Conflict is defined as the process where one party may perceive that the actions of another party are affecting or are about to affect them negatively. Therefore, the parties may resolve to hate each other, insult each other, fight, fail to communicate and engage in any other activity that might jeopardize their relationship. The success of an organization is dependent on the relationship between the management and staff and between the staffs themselves. Some of the common causes of conflicts may happen with or without the knowledge of organizational management. Therefore, following its potential impacts on the success of an organization, it is important to focus on conflict management and put it to the organization's core objectives as an initiative towards improving its set goals and objectives.
Types of Conflicts within an Organization
Different types of conflicts exist within an organization. The first type of this conflict is the task conflict (Sarpkaya, 2012). This is common among employees who work together to achieve a particular set of objectives. Task conflict occurs when employees disagree on the task delegated to them, particularly if they have shared responsibilities. For example, an employee may be assigned a particular task by their superiors and have issues with it.
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On the other hand, another employee may be interested in accomplishing the task assigned to their colleagues. In the event of such a situation happening, a conflict arises between them as one considers the other to have been favored during the delegation of the task. In such a case, the employees may disagree between themselves, which will jeopardize their productivity and the organization's overall performance.
The second type of conflict is relationship conflict. This type of conflict is reported when individuals fail to agree with an individual perspective. For example, one employee may quarrel with another employee over an issue that concerns their social life. In such cases, the employees affected may develop a work environment filled with hatred and other forms of hatred that would affect their communication while accomplishing different tasks within the organization. Without an efficient flow of information and poor coordination of tasks following the absence of good interpersonal relationships among employees is a critical issue that would need the attention of the organization’s management as it would undermine the overall productivity. It will also impact the coordination and planning of different activities of the organization, making it hard for the company to achieve its set goals and objectives.
The last type of conflict is referred to as value conflict. This type is commonly reported between employees and the management. This happens when employees fail to meet the set standards of work that the management has assigned them. For example, an employee may be asked to record some medical data about the patient but then fails to include all the information as required exhaustively. In such cases, a conflict may arise between the two personnel considering that the management may pick since the employee did not meet the set standards.
The Positive and Negative Effects of Conflict
Conflict is inevitable within an organization. Therefore, it is an issue that can be modified by the organization to address some of its weaknesses and develop a strong system that would improve its performance. One of the positive impacts of conflict is that it motivates social change (Hussein & Al-Mamary, 2019). In this case, it ensures that people understand their group and personal dynamics. Each team member will respect and appreciate people with different social and cultural attributes within the works environment. It also ensures that team members can adequately enjoy the current interests of others and recognize the realities of life. They will develop a positive working environment that would promote their products in the long and short run. The second positive impact of conflict within an organization is the aspect of decision-making. In this case, conflict prevents the group from making any premature decisions that would negatively impact others. In this case, when a dispute arises, group members will be forced to analyze issues and thus make informed decisions that would align with the group interests and guide them towards meeting the set goals and objectives. When decisions are made based on the interest of others, group members suffer significantly, which will negatively influence their individual and professional lives.
Another positive impact of conflict is that it allows people to reconcile (Hussein & Al-Mamary, 2019). If conflict goes to more critical levels, the affected parties may resolve to iron their issues together and agree. In such cases, they develop a good environment that would enable them to work together and contribute greatly towards the organization's success. Reconciliation will also promote group unity, considering that when members arrive at a consensus on different issues that affect them in different aspects, they tend to develop a new environment that would encourage them to embrace teamwork and work together towards the set goals and objectives. In the presence of intragroup conflict, it becomes hard for the group to come together, negotiate their interests, and make decisions that align their actions to the set goals and objectives. The group will also improve the spirit of cooperation among its members as they will be ready to work together and focus on achieving the set goals and objectives within the organization. Also, that the presence of intragroup cooperation enables members to focus on joint goals.
