1. ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION

2. The term conflict has a strong negative connotation, evoking words such as opposition, anger, and aggression. But conflict does not have to be a negative experience. Conflict is a process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affects something that the first party cares about. Conflict involves incompatible behaviors that make another person’s action less effective. This definition paves the way for an important distinction between competitive (or destructive) conflict and cooperative (or constructive) conflict.

3. Competitive conflict is characterized by a destructive cycle of opposing goals, mistrust and disbelief, and avoidance and win-lose attitude. In the competitive mode, the parties pursue directly opposite goals. Each mistrusts the other’s intention and disbelieves what the other party says. Both parties actively avoid constructive dialogue and have a win-lose attitude. Unavoidably, the disagreement persists and they go their separate ways.
Cooperative conflict involves a constructive cycle of cooperative goals, trust and reliance, and discussion and win-win negotiating attitude. It is a mutually reinforcing experience that ends up serving the best interests of both parties. It is based on the win-win negotiating attitude

4. Types of Conflict Situations It is very important for managers to understand the type of conflict that they have to deal with so that they can devise some standardized techniques in dealing with common characteristics of conflicts in each type or category. Conflict can occur within an individual, between individuals or groups, and across organizations as they compete. There are five basic types of conflicts. These are: 1. Intrapersonal conflict: The conflict is within an individual and it can be value related, where the role expected of an individual does not conform to the values and beliefs held by the individual. For example, a secretary may have to lie on instructions that her boss is not in, to avoid unwanted visitor or telephone. This may cause a conflict in the mind of the secretary who may have developed an ethics of telling the truth. A person may have a role conflict. For example, a telephone operator may be require and advised to be polite to the customers by her supervisor who may also complain that she is spending too much time with customers. This would cause a role conflict in her mind. Conflict within an individual can also arise when a person has to choose between two equally desirable alternatives or between two equally undesirable goals.

5. 2. Interpersonal conflict: This conflict is between individuals and is probably the most common and most recognized conflict. For example, interpersonal conflict can develop when there are three equally deserving professors and they are up for promotion, but only one of them can be promoted because of budget and positional constraints. This conflict becomes acute when the scarce resource cannot be shares and must be maintained. Another type of interpersonal conflict can relate to disagreements over goals and objectives of the organization.
3. Conflict between an individual and the group: An individual may want to remain within a group for social needs but may disagree with the group methods. Similarly, if a group is on strike for some reasons, some members may not agree with the reasons or may not be able to afford to go on strike, thus causing conflict with the group. There may also be conflict between the manager and his subordinates as a group.

6. Inter-group conflict: An organization is an interlocking network of groups, departments, sections or work teams. These conflicts are not so much personal in nature. They are due to factors inherent in the organizational structure. For example, there is active and continuous conflict between the union and the management.
Inter-organizational conflict: This conflict may be between the buyer organizations and the supplier organizations, about quantity, quality, and delivery times of raw materials, between unions and organizations that employed their members, etc.

7. Conflict Triggers/Causes of Conflicts A conflict trigger is a circumstance or factor that increases the chances of inter-group or interpersonal conflict. Major conflict triggers include the following:

8. Ambiguous or overlapping Role: A role is a set of activities associated with a certain position in the organization or in the society. Unclear job boundaries often create competition for resource and control. If work activities are not well defined, the person who is carrying out these activities will not behave as others expect him to because his role is not clearly defined. This will create conflict, especially between the individual and those who depend on his activities.
Competition for scarce resources: Resources include funds, personnel, authority, power, and valuable information. In other words, anything of value in an organizational setting can become a competitively sought-after scarce resource.
Communication breakdown: Communication barriers often provoke conflict. It is easy to misunderstand another person or group if two-way communication is hampered in some way. The battle for clear communication never ends.

9. Time pressure: Deadlines and other forms of time pressure can stimulate prompt performance or trigger destructive emotional reactions. When imposing deadlines, managers should consider individuals’ ability to cope.
Unreasonable standards, rules, polices or procedures: These triggers generally lead to dysfunctional conflict between managers and the people they manage.
Personality clashes: It is very difficult to change one’s personality on the job. Therefore, the practical remedy for serious personality clashes is to separate the antagonistic parties by reassigning one or both to a new job.

10. Causes of Conflicts/ Conflict Triggers
These are circumstances or factors that increase the chances of inter-group or interpersonal conflict. Major conflict triggers include the following:
Ambiguous or overlapping role: A role, which is a set of activities associated with a certain position in the organization, when not clearly defined, brings about competition for resource and control. When a person who is carrying out such activities and not performing as expected of him due to the fact that his role has not been clearly defined, conflict arises, particularly between the said individual and those depending on his activities.

11. Causes of Conflicts/ Conflict Triggers (Cont’d.)
Competition for scarce resources: Anything of value in an organizational setting such as funds, personnel, authority, power, and valuable information can become a competitively sought-after scarce resource.
Communication breakdown: Communication barriers often provoke conflict. If a two-way communication is hampered, misunderstanding another person or group may easily done. The quest for clear communication is a never ending process.

