Introduction
Conflict refers to a situation characterized by a misunderstanding between two individuals representing divergent interests. Conflict resolution is a topic of discussion that has featured on very many occasions, including conferences and high profile corporate meetings. The topic has sparked heated debates and exchanges. According to Shaukat (2016), workplace conflicts occur between individuals working in the same levels, and sometimes between leaders and their juniors. In the past, workplace conflicts have happened as a result of policy disagreements, harassment, discrimination, and personal disagreements between two or more individuals. Conflicts can also occur between a group of people, such as departments at workplaces, on the same issues that spark conflict between individuals. Of all the types of disputes that arise in workplaces, conflict of interest is the most common type of conflict in workplaces, and it is inspired by the tendency of individuals and groups of people seeking to satisfy their welfares. All organizations ought to have conflict resolution bodies that promote good relationships between their workers. Moreover, such bodies should also be concerned with creating a good working relationship between the organizations and their stakeholders. Resolving conflicts is vital for organizations because it is the surest way through which an organization can achieve a pleasant environment and increase the level of output.
The conflict problem in workplaces
Human Resource Managers and other organizational managers ought to express concern for workplace conflict. They should specifically employ effort to stop the organizational conflict. Most importantly, Human resource managers and other managers should strive to kill a conflict culture within the organization. In some cases, at workplaces, petty misunderstandings transition into a long serious conflict that eventually affects employee performance at the workplace. In other cases, workplace conflict occurs as a result of personal differences borrowed from personal feuds outside of work, which also affects workplace performance. Therefore, organizational leaders ought to be informed of the signals to conflict as well as the potential causes of disputes to enable them to solve them before they turn ugly. They should continuously ensure the unity and togetherness of workers, something that is vital in ensuring good results at any organization.
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Poor communication is a common cause of disagreement between employees. In a workplace, failing to communicate an important message could potentially result in conflict between two employees or between an employee and their boss (Kausalya & Abirami, 2016). For example, if an employee in charge of sales runs out of stock, and fails to communicate to the warehouse officers in time, the employee may end up blaming the warehouse workers for failing to supply them with adequate stock. Failing to communicate in time would bring about a blame game that would eventually become a severe conflict. Poor communication at the workplace can either be triggered by individuals’ poor commitment to communication or lack of effective communication networks within an organization. An effective communication system should support all the elements of communication, including providing a platform of feedback to complete the communication process. In modern technology, effective communication should also enable information synergy, which supports the sharing of information between interrelated departments. Information synergy is an essential tool to eradicate the cases of people blaming other departments for the failure of sharing important information because the system will be in a better position to enable information sharing. Apart from that, modern communication tools such as e-mails and phones may be subject to a failure caused by technical problems and network failure. In most cases, such problems may be rare yet can be a cause of conflict whenever they hinder communication.
Communication may also be a cause of conflict if an individual misinterprets a message delivered by another individual at a workplace. Whenever one (sender) prepares information to transmit to another person (receiver), they do it to the best of their understanding, with specific intended meaning that they seek to pass forward. In this case, information senders tend to use words that would best present their message to enable them to communicate the intended meaning. Unfortunately, there is an excellent possibility that the receiver of the information would understand it differently from what the sender originally intended, something that can set the ground for conflict. Failing to communicate at all is yet another common cause of conflict. Due to forgetfulness or other reasons, an individual at a place of work may completely fail to send a message that they ought to have sent to another worker, leading to certain delays in work, which can eventually stir conflict between two people. Failure to communicate may also cause employees to make inaccurate conclusions, which eventually makes them disagree with colleagues.
Personality diversity also causes workplace conflicts between employees. Personality diversity is the fact that people working in one station all have divergent personalities and character. This implies that people hold different opinions for certain decisions, have different beliefs, and express themselves differently in specific situations. The diverse background is believed to have always been a source of positive results by bringing together different people with different ideas. Nevertheless, diversity can be a blessing in disguise to an organization because different personalities can be a cause of serious conflict between employees. For example, when one employee has the character of straightforwardness, and as such, has the habit of speaking their mind whenever an issue arises. Another employee may feel offended by such open-mindedness and straightforwardness and pick an offense from one statement or comment on an issue. Certain employees are natural-born leaders and would always take the responsibility of leading colleagues in completing tasks. In as much as this ought to be positive because it increases productivity levels, other employees in similar ranks may take offense. On the same note, people with diverse personalities tend to have different working styles, another recipe for workplace conflict. The generational gap in an organization is a major cause of having different techniques and strategies for work, hence workplace conflict.