Lastly, conflicts enable members of a given organization to develop an environment characterized by positive criticism and shared opinions. Acknowledging the presence of different personality types and the need for the members to respect them plays a crucial role in inspiring creativity (Hussein & Al-Mamary, 2019). Creativity is reported in an environment where personal strengths, skills, and capabilities are embraced, which plays a critical role in actualizing them. Also, conflicts can inspire public members to solve problems by brainstorming ideas that would enable them to develop solutions from different perspectives.
On the negative side, conflicts may adversely affect the organization's performance. one of the common implications of conflict within an organization is decreased productivity at work. For example, when members engage in different forms of conflict, the organization's coordination of different production processes decreases. In such cases, it becomes hard for the organization to meet its set goals and objectives, considering that important processes have been compromised. One of the key processes that become compromised by the presence of conflict within an organization is communication. Lack of effective communication goes a long way in ensuring that different departments do not interact effectively. This will compromise their ability to work together and meet the set goals and objectives. The second cause of conflict that would influence the performance of an organization is violence. Members tend to fight when they agree. This means that they may end up causing chaos within the organization, which will affect the physical, social, and mental health of the concerned parties both in the long term and in the short time (Tafvelin et al., 2020). Therefore, this makes conflict a severe issue that should be addressed as it would threaten employees both at the personal and organizational levels.
Another crucial problem is that members who engage in a fight or any other form due to a conflict may leave the organization. In such a case, it may cost the organization a skilled human resource which would have aided it towards meeting its set goals and objectives. Also, members who engage in conflict within the organization are can get distracted from the primary focus on the work. Thus aligning themselves to other activities that would compromise with the set plans to enable the company to meet its set goals and objectives.
Following these negative implications as a result of the presence of a conflict within an organization, it would be prudent for the organization to develop a conflict management strategy that would enable it to address any issue that arises between employees and the management that would potentially compromise with the achievement of the set goals and objectives within the company.
Role of Personality Types in Conflict Management
The ability to handle conflicts appropriately is a key attribute that both employees and the management should have. Proper handling of conflicts is crucial as it enables an organization to foster efficiency at the employees and the organizational level. Individuals use different personality types when addressing conflicts within an organization. Some of the kye personalities include extraversion personality, which is considered by the study of Anwar et al. (2012) to correlate with competing conflict management styles highly. Also, this personality is considered by Anwar et al. (2012) to be less correlated with the compromising, accommodating, and avoiding conflict management approaches. This shows that such personalities tend to force their inferiors to address their conflicts alone without engaging them and understanding the cause of the problem. Ann and Yang (2012) explored the reasons behind different conflict management based on the personality types. The researchers reported that such differences happen due to emotional intelligence and integrating that people embrace between the dominating conflict style and the emotional intelligence. They further noted that differences in the personality styles make individuals have different agreeableness when managing conflicts, thus having different effectiveness levels.
In other aspects, researchers recognize important attributes such as temperament, power, relationship, values (Ayub et al., 2017). Context and culture play a crucial role in the conflict. Considering the presence of different personality traits, it makes it hard for individuals to embrace a similar approach when handling conflicts. For example, while others may have different cultural practices, some have different powers and upbringing. Such attributes shape the type of personality that an individual will embrace when resolving a conflict. Power, for instance, is exercised by individuals who are in power. While some powerful individuals may use power to coerce individuals to resolve conflicts, others may consider it prudent to use a more friendly and accommodative approach that considers the concerns and interests of others.
As people focus on developing appropriate and effective conflict resolution strategies, they must factor in an individual's personality traits. It is important to understand these traits and how they contribute to conflict management to get an easier and more effective approach to addressing them. Identifying individual traits will enable one to solve the conflict more effectively, considering they will know how to handle an individual based on the presented traits. An individual must consider all the factors present with the place of the conflict, including the environment and other specific factors that would influence an individual's behavior. This follows that there is a distinct difference in how people are connected in terms of their traits, and therefore have different approaches to conflict resolution depending on the environment that they find themselves in it. With a proper conflict resolution approach, it will become easier to handle workplace issues, thus creating a conducive working environment that would promote an organization’s productivity levels.
