16.

Conflict in organizations (Types of conflict, levels of conflict,

stages of conflict, causes of conflict, conflict management)
Conflict occurs when parties disagree over substantive issues or when emotional contrasts
create friction between them.

Managers and team leaders can spend considerable time dealing with conflict, including
conflicts in which the manager/leader is directly involved as one of the principal actors. On
the other hand, in other situations, the manager/leader may act as a mediator, or 3 rd party.
This includes recognizing conflict situations, and dealing with these situations in ways that
will best serve the needs of both the organization and the people involved. Conflict
situations ate those in which the concerns of two people appear to be incompatible. There
are no two individuals having exactly the same expectations and desires, conflict is a natural
part of our interactions with others.

Types of conflicts

We can classify conflict from two perspectives.

Classify 1

Substantive conflict: is a fundamental disagreement over ends or goals to be pursued and

the means for their accomplishmentso it based on work goals (e.g.: disagreement of the
marketing strategy for a new product, disagreement of rewards...)

Emotional conflict: involves interpersonal difficulties that arise over feelings or anger,
mistrust, dislike fear resentment so it based on personal feelings (e.g.: the decisions of a
tough boss can create emotional conflict: restructuring, downsizing). Emotional conflicts can
reduce the energy of people and distract them from important work priorities.

Cultural conflict: culture and cultural differences must be considered for their conflict
potential. Individuals who are not able to recognize and respect the effect of culture may
contribute to emergence of dysfunctional situations. People are different from each other
and some difficulties come when we experience racial tensions, gender gaps. Cross-cultural
sensitivity helps defuse dysfunctional conflict and capture advantages that constructive
conflict may offer.

Classify 2

Functional (or constructive) conflict: results in positive benefits to individuals, the group or
the organization. We can say it is useful, since it:

 brings important problems to the surface, so that they can be addressed

 causes careful consideration and perhaps reconsideration of decisions
 increases the amount of information available for decision making

1
  provides opportunities for creativity

Dysfunctional (or destructive) conflict: works to the disadvantage of the individuals, the
group or the organization. It occurs, for ex. when 2 employees are unable to work together
because of an emotional conflict. Disadvantages:

 reduce energy
 harms group cohesion
 promotes impersonal hostilities
 creates overall negative environment for workers

Managers must be alert to destructive conflicts because it can decrease work productivity
and job satisfaction and contribute to absenteeism and job turnover.

Levels of conflict:

We can distinguish different levels of conflicts.

Interpersonal conflict: occurs between 2 or more individuals who are in opposition to one
other. It may be substantive or emotional both. Interpersonal conflict involves:

 approach-approach conflict: occurs when a person must choose between 2 positive

and equally attractive alternatives
 avoidance-avoidance conflict: when a person must choose between 2 negative and
equally unattractive alternatives
 approach-avoidance conflict: when a person must decide to do something that has
both positive and negative consequences

Intergroup conflict: occurs among groups in the organization (eg. conflict among
marketing/sales and manufacturing department). It is quite common in organizations and it
can make the coordination very difficult. We can minimize these conflicts by using cross-
functional groups.

Interorganizational conflict: between organizations. Commonly refers to the competition

and rivalry that carachterize firms operating in the same markets.

Conflict management

Conflicts can be addresses in many ways but the important goal is to achieve or set the stage
for true conflict resolution, it means that the underlying reasons of the conflict is eliminated.
The process of the effective resolution begins with a good understanding of causes and
recognition of conflict stage, since most conflicts develop in stages.

Stages of conflict

 conflict antecedents establish the conditions for the conflict

2
  when the antecedent conditions become the basis for substantive or emotional
differences between people or groups, the stage of perceived conflict exist
 felt conflict is the next stage, it is different from perceived conflict, because it is
experienced as tension that motivates the person to take action to reduce feelings or
discomfort.
 when conflict is expressed openly in behaviours, it is said to be manifest

Causes of conflict

There are several types of conflict stages.

