Conflict can be described as the situation of disagreement, argument or quarrel among the groups or individual due to different desires and perspectives (Rahim, 2010).
According to Nastase (2007) conflict is classified into four types i.e., interpersonal conflict (between two individuals), intrapersonal conflict (within an individual), intragroup conflict (within the group) and intergroup conflict (between different groups). Organisational conflict refers to a situation of discord or disagreement within individuals, departments, teams etc. in a workplace. In order to avoid negative outcomes from organisational conflict, organisation needs to ensure effective conflict management system (Siira, 2013). Conflict management can be described as process of sensibly, and carefully handling the conflicts in an organisation. In recent years after the emergence of ADR (Additional Dispute Resolution) practices conflict management systems have witnessed a noticeable amount of change (Roche, Teague and Colvin, 2014). ADR techniques are innovative in nature. These are effective than the traditional dispute resolution strategies. In this case study, conflict management is required to be on the organisation’s priority because an unresolved conflict has the capability to adversely affect organisations working. The case study provided for discussion outlines the conflict between a newly joined employee Nick and his AM.
The thesis statement focuses on evaluating various causes of conflict and conflict resolution strategies, in the light of case study provided.
The conflict presented in the case study was a type of interpersonal conflict between Nick and his current AM. The reasons of conflict can be evaluated from the perspective of different theories. According to nature v/s nurture theory the conflicts are due to two reasons nature (inborn characteristics of a person) or nurture (behavioural pattern that a person’s adopts by learning and observing environment) (Ridley, 2011). In this case, the conflict is caused due to nurture not nature. Nick made an effort to adapt to his working environment and was not argumentative with his colleagues and managers from the start, but later he observed the environment of the job and decided to fall into conflict. If the conflict was result of the nature than Nick had fallen into conflict since the beginning, also he had not made the efforts from his side and given SM a proposal to overcome challenges. Attribution theory states that people attempt to explain the causes for their behaviour, actions and events (Graham and Folkes, 2014). In other words this theory explains how people assign meanings to other’s behaviour or their own behaviour. Here, both Nick and AM failed to assign the appropriate meaning to each other’s behaviour. Nick failed to understand that AM is also loaded with the work and AM didn’t understood that Nick is new to the job and required support. The difference in their perspectives and failure to understand the causes for particular behaviour led to conflict. This case included both internal and external attributions. This means that both internal and external factors were responsible for their behaviour. Social Exchange theory states that human relationships are formed after an effective analysis of cost and benefit associated and also after evaluating various alternatives (Burgess and Huston, 2013). A conflicting situation arises when one gives so much into a relation and does not get the equivalent return. Here the conflicting situation arouse, because Nick was giving too much in the superior subordinate relationship whereas the AM doesn’t give any inputs to the relation. He did not even make efforts to help Nick understand his job and neglected his problems. Constructivism theory suggests that people have certain set of constructs which identify their behaviour and also type of people with whom they would like to form a relation. These constructs differ from person to person and often changed by experiences (Fosnot, 2013). Conflict arises when people have different constructs or when the construct of a partner changes with experience. In this case both Nick and AM had different sets of construct. Nick was a kind of person who wanted critical analysis of the problems and taking corrective actions to solve the problem. Whereas the AM had a construct that problems would be solved automatically by ignoring or neglecting them. Both of them carried to work according to their own set of constructs and later this resulted into conflict. When it comes to theoretical evaluation of the causes the social exchange theory best explains the major cause of conflict. It explains that their relationship was not working on give and take basis. This gradually turned out to be main conflicting cause.
