Conflicts are common in the workplace and are not deviant in the scenario of a non-profit organization. There exist different kinds of conflicts in the organization, and one of them is personal differences, which can also be referred to as personality conflicts. Personality conflicts can be on the grounds of a difference in working style, background differences, attitude, and competitive versus cooperation differences. One of the most complex conflicts in a non-profit organization is diversity differences, which is a form of a background difference. It is complex because the difference is as a result of notions embedded in the minds of the people who have grown up in a society with the belief that a certain contingent of society is not worthy of being at the same level as them. A common scenario is a race. In some organizations, leaders would find a white employee who does not take well after the idea of working with an African American in the same department. For instance, a white worker may exhibit a difference in taking instructions from an African American supervisor. As such, leaders in the predicament of solving conflicts will always be faced with constant cases of insubordination between the two employees.
As a good leader, it is important to anticipate such conflicts and know how to deal with them well overhand before they happen. The composition of most organizations in terms of the workforce is diverse. It is a new concept being hailed in modern organizations given its advantages in presenting diverse talents, solutions and strategies towards achieving organizational goals and objectives. However, diversification is something that is difficult to achieve for an organization or rather takes time to execute. In the case of the African American supervisor and the white employee, it is easy to judge it as a case of racism, especially by other employees, but that is not the case. As stated in the beginning, this kind of personal conflict is based on background differences and to elaborate, a problem of diversity not working. Therefore, a leader expected to resolve the conflict is called upon to be professional and deduce the problem for what it is – a problem of background differences and, by extension, diversity. The white employee may have been influenced that African Americans are a lesser race and maybe may not understand the meaning of diversity in the organization (Zastrow, 2013). The employee’s difference can also be exacerbated by peer pressure from other employees in the organization to take such a stance. The African American supervisor may also look at the conflict from a racist perspective, making him feel victimized and pushing him to rally the issue behind the rest of his kind.
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The immediate effect around such conflicts is that either of the employees will be filled with stress. Stress inhibits an employee from functioning optimally, meaning that they will not be able to complete their tasks efficiently or otherwise prone to a lot of mistakes. When the conflict spreads to include other employees, who are rallying behind the conflicting parties, the phenomenon is likely to lower the productivity of departments involved or the entire organization. Conflicts are prone to drain the energy of workers as well as their morale, thus affecting their productivity. Therefore, the leadership has to identify the origins of the conflict and sort it out before it affects productivity in the organization. In this case, the leader should identify the problem as diversity.
Leaders should always put into context the theories of conflict management and not take the line that conflict is bad and caused by trouble makers. Instead, they should consider the contemporary theory that conflicts are good, and they normal to be found in an organization (Gallo et al., 2018). The best way to resolve the conflict between the supervisor and the employee is to have separate meetings and educate each one on the value of diversification in the organization. This comes from the notion that the two employees may not have the prior knowledge as to why diversification is the new wave and vital to the functioning of the organization (Ross, 2000). The information creates the basis through which both the employees can understand the need for collaboration towards achieving organizational goals and objectives. The notion helps create an environment for the conflicting parties to move towards a resolution. To move towards resolution, the leader needs to know what kind of people they are dealing with by taking them through the Kilmann’s conflict model to determine whether either of the parties are assertive or cooperative in conflict resolution. The approach will help guide either of the parties through the journey to get to a resolution. If the leader’s approach towards conflict resolution is neutral and objective, the conflict is likely to be resolved easily, and the production of the organization may not affected.
References
Zastrow, C. (2013). Brooks/Cole Empowerment Series: Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment . [Purdue University Global Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://purdueuniversityglobal.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781285814247/
Gallo, A., Garfinkle, J., Maimon, A., & Ashkenas, R. (2018, April 17). Why We Should Be Disagreeing More at Work . https://hbr.org/2018/01/why-we-should-be-disagreeing-more-at-work.
Ross, M. H. (2000). Theory and practice of conflict resolution. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology , 6 (1), 85–87. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327949pac0601_11