 Vertical conflict: occurs between hierarchical levels (eg. supervisor-subordinate

disagreement over goals, deadlines...)
 horizontal conflict: occurs between persons or groups at the same hierarchical level
(eg. goal incompatibilities, lack of resources)
 line-staff conflict: is a common variation of horizontal conflict. It involves
disagreements over who has authority and control over certain matters such as
personnel selection and termination practices.
 role conflict: occurs when the communication of task expectations proves
inadequate or upsetting (eg. unclear communication of work expectations)
 workflow interdependencies: occurs when people or units are required to cooperate
to meet challenging goals. When the interdependence is high conflict often occur (eg.
in a fast food restaurant you have to wait too long for it to delivery from the cooks)
 domain ambiguities: involve ambiguous situations where it is difficult to understand
who is responsible for what. They occur as misunderstandings over such things as
customer jurisdiction or scope of authority.
 resource scarcity: when resources are scare various individuals or groups try to
position themselves to gain or retain maximum shares of the shrinking resource pool
 power or value asymmetries: they exist when interdependent people or groups
differ substantially from one other status or in values

Conflict management approaches

Conflict management approaches can be either direct or indirect.

Indirect conflict management approaches avoid direct dealings with personalities. Involves:

 reduced interdependence
 appeals to common goals
 hierarchical referral
 alterations in the use of mythology and scripts

Reduced interdependence: when workflow conflict exist, managers can adjust the level of
interdependency among units or individuals

3
 a) decoupling or taking action to eliminate or reduce the required contact between
conflict parties is a simple option so that units can be separated from one other.
b) buffering is another approach that can be used to reduce interdependence. The
classic buffering technique is to build an inventory or buffer between the 2 groups so
that any output slowdown or excess is absorbed by the inventory and does not
directly pressure the target group.
c) linking pins are expected to understand the operations, members, needs and norm of
their group. They need to use this knowledge to help their group worj better with
other groups in order to accomplish mutual tasks.

Appeal to common goals: focuses the attention of potentially conflicting parties on one
mutually desirable conclusion. By elevating the potential dispute to a common framework
wherein the parties recognize their mutual interdependence in achieving common goals,
petty disputes can be put in perspective.

Hierarchical referral: uses of the chain of command for conflict resolution. Problems are
simply referred up the hierarchy for more senior managers to reconcile.

Altering scripts and myths: in some situations conflict is superficially managed by scripts or
behavioural routines that become part of the organization’s culture. The scripts become
rituals that allow the conflicting parties to vent their functions and to recognize that they are
mutually dependent on one another via the larger corporation.

Direct conflict management approaches: proceeds with different combinations of

assertiveness (is the extent to which the person attempts to satisfy his own concerns) and
cooperativeness (is the extent to which the person attempts to satisfy the others person’s
concerns) by conflicting parties. This 2 basic dimensions of behaviour define 3 different
modes for responding to conflict situations:

 Lose-lose conflict: occur when nobody really gets what he or she wants. The
underlying reasons for the conflict remain unaffected and a similar conflict is likely to
occur in the future. Involves:
1. avoidance: when everyone simply pretends that the conflict does not really
exist and hopes it will go away
2. accommodation means playing down differences and finding areas of
agreement, letting the other’s wishes rule
3. compromise occurs when each party gives up something of value to the other
but neither party’s desires are fully satisfied.
 Win-lose conflict: one party achieves its desires at the expense and to the exclusion
of the other party’s desire. high assertiveness and low-cooperativeness situation. It
may result from: outright competition in which one party achieves a victory through
force, superior skills or domination; authoriative command, whereby a formal
authority dictates a solution and specify who gains what and who loses what.

4
 Win-Win conflict: eliminate the reasons for continuing or resurrecting the conflict,
since nothing has been avoided. Blend of high assertiveness and high
competitiveness. Achieves each other’s goals, acceptable to both parties. All relevant
issues are openly discussed.