Apart from theoretical perspective various other causes of conflict (in this case) are also evaluated. In terms of work load, Nick was new to the job and workload for him was too much. Also he was put into roster system and was not given proper training about the work. This led to fatigue and ultimately conflict with others when he could not cope and he perceived that not one was there to help and guide him. In terms of differences in personality style, Nick has a different personality style than his AM. Nick was dedicated and took efforts to correct the loop holes in the process but AM had an ignorant personality style. Another major cause of conflict is working time; Nick had longer shifts than his co-workers which added more to his frustration levels. Also inefficient management was the cause of conflict. This can be seen from the instances in the case like- WW chairperson was hostile, SM did not pay any attention the Nicks proposal, AM also did not support the subordinates etc. The inefficiency of management led to various problems in division. Also it was the major cause of Nick’s frustration due which the conflict occurred. Poor grievance handling; top management was not efficient at handling grievances of the employees. Nick’s complaint regarding his AM was not efficiently handled by SM. Thus the problem remained consistent and resulted into a conflict. No support from the staff members; During his first event Nick tried to approach various staff members but as all of them were busy in their own event no one came out to help Nick. Negative communicative behaviour and troublesome boss; negative communicative behaviour includes some kind of insult, sarcasm etc. done in an aggressive or passive aggressive manner. Fritz and Omdahl (2006) described various categories of troublesome people and one of them is troublesome boss which is demonstrated in this case. The manager made a remark on Nick in front of the customers in public and which proved to be the major cause for the conflict. Nick felt humiliated and insulted and fall into a heated argument with the AM.
According to Jaffe (2008) the organisational conflict originated from the Industrial Revolution when the workers felt that their rights were being exploited and they rebelled against employers. Conflict management is an important task for an organisation. Any poorly managed conflict can bring negative results for the organisation such as, deteriorated group performance, tension, systems issues, ego clashes, more workload, ambiguousness in roles and duties, a culture that is disabling and disempowering, stifling bureaucracy, and abhorrent employees (Oni-Ojo, Iyiola & Osibanjo, 2014) . Thomas and Kilmann defined 5 basic strategies from managing the conflict (Mujtaba and McCartney, 2010).The strategy of Competing will include one side winning and one side loosing, and it makes use of power. Here individual pursues his interest at the cost of other. Collaborating- In this strategy work is done by integration for the mutual benefit. Avoiding- It involves ending the conflict by ignoring or postponing it. Compromising- In this strategy both the parties have to sacrifice to arrive at an agreeable solution. Accommodating-This strategy involves giving opposite party what it wanted. In this case the best suitable strategy is collaborating for the mutual benefit of both Nick and the AM. Conflict can also be resolved by third party intervention. These interventions can be power- based, right – based and interest- based. Some of the strategies of resolution by third party are negotiation, conflict coaching, arbitration, mediation etc. Negotiation is finding a solution that satisfies the needs of all the groups and parties involved (Zartman, 2008). For negotiations to happen three terms are important values, needs and interests. Conflict coaching works on Jones and Brinkett 5 stage model these stages are discovering the story, the identity perspective, crafting the best story, the conflict styles opportunity and the stage of learning assessment in conflicting coaching (Jones and Brinkett, 2008) . Arbitration; in this strategy a neutral third party acts as the judge and gives decision for resolving the conflict. It is guided by formal laws and varies from country to country. Courts do not intervene in this process (McCorkle & Reese, 2010). Mediation; in this strategy a mediator is chosen by concern of both the parties and best among them is selected which facilitates communication among both the parties. Mediator does not play any role in the decision making (Moore, 2014).
In the given case study the conflict is between Nick and his AM and the scenario worsen because the SM did not played his desired role. This part analyses various strategies that could have prevented or resolved the conflict. Nick could have gone for negotiations with AM to resolve the conflict. Integrative Negotiation could have saved the situation from worsening. Reframing the issue and bringing out the creative solution for mutual benefit can be the useful strategy from Nick to avoid this conflict. Application of competing strategy can bring even more adverse results. Up till now, the avoidance strategy was often used which did not give fruitful results. In this case the suitable conflict resolution strategy that Nick could use is collaboration i.e., Nick and AM should come together to clear their issues and solution must be obtained on mutual consent of both the parties. . However, based on the information given in the case study about AM’s interaction with Nick, it is unlikely that AM will give time and effort to work on a common solution. Thus, in this case there is a requirement of third party intervention. Suitable third party intervention will be through arbitration. Here, the top level mangers or the SM should act as an arbitrator and give decisions regarding the issues of conflict between Nick and his AM. If steps were taken at the beginning of the situation, mediation could have worked. There was no proper communication between Nick and AM. Mediation could have helped to resolve the issues at a beginning stage. Coaching would not prove efficient in this case. In this case the organisation needs to develop conflict resolution skills of its managers. As good conflict resolution ability is the key factor for employee retention in the organisation.
