation and perception of a situation depend on their beliefs, attitudes, values, perceptions, and attributions.
This school of thought defines a given situation as the knowledge structure or schema people hold. It describes situations as firm, stable entities or activities with fixed labels. Actors determine the situation by what they perceive.
Perceptions of the situation then influence behavior and strategic choices made by actors.
The cognitive theory of conflict is based on certain assumptions;
- It assumes that individuals are fundamentally goal-oriented, and their capacities to use information to accomplish personal and social objectives drive their existence;
- People are unique; they interpret and produce messages in unique ways
Therefore, the personal characteristics of communicators play a central role in understanding conflict.
Researchers, while analyzing the cause of conflict, should take into account individual variations in message production and interpretation.
Psychological mechanisms such as encoding, decoding, planning, strategizing, remembering, and imagining are the building blocks of the cognitive perspective.
This perspective tries to answer certain questions;
- How do individuals and groups differ in their approach to conflict?
- What traits best predict communication in conflict?
- How do perceptions influence communication in conflict? What perceptions escalate or mitigate conflict?
Interactional Perspective of Conflict
This perspective of conflict focuses on the issue of how one behaves in a given situation, which determines the way other individuals/parties will react. The way an individual reacts is how the situation is perceived.
For example, if the boss talks sternly with the subordinates while giving instructions, the subordinates will react accordingly. The actions or behaviors are a series of interconnected events. Interpretation is done through the pattern of those interlocked events.
Actors, through their behaviors, negotiate situations. It regards situations as largely emergent. A situation is seen as far more fluid than fixed. People create the situations they perceive, and what they perceive is also influenced by what they do.
It depends on how the conversation continues to unfold between individuals or groups, and that behavior defines the situation. The situation will be differently defined when other behaviors are introduced. Consistent with this position, the interactional perspective also embraces the idea of mutual influence.
Communication is not so much a product that is produced as it is a process that is enacted. As an ongoing process, any given behavior is influenced more by preceding behaviors than by personality or situational constraints. Three questions dominate the interactional perspective:
- What rules or structures do people use to make interpretations and construct social meanings in conflict situations?
- What interactional patterns exist in conflict?
- How do people use messages to accomplish multiple goals in conflicts?
In general, theories either attempt to predict or describe relationships. Therefore, these theories are often labeled as either predictive or descriptive. Predictive theories unearth the ‘why’ behind relationships.
For example, a predictive theory might attempt to explain the connection between verbally aggressive remarks and conflict escalation. Descriptive theories, on the other hand, uncover ‘how’ people do what they do.
Although they sometimes have predictive utility, their main focus is to address changes in behaviors over time. Descriptive theories explain the interaction process.
They attempt to uncover how people engage in verbally aggressive behavior or escalation.
- What form do the remarks commonly take?
- What social rules apparently guide such interactions?
- How does one escalation tactic affect another tactic?
These are common questions answered in such descriptive inquiry. Cognitive perspectives generally attempt to predict conflict outcomes, whereas theories working from the interactional perspective attempt to describe interaction processes.
Tips for Resolving Conflict Situations
To manage conflict effectively, you must be a skilled communicator.
That includes creating an open communication environment in your unit by encouraging employees to discuss work issues. Listening to employee concerns will foster an open environment.
Make sure you understand what employees are saying by asking questions and focusing on their perception of the problem.
Whether you have two employees fighting for the desk next to the window or one who wants the heat on and another who doesn’t, your immediate response to conflict situations is essential.
7 tips you can use when faced with employees who can’t resolve their own conflicts.
- Acknowledge that a difficult situation exists.
- Let individuals express their feelings.
- Define the problem.
- Determine underlying needs.
- Find common areas of agreement, no matter how small.
- Find solutions to satisfy needs.
- Determine what you’ll do if the conflict goes unresolved.
Acknowledge that a difficult situation exists.
Honesty and clear communication play an important role in the resolution process. Acquaint yourself with what’s happening and be open about the problem.
Let individuals express their feelings.
Some feelings of anger and/or hurt usually accompany conflict situations. Before any kind of problem-solving can take place, these emotions should be expressed and acknowledged.
Define the problem
What is the stated problem? What is the negative impact on work or relationships? Are differing personality styles part of the problem?
Meet with employees separately at first and question them about the situation.
Determine underlying need
The goal of conflict resolution is not to decide which person is right or wrong; the goal is to reach a solution that everyone can live with.
Looking first for needs rather than solutions is a powerful tool for generating win/win options.
To discover needs, you must try to find out why people want the solutions they initially proposed. Once you understand the advantages their solutions have for them, you have discovered their needs.
Find common areas of agreement, no matter how small
- Agree on the problem.
- Agree on the procedure to follow.
- Agree on worst fears.
- Agree on some small changes to give an experience of success.
Find solutions to satisfy needs
- Problem-solve by generating multiple alternatives
- Determine which actions will be taken
- Make sure involved parties buy into actions. Be sure you get real agreement from everyone.
Determine the follow-up you will take to monitor actions
You may want to schedule a follow-up meeting in about two weeks to determine how the parties are doing.
Determine what you’ll do if the conflict goes unresolved
If the conflict is causing a department disruption and remains unresolved, you may need to explore other campus resources.
In some cases, the conflict becomes a performance issue and may become a topic for performance appraisals or disciplinary action. Mediation is an option to help resolve and manage conflicts as early as possible.
Mediation may be considered when a represented employee has filed a grievance.
Grievances involving “working relationships,” interpersonal communication, or uncertainty regarding expectations are examples of problems typically considered for mediation.