Communication Techniques Ethics and Workplace Conflicts
Communication techniques are important in solving or promoting workplace conflict. When handling conflicts, the most pressing issue is the ability to embrace an ethical code of conduct while addressing the affected parties (Lewitter et al., 2019). For example, an individual in a managerial position may fail to observe communication ethics by engaging in such offensive actions as insulting the inferiors. Some managers may also decide to beat them up or punish them using any severe means, which may compromise their self-esteem and lower their dignity. Such actions should be avoided as they can adversely ruin the company's image and make it less attractive to different stakeholders.
Therefore, when addressing workplace conflicts, members of an organization should embrace communication ethics to ensure that the problem is adequately addressed without undermining the lives of other individuals within the society. Having communication ethics will also enable the conflict management process to be smooth, professional, and effective (Paul et al., 2016).
At the personal level, some of the five steps that one should embrace during conflict management include identifying the source of the conflict, exploring possible solutions, identifying the best and the most feasible solution, and settling into an agreement between parties affected by the problem (Overton & Lowry, 2013). Identifying the source of the problem is an essential step as it guides individuals to understand the problem and propose approaches that would be considered effective and evidence-based. The last step of agreeing is also crucial. It makes the end of the conflict and exposes the affected parties to a new environment where they can work together and develop solutions to address the problem and avoid repeating the same issue in the future.
The Climate in a Conflict Situation
Some of the common issues in the conflict are stress and anger. When people disagree, some of the key issues that one will easily note include lack of communication (Wang & Wu, 2020). In this case, people do not take to each other, considering that they are in a state of anger. For this case, whenever the parties engage in a conversation, they are likely to engage in a bitter exchange of words, which may end up in a fight or even something worse that would affect one individual and professional level. In terms of stress, an individual is likely to be in a state of unstable mind if they are experiencing any form of conflict, which may lead to stress. For example, an employee may conflict with a member of the managerial team. In such a case, the employee may be worried about the fate of their employment at work, thus making it hard for them to have a stable state of mind. Stress may develop into a severe mental health complication that may affect an individual's cognitive functioning for the rest of their life (Novais et al., 2012). This is also reported in online conflicts. Therefore, it is prudent to address such factors and ensure that employees live a peaceful environment characterized by effective conflict management strategies to promote productivity and development.
Forgiveness Meditation and Arbitration
The last step in conflict management is forgiveness, mediation, and arbitration. Forgiveness has been considered by Braithwaite (2011) to foster relationship satisfaction in different perspectives of life. In this case, parties that engage in a conflict are mediated by others. Some may also decide to mediate themselves and develop an agreement to forget about the problem and move on with their lives. While forgiveness may be hard for most individuals who engage in a conflict, professionals are required to consider it as a way of minding the welfare of the organization as conflict resolution would foster productivity and enable it to develop a competent and skilled workforce that would enable it to increase its market share and become a better option for consumers of its products and services.
A comparison between the three approaches of conflict resolution can be drawn to improve their understanding. First, arbitration and mediation look almost the same. However, a significant difference exists which separates them. For example, while mediation involves an act of negotiation between parties, arbitration happens where a third party comes in, listens to the evidence, and makes a decision about the problem. These two approaches are crucial and effective in different environments depending on the situation and the intensity of the conflict. For example, arbitration is effective if the individuals affected by the conflict cannot sit down and fairly address their issues. Therefore, a third party should come with a figure of authority and solve the conflict by listening from both sides, deciding the one with the mistake, and asking them to reconcile and establish peace among themselves. Mediation is effective if the victims of the conflict do not want to include a third party in their conflict resolution process. in this case, they discuss the problem on their own and then develop an amicable solution that would eliminate the problem and enable them to live in peace.
Forgiveness happens after the parties have mediated or arbitrated and arrived at a consensus. At this point, they will be acknowledging their mistakes and thus focusing on ensuring that such an issue does not occur again in their future interaction.
References
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