In order to avoid future complications the organisation should also take into practice various other steps to handle conflicts at workplace. There can be various ways for building effective conflict management system, such as clearly defined acceptable behaviour, roles, duties and responsibilities of a person in an organisation. There should be clarity in authority and responsibility relationships in the organisation. Proper leadership development and effective talent management should be done. Taking steps for conflict prevention rather than resolution, this involves identifying potential conflict causes and dealing with them in advance. Listen to understand i.e., there should be proper listening authority to various issues so that they can be resolved at the beginning only. Attack the problem not the person, the conflict causing issue should be identified and resolved, management should not attack the conflicting parties. There should be proper working guidelines for the employees so that they do not face problems while working. Establishment of proper communication channels is also required because ineffective communication is the root cause of every conflict. There should be proper grievance handling procedure to resolve issues of employees as quickly as possible. All these steps would help to establish effective framework for conflict management in the organisation. This will help to give better productivity and also solve the problem of employee turnover in the organisation.
It can be concluded that conflict is an inseparable part of an organisation and needs to be managed effectively. It is always better to ensure conflict prevention rather than conflict resolution. The case study demonstrated various major causes of conflict like work load, communication, time, different personality styles etc. Various theories provided a vision to evaluate the reasons responsible for a conflict. The case witnessed the ill effects of conflict in an organisation. Thus, the importance of effective conflict management system is outlined. There can be various conflict resolution strategies suitable for different situations such as conflict coaching, negotiation, mediating, arbitration, collaboration, competition etc. But for the resolution of this case the most suitable and effective strategy is arbitration because the conflict has reached to a much greater level and cannot be resolved without third party intervention. Also the organisation needs to establish a conflict management system and groom the conflict resolving skills of its mangers in order to avoid further conflicts. If steps are not taken in near future it can have more adverse effect on the organisation as current employee turnover was not satisfying. Nick’s resignation was an alarming situation and calls for immediate attention towards effective management.
References
Burgess, R.L. & Hutson, T.L. (2013). Social Exchange in Developing Relationships. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier.
Fosnot, C.T. (2013). Constructivism: Theory, Perspectives, and Practice. New York: Teachers College Press.
Fritz, J.M.H. and Omdahl, B.L. (2006). Problematic Relationships in the Workplace. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang.
Graham, S. & Folkes, V.S. (2014). Attribution Theory: Applications to Achievement, Mental Health, and Interpersonal Conflict. New York: Psychology Press.
Jaffee, D. (2008). Conflict at work throughout the history of organisations. The psychology of conflict and conflict management in organisations. New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Jones, T.S. and Brinkett, R. (2008). Conflict Coaching . USA: Sage publications.
McCorkle, S. & Reese, M.J. (2010). Personal conflict management: Theory and Practice. MA: Pearson.
Moore, C.W. (2014). The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflict. USA: John Wiley & Sons.
Mujtaba, B. G. and McCartney, T. (2010). Managing Workplace Stress and Conflict amid Change, 2nd edition. Florida, United States: ILEAD Academy.
Nastase,M. (2007). Types of Organisational Conflicts. Journal of Review of International Comparative Management, 8(4), 80-90.
Oni- Ojo, B.E., Iyiola O.O. & Osibanjo, A.O. (2014). Managing Workplace Conflicts in Business Environment: The Role of Alternative Dispute Resolution. European Journal of Business and Management, 6(36), 74-82.
Rahim, M.A. (2010). Managing Conflict in Organizations. New Jersey, USA: Transaction Publishers.
Ridley, M (2011). Nature via Nurture: Genes, experience and what makes us human. UK: HarperCollins.
Roche, W.K., Teague, P., and Colvin, A.J.S. (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Conflict Management in Organizations. Oxford, UK: OUP Oxford.
Siira, K. (2013). Organizational conflict, conflict management, and communication. Unigrafia, Helsinki: Publications of the Department of Social Research.
Zartman, I.W. (2008). Negotiation and conflict management. Abingdon, England: Routledge.
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