Workplace internal conflict is believed to be one of the unavoidable circumstances due to high level of diversity within an organisation. With the fast growing chain of retail sector, workplace conflict can occur at various level due mainly due to the difference in personal level of opinions of the workers. According to Gilin Oore et al. (2015), internal workplace conflict at various level that mainly occurs due to poor interpersonal relationship between employees, is believed to be one of the major factors that compromise upon the overall organisational productivity. It is also not possible for the workers to achieve their individual target as they participate in teamwork. Reputation of the organisation will also be at stake due to the fact that they will not be able to provide high quality of customer service.
For large scale retail business organisation like Woolworths Limited, who is also one of the largest private sector employers in Australia, it is necessary to deal with the workplace challenges. This is also a major part of the corporate social responsibility that can help them to maintain high reputation of workplace environment. The aim of the current research work in this context will be to analyse all the underlying causes of internal workplace conflict. Research work will also investigate upon the various type of internal conflict that can ultimately compromise upon the reputation and performance level. With the help of the result of this research work it is possible for companies like Woolworths to implement proper intervention strategies to improve the level of coordination among their employees, thereby reducing the chance of internal conflict within the management.
Problem Definition
Workplace conflict can be defined as a major disagreement between employees within an organisation. There are several types of internal conflict that can occur between workers of different level in the organisation, which will ultimately disrupt the environment at the workplace. This one of the major management problem for large scale companies like Woolworths. The purpose of the research work is to address the following Research question, which will help the management of the company to improve the condition of the workplace:
The objective of the research work is to address the issues that are encountered by the company due to internal organisational conflict:
Cause of Employee Conflict
According to Sonnentag et al. (2013), the main underlying cause for employee conflict is mainly due to the fact that most of the employees have their own opinion and suggestion in the workplace. This is mainly due to the difference in the personal value of every employee. Liu et al. (2017), have added in this context that inability of the managers to understand the personal need of every employee is believed to be one of the major cause that give Rise to internal conflict. In most cases, the managers are not able to understand the cause for internal conflict due to the fact that they are not able to properly communicate with the workers.
Prior interpersonal communication between the workers mainly occurs due to difference in the communication style, which according to Ayoko and Ayoko (2016), mainly occurs due to cultural diversity that is common in large-scale multinational corporations. As the employee fail to properly communicate with the management, it is not possible for them to share the workplace issues that can hamper the motivation level of employees at their individual level.
In large scale multinational corporations, the employees come from different experience and cultural backgrounds. The background experiences that are encountered by different employees have a significant impact on their personal behaviour and values. According to Price et al. (2014), the difference in the personal values and behaviour in the workplace environment can also be regarded as a major cause for internal conflict. It can be saved in this context that interpersonal behaviour of an employee may not be in favour with the co-worker. Due to the difference of this interpersonal value and behaviour, it may not be possible for a worker communicate properly with their colleague.
Brett and Brett (2017), have mentioned about the fact that the difference in personal values of the employees is mainly due to the difference in the age and generation gap. As the employees fail to understand the perspective of your co-workers, it can generally give rise to personal conflict within the workplace. There is also the case of internal competition between the employees, which can result in adopting unethical practices. There are many industries, which foster competitive environment within the workplace in order to improve the overall productivity. This internal competition between the employees can often lead to unhealthy situation within the workplace due to the fact that it can sabotage the interpersonal relationship between workers within an organisation (Saundry et al. 2014). Unhealthy level of workplace competition can be a major cause of demotivation among several groups of employees.
The conflicting resources mainly occur due to the fact that all the employees within an organisation are not able to get proper access to all necessities. This can also be a major source of internal personal conflict between employees. The conflicting style can also be one of the major issues, which can comprise up on the overall teamwork. It can also be added that the working capability of individual workers can definitely depending upon their experience level. This can also be one of the major sources of internal conflict between workers as they will not be successfully able to complete a particular task within the same deadline. Different employees working within the same department often are given diverse types of individual target. It is also hampering upon the individual working capability due to the fact that the working pattern will vary hugely (Lipsky et al. 2016).
Workplace conflict in the retail sector
Managing of workplace conflict is one of the major challenges that are encountered by large scale retail sectors. Conflict can occur at different level between all types of workers and leaders, who are employed within the retail sector (Upchurch and Grassman 2016). The areas of conflict within the retail sector can revolve around personal issues, change in policies or unable to provide high quality of customer service. The extra work pressures that are encountered by workers in the retail sector are also one of the causes of conflict, which can seriously effect on the level of motivation. It has been often seen that leaders in the retail sector or not able to communicate properly with the workers. This lack of communication can raise the chance of misunderstanding within the workers.
Teague et al. (2015), have mentioned about the top level of competition within the retail sector, which creates extra work burden among the employees. It is also important to mention that with the high growing demand of customer service, which is one of the major causes of concerns for the workers, can also cause issues within the workplace due the fact that the workers are not able to meet up with the growing demand.
According to Johansson (2016), high level of management commitment is required in the cases related to managing internal conflict within the retail sector industry. Due to lack of effective communication between the stakeholders, it is often not possible to maintain healthy relationship within the vast network of retail chain.
Saundry et al. (2016) have highlighted about the fact related to providing better level of customer service that can help in effective ways to deal with the issues of internal conflict. As the voters are able to fulfil the demand of the customer, they are able to reduce the total number of escalation that ultimately results in internal conflict between the stakeholders. It is also possible to resolve all type of minor issues with the help of the customer care department. This step is believed to be one of the major elements of bottom line in resolving issues related to internal conflict.