Unhealthy workplace competition also causes conflicts between employees. Employees need to work together to help inspire their organizations towards achieving long and short term goals. Nevertheless, most human resource reward employees for good work at an individual level, prompting them to seek personal success rather than work as teams to promote overall organizational output. This tendency has brought about individual competition, which is rather unhealthy to the organization because it encourages individualism and negatively impacts on the overall production of the organization. In other organizations, employees are paid according to their level of output, thus causing unnecessary competition. Individual competition between employees may lead to employees sabotaging the work of other employees to lead the output tally. This may also make employees hurl insults at each other, bringing about workplace conflicts that are very much unhealthy to the organization.
Another common cause of workplace conflicts is organizational politics. Organizational politics refers to the tendency of corporate leaders to involve in lobbying among employees and stakeholders, seeking to acquire some power and influence in the workplace. Organizational politics bring about the culture where an individual campaign to prove their power and influence. In many cases, it happens whenever there is a leadership wrangle between two individuals in the organization (O’Sullivan, 2017). Such tendencies divide organizational members into different factions, people supporting one individual and those supporting the other. Organizational conflicts would bring about unnecessary arguments among employees on who is more powerful than the other. Eventually, such politics bring about permanent disputes between employees, and thus reduces their levels of production. Politics within organizations also threaten teamwork.
Solutions to the Problem
As stated above, no employee is immune to workplace conflict, and no amount of screening during interviews can help employers achieve the best who will avoid conflicts. However, workplace conflicts can be avoided or minimized at the organization to ensure a steady workflow. Besides, companies have no option other than solving this common menace to increase production levels. Managers should embrace conflicts, as it is the first step in seeking a solution (Roche, 2016). This implies that they should not avoid conflicts; however, petty they maybe because they would potentially get worse. On this note, a leader needs to accept the existing disagreements between his subjects and attempt to preach peace between the parties involved. Dealing with the issue soon enough means calling the parties involved and helping them through ironing out their issues before it becomes too late for that. Employees should also make an effort to avoid conflict as much as possible and solve existing conflicts with their colleagues.
Companies should set other interaction moments other than work time when employees come together, have fun, and talk together. Various activities can successfully help achieve this, and they include company dinners, company sports days, and adventure walks together, among other activities. Such activities strengthen the bond between employees and thus reduce any misunderstanding that may come up between them when they work. Additionally, employees use such opportunities to bring their families over and get to know each other better, increasing respect among them. Such outdoor events also offer the chance to strengthen individual communication skills among some workers, which would eventually help them when they get back to work. Employees may also use such opportunities out of work to iron out small issues that may develop serious conflicts between them in the future. These events and activities are important in developing healthy relationships between employees and thus helping in reducing workplace conflicts between them (Currie, Gormley, Roche & Teague, 2017). Moreover, they can help create a good working relationship between employees and their managers.
Organizational leaders need to offer good guidance and leadership, enlighten their subjects on the need to avoid conflicts and how to resolve small issues that may exist between them. Conflict resolution is a responsibility that ought to be majorly played by the employees. Therefore, the leaders should pass on the responsibility to them after guiding them on how to go about it. On this note, organizational leaders should conduct training on conflict mitigation and resolution, where employees get to learn of the things to avoid workplace conflict. The conflict management training can be conducted in the form of workshops, one-on-one sessions with individual employees, or small facilitation groups where employees learn how to avoid workplace conflict. Additionally, the training can cover the methods that employees can use to resolve small conflicts that occur among them.
Similarly, organizational leaders should work towards setting a good communication culture within the organization to help promote peace and reduce misunderstandings within their organizations. On this particular note, they should lead by example by effectively managing conflicts amongst themselves as leaders, ensure they coexist well between other leaders to help set up a culture of peace and eradicate workplace conflict. Above everything, leaders and supervisors should set guidelines to employees, which define how employees should act in case of conflict.
References
Currie, D., Gormley, T., Roche, B., & Teague, P. (2017). The management of workplace conflict: Contrasting pathways in the HRM literature. International Journal of Management Reviews , 19 (4), 492-509.
Kausalya, R., & Abirami, A. (2016). A Descriptive Study on the Causes and Effects of Work Place Conflict and Present-Day Strategies to Curb IT. International Journal of Engineering and Management Research (IJEMR) , 6 (1), 253-255.
O'Sullivan, M. (2017). The Structural Causes of Workplace Conflict: Understanding the Implications for the Mediation of Workplace Disputes. Bond L. Rev. , 29 , 87.
Roche, W. K. (2016). The development of conflict resolution practices in Irish workplaces. Administration , 64 (3-4), 61-89.
Shaukat, R. (2016). Workplaces that Work: Examining the Relationships between Conflict, Subjective Well-being, Employee Performance, and Turnover Intentions (Doctoral dissertation, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Islamabad-Pakistan).