12. Causes of Conflicts/ Conflict Triggers (Cont’d.)
Time Pressure: Deadlines and other forms of time pressure often stimulates prompt performance. On the other hand, it can trigger destructive emotional reactions. To forestall conflicts, managers should consider individuals’ ability to cope when imposing deadlines.
Unreasonable standards, rules, policies or procedures: These generally lead to dysfunctional conflict between managers and their subordinates.

13. Causes of Conflicts/ Conflict Triggers (Cont’d.)
Personality clashes: Due to the difficulty in changing one’s personality on the job, a practical remedy for serious personality clashes is to separate the antagonistic parties by reassigning either one of both parties involved to a new task.
Threats to status: The status or social rank of a person in a group is very vital to many individuals. When one’s status is threatened face saving becomes a powerful driving force as a person struggles to maintain a desired image. Conflict may then arise between the defensive person and whoever created a threat to status.

14. Causes of Conflicts/ Conflict Triggers (Cont’d.)
Contrasting perceptions: Individuals perceive things differently as a result of their prior experiences and expectations. Since their perceptions are real to them and they are of the opinion that their perceptions are apparent to others, they sometimes fail to put into cognizance that others may hold contrasting perception of the same object of event.

15. Causes of Conflicts/ Conflict Triggers (Cont’d.)
A conflict trigger is a circumstance or factor that increases the chances of inter-group or interpersonal conflict. Major conflict triggers include the following:
Ambiguous or overlapping Role: A role is a set of activities associated with a certain position in the organization or in the society. Unclear job boundaries often create competition for resource and control. If work activities are not well defined, the person who is carrying out these activities will not behave as others expect him to because his role is not clearly defined. This will create conflict, especially between the individual and those who depend on his activities.
Competition for scarce resources: Resources include funds, personnel, authority, power, and valuable information. In other words, anything of value in an organizational setting can become a competitively sought-after scarce resource.

16. Communication breakdown: Communication barriers often provoke conflict
Communication breakdown: Communication barriers often provoke conflict. It is easy to misunderstand another person or group if two-way communication is hampered in some way. The battle for clear communication never ends.
Time pressure: Deadlines and other forms of time pressure can stimulate prompt performance or trigger destructive emotional reactions. When imposing deadlines, managers should consider individuals’ ability to cope.
Unreasonable standards, rules, polices or procedures: These triggers generally lead to dysfunctional conflict between managers and the people they manage.

17. Personality clashes: It is very difficult to change one’s personality on the job. Therefore, the practical remedy for serious personality clashes is to separate the antagonistic parties by reassigning one or both to a new job.
Threats to Status: Status or the social rank of a person in a group is very important to many individuals. When one’s status is threatened, face saving becomes a powerful driving force as a person struggles to maintain a desired image. Conflict may arise between the defensive person and whoever created a threat to status.
Contrasting Perceptions: People perceive things differently as a result of their prior experiences and expectations. Since their perceptions are very real to them (and they feel that these perceptions must be equally apparent to others), they sometimes fail to realize that others may hold contrasting perception of the same object or event.

18. Lack of Trust: Every continuing relationship requires some degree of trust – the capacity to depend on each other’s words and actions. Trust takes time to build, but it can be destroyed in an instant. When someone has a real or perceived reason not to trust another, the potential for conflict increases.

19. Conflict Resolution Strategies
Some of the conflict resolution strategies and techniques include: Avoiding, Smoothing, Compromising, Forcing, and Confronting or problem solving
Avoiding – This is the desire to withdraw from or suppress a conflict. It involves physical and mental withdrawal from or suppression of the conflict. For instance, avoiding include trying to just ignore a conflict and avoiding others with whom you disagree. It often results in a lose-lose situation.
Smoothing – Accommodating the other party’s interests. It involves playing down on differences while emphasizing common interest between the conflicting parties. A manager who relies on smoothing will say to the conflicting parties “Settle down. Don’t rock the boat. Things will work out by themselves.” This approach may tone down the conflict in the short run, but it does not solve the underlying problem. This may have a lose-win outcome.

20. Compromising – This is a situation in which each party to the conflict is willing to give up something of value. In compromising, there is no clear winner or loser. Rather, there is a willingness to ration the object of the conflict and accept a solution that provides incomplete satisfaction of both parties’ concerns.
Forcing – Reliance on formal authority and power of superior position is at the heart of forcing. It has to do with using power tactics to achieve a win. As one might suspect, forcing does not resolve the personal conflict and, in fact, may serve to compound it by hurting feelings and/or fostering resentment and mistrust. The likely result is a win-lose situation.
Confronting – This has to do with facing the conflict directly and working it through to a mutually satisfactory resolution. Confronting is also known as Problem Solving. Problem solving involves face-to-face meeting of the conflicting parties for the purpose of identifying the problem and resolving it through open discussion. Confronting or problem solving seeks to maximize the achievement of both party’s goals, resulting in a win-win outcome.

21. Note: Only the confronting strategy or problem solving can truly be viewed as a resolution approach, since this method addresses the basic differences involved and eventually removes them through creative problem solving. Research shows that participants find the confronting or problem solving approach to be the most satisfying, as they maintain their self-respect and gain new respect for the other party. The major shortcoming of this strategy is that it takes time.