Conflict Management: 10 Tips for Dealing With Conflict

Organization Overview & Structure 

Bronx Security Limited is a security company specializing in security utilities and security services for businesses and individuals. The organization also provides businesses and individuals with services such as private investigation as it has a team of well-trained investigators. The organization operates throughout the United States with offices in eleven states. Management is both centralized and decentralized throughout the organization with top orders and oversight being carried out from the top. All employees adhere to strict organizational codes of conduct and have to work according to certain rules. Each office in every state has its own leadership but emulates the codes of operations provided by the headquarter office in Atlanta, Georgia. The number of employees ranges from fifty to one hundred in every departmental office. The department in Atlanta, for instance, has nine-two employees. Each department has various teams, depending on their specialties. There those in charge of security merchandise and delivery, security guards or personnel, and investigators. Each team within the department has its leader who delegates work, ensures everything is done according to plan and keep records. The annual budget of one departmental office differ each year depending on operations and the growth of the department, among other factors, and ranges from one hundred thousand dollars to about four hundred dollars. 

Conflicts 

Conflicts do arise within the department a number of times, just like in any other department or organization. The major types of conflict in this workplace include inter-group or inter-team conflict and intragroup conflicts ( Gcumisa & Harriss, 2019) . Intergroup conflicts occur mainly due to the differences in the nature of operations and levels of work of each team within the department. Every team is allocated resources by which to operate, differently from the other. Those in charge of merchandise and delivery, for instance, need transport means, fuel, and certain allowances. Security personnel only need to report to their points of work or services while coordinating with the firm. Investigators may require various resources such as cars to assist them with their work. Rumors about the amount of allocation and resources offered to a certain team may cause unrest within other teams and create conflicts. Sometimes, almost every team needs a specific type of company resources such as a tractor or other means of transport, and it becomes quite difficult to decide which team to consider. Sometimes, an investigator may need the assistance of a security guard but fail to get it due to negligence or lack of proper coordination on the part of the security guard. All these may cause intergroup conflicts within the department. 

At the intragroup level, various causes of conflict include individual differences and ideologies and undesirable outcomes ( Gcumisa & Harriss, 2019) . Everyone is always unique and different in various aspects as compared to others. The difference often manifests in the way people handle things, react, or make decisions. Some people like to play by the book while others like to make certain exceptions. Undesirable outcomes such as the loss of resources, utilities, or merchandise may bring about conflict as various individuals may be suspected or blamed for the loss of such items. An item may go missing after it has been handled by the team in charge of security utility and merchandise, for instance, and one member may be suspected or blamed for its disappearance. 

Handling of Conflicts 

The organization is always aware of intergroup and intragroup conflicts that occur within each departmental office. In response to intergroup conflicts, the department always works to make everything transparent by informing the whole department of the monthly budget and allocations to each team. It also justifies the allocations to show why certain teams were given a certain amount of resources. This way, conflicts are deterred. At the intragroup level, the department takes charge of the conflict and gets to the bottom of the problem in the quest to solve the conflict. 

Alternatives for Conflict Management Approaches 

In the case of Bronx Security Limited, some of the ways that the departments can improve conflict management and benefit teamwork throughout the organization include competing, collaborating, and accommodating. These practices can help both at the intergroup and intragroup levels of conflict within the departments. Teams can improve their productivity if they are in constant competition ( Rahim, 2010) . Giving a team a certain resource while denying another can itself cause conflict. Inspiring the other team to improve its competitiveness so that it can be considered next time will not only mitigate the conflict but also improve that’s team’s productivity. The same is expected of two or more individual employees within a team. 

Collaboration also helps unite teams and improve their coordination and communication ( Tjosvold et al., 2019) . In this case, employees from the team of investigators may collaborate with those in the security personnel team and work together to share information and resources. Collaboration will also allow the two teams to assist each other in times of challenges, thereby mitigating conflicts that would have risen. Collaboration at the personal level within teams may achieve a similar result and benefit the whole team rather than causing conflicts between members of the team. Through accommodation, each team may be able to accept the issues presented or caused by another and find ways to make work continue smoothly other than going to war. At the individual level, accepting people for who they are, being tolerant of diversity at the workplace, and being aware of the difference in ideologies and principles among people may help mitigate intragroup conflicts ( Collings et al., 2018) . All these alternative solutions, if employed at the departments, may greatly benefit teamwork and improve conflict management within the entire organization. 

References 

Collings, D. G., Wood, G. T., & Szamosi, L. T. (2018). Human resource management: A critical approach. In Human resource management (pp. 1-23). Routledge. 

Gcumisa, T. S., & Harriss, A. (2019). Stress and conflict in the workplace. Occupational Health & Wellbeing , 71 (2), 24-28. 

Rahim, M. A. (2010). Managing conflict in organizations . Transaction publishers. 

Tjosvold, D., Wong, A. S., & Chen, N. Y. F. (2019). Managing Conflict for Effective Leadership and Organizations. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management .