Conflict within an Organization

Introduction 

Companies comprise of individuals with different cultures and beliefs systems who have to work together to ensure that there is productivity. Thus companies come up with an acceptable code of conduct which comprises of acceptable behaviours within the organization as well as an organizational culture that reflects the value systems and beliefs of the company ( Oyserman & Lee, 2008). However, this hardly deters conflict from arising within the organization which if left unattended can lead to adverse effects on the employees and productivity of the company. 

The Conflict 

One such conflict happened in Max’s Company, which I had been a member of for three consecutive years, as a sales personnel. The primary reason for the conflict was discrimination by managerial staff to their subordinates which often resulted in exchanging of bitter words, fist fights and sometimes a deliberate firing of employees. The managers often took advantage of their position and had the subordinates work extra hours without pay and sometimes assigned menial work which was not stipulated in their job description. Due to the weak communication channels in the company, it became difficult to raise this matter to higher authorities, and the practice became a norm. 

One of the sales personnel, Peter, was tasked attending to the manager's personal chores around the office such as maintaining the hygiene and of the office by collecting garbage and cleaning the room. This practice went on for a significant period which led to the employee harbouring anger and resentment against his manager. Recently, he refused to take up such orders from the manager by practically ignoring him his calls. Thus when the manager came to the employee's workstation, he began insulting him and forcefully driving him to his office for him to perform the duties he had asked him to perform. When he adamantly refused to perform the duty, this resulted in a fist fight couples with insults where the manager told him that he was useless and belonged to the streets, not an office. 

Analysis of the Conflict Behaviours 

As developed in the socio-cognitive systems learning models, the belief is that thought, and behavior patterns play a significant role in driving the underlying assumption, the learned social behaviors as well as the outcome. According to Argrils, the values that one holds inform their belief systems and as such they “bidirectional influence each other,” Friesenborg, (2013). As noted by Oyerserman & Lee, (2008), the culture played a significant role in the cognitive process, that is, the thought patterns. The process of learning is unconscious, and people learn different values systems which then inform their beliefs. In a working environment, for example, it is expected for the employees to show respect to their employers and those in higher authority. These values informed such behaviours as carrying out the orders of the managers without questioning in the Max’s Company. As noted by Adams, & Markus, (2004), a majority of people who hold no power tend to adopt the exposed values of the dominant cultures rather than exercise their real values. This may be due to fear that their underlying assumptions and beliefs system may contact those in power. With this, managers took advantage of this fact and started exploiting their surbodinate employees which slowly become an accepted culture in the organization. 

Nonetheless, as pointed out by Argyris, (2010), within the organization, learning and changes occur as a result of developing patterns of defensiveness, control, helplessness as well as rejecting some unhealthy patterns. To introduce some changes in the organization, the Peter reacted in a manner that showed the manager that his actions were unjust. For instance, his silence and refusal to follow orders was a nonverbal way of communication to show the manager that his actions were not acceptable. 

Analysis of Conflict Outcomes 

With respect to socio-cognitive systems learning models, it is evident that conflict within the organization results to immense social costs (Ringberg & Reihlen, 2008). That is, a majority people develop pain, frustration and mistrusts. For example, in this case, the primary purpose of conflict in the organization was discrimination of employees by those in higher ranks. As such, this conflict resulted in mistrust between members of the same organization. Moreover, those who were in power exploited the others which caused intense pain to the employees. Consequently, this mistreatment caused the employees to feel frustrated and this affected the productivity of the company. 

Analysis of Values and Deep Assumptions 

According to my observation, people in my organization held strongly cultural ideals that had been perpetuated by the dominant cultures are did not expose their egocentric values (Argyris, 2010) . As such, this had resulted in people having false underlying assumptions regarding each other and people in various positions; a phenomenon termed pluralistic ignorance. As a result, the cultural ideals had perpetuated the behaviours of discrimination in the organization and seldom outburst by employees who felt that they were frustrated enough. 

Conclusion 

In the Max’s Company, discrimination of employees by those in higher ranks than then was a common occurrence which resulted in conflicts between the two groups. For instance, in the conflict between the Manager and Peter, whereby he was required to work for long and tackle manual tasks which were not outlined in his job description. Using the socio-cognitive systems learning models, it is evident that culture played a significant role in propagating these behaviours. As a result, the conflict resulted in pain, frustrations, and mistrust by the employee. However, as according to the underlying assumptions of the people, those in managerial staff had to be obeyed, and this made the employers take advantage of this fact. 

References 

Adams, G., & Markus, H. R. (2004). Toward a conception of culture suitable for a social psychology of culture. In M. Schaller & C. S. Crandall (Eds.), the psychological foundations of culture (pp. 335–360). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Argyris, C. (2010). Organizational traps: Leadership, culture, organizational design. New York,NY: Oxford University Press. 

Friesenborg, L. (2013). The Culture of Learning Organizations: Understanding Argyris' Theory through a Socio-Cognitive Systems Learning Model (Doctoral dissertation, University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)). 

Oyserman, D., & Lee, S. W. S. (2008). Does culture influence what and how we think? Effects of priming individualism and collectivism. Psychological Bulletin, 134 (2), 311-342. 

Ringberg, T., & Reihlen, M. (July 01, 2008). Journal of Management Studies, 45(5 ), 912-935.