Workplace conflict resolution in Australian retail sector
Purcell (2014), has mentioned about the importance of legal and institutional framework, which are often implemented in Australian retail sector thereby helping them to resolve all type of internal conflict. The government had set up the body of Fair Work Australia, which is one of the major governing body that help to deal with all types of labour related issues. The Fair Work Act 2009 was also implemented to deal with the issues related to that of internal conflict. Dissatisfaction that in many cases turns out to be major disagreements between the stakeholders due to the difference in interpersonal nature has often win the cause of internal conflict for large scale retail units like Woolworths Limited.
One of the major names of the management in Woolworths is to effectively manage the diversity within their workforce. Being one of the largest private sector employees of Australia, the company has to maintain a fixed protocol of corporate social responsibility. One of the major organisational objectives of the company is to create a lively and inclusive workplace condition for all categories of working staffs. The workplace policy will be implemented irrespective of an individual’s gender, caste, ethnic background or religion believes. The company or has also taken special initiative ensure that there is enough representative of women within the leadership role of the company. This is believed to be one of the effective strategies to resolve gender confliction within the workplace. Currently 33% of the leadership role in Woolworths is fulfilled by women managers (Choi 2013).
The material issues that have been identified by the company are due to various factors such as poor relationship with their suppliers and Communication barriers. The company is also not able to maintain end to end reduction. Theses range of issues the customer care affect the overall supply chain of labour within the company is believed to cause various internal conflicts between the workers and stakeholders. The company has initiated the process of Global Reporting Initiative, which can identify all the material related issues. It is important to consult all the major stakeholders of the company implementing any important managerial decisions in practice.
This will help ensure that all the workers within the organisation are able to express upon their personal viewpoint. This is believed to significantly reduce the chance of internal conflict within the later period due to the fact that the management can bring about changes within new company policies according to the personal opinions. In other words it can be said that with the help of this policy, it is possible for the management to resolve personal issues in the workplace, which is believed to be one of the effective techniques who deal with interpersonal conflict.
The implementation of sustainability strategy is implemented by the management of Woolworths, which is believed to be used to deal with resources conflict. The management of the company also encourages providing wide range of information about the internal matters with stakeholders at various level. This can help them to maintain high level of clarity with the workers, thereby reducing the chance of internal conflict.
According to Estlund (2013), there are various strategies that can be implemented to encourage the practice of workplace diversity. It is important for large scale organisations like Woolworths to engage to maintain age diversity. This can be possible by ensuring better job opportunities for the workers with high level of experience. Company also need to ensure that there is good level of coordination between workers of different age category, which will help them in the matter of dealing with effective coordination. It is also one of the crucial necessary to ensure to support of workers with less capability. This can help to provide them extra level of motivation, which is necessary to improve the level of coordination among the team members.
Gaps in the existing literature
Existing literature related to the effect and cause of workplace conflict has been able to describe the overall effect within the internal performance of an organisation. The literature also focused up on the effect of workplace conflict within the retail sectors. Nevertheless the existing gap of the Literature is due to the fact that it is not discussed about the effect and intervention measures for future internal conflict within the workplace that can compromise upon the sustainability of an organisation.
Research Design and Methodology
This chapter will suggest appropriate Research Design and methods that can be implemented for data collection procedure. This will help in the matter of conducting investigation in matter related to effect of internal conflict in the retail sector.
Research Design
Taylor et al. (2015), have suggested about three types of Research Design that can be implemented depending upon the subject and need of investigation. In exploratory Research Design, ladies watches consider the previous findings or collected information for all future studies. There is also the hypothesis mode of testing which verifies, the existing theories related to the subject and also suggest new level of hypothesis after conclusion of existing.
The current study will apply there with descriptive mode of Research Design, which willing to deal with detailed level of Investigation with the help of existing information related to case study of internal workplace conflict.
Research philosophy
Research philosophy provides a basic protocol, which is used by the investigators to gather and analyse relevant data. In positivism Philosophy, the investigators often manipulate the reality or the data that are collected in order to discover different variables related to the subject area of study (Vaioleti 2016). For the existing research work it is important to use interpretivism philosophy. This mode will help to interpret the reality behind internal work place conflict between the employees within all Woolworths any other retail sectors.
Data Collection procedure
The step of Data Collection is believed to be one of the important parts of all types of research, which is needed to collect relevant information from various relevant sources. With the help of information at various levels it is possible for the investigators to reach out to a definite conclusion. Gast and Ledford (2014), have suggested about primary and secondary form of information that is needed in all types of research work.
The primary data is generally collected directly from the sample size of the chosen research work. This is mainly done with the help of survey and interview. In the current research for primary data will be collected in a form of conducting survey with the workers of Woolworths. The researchers will also conduct interview with the managers of the company which will help them to understand the policies implemented by the management in order to resolve all types of future internal conflicts.
Secondary forms of data are collected from previously conducted research work. In the following case, investigators will aim to collect information some previously conducted research work related to internal workplace conflict. This will help them to get idea about the existing theories and underlying cause of internal conflict within large scale business organisations.
Sampling techniques
There are two types of sampling method which includes Probability and nonprobability technique (Tarone et al. 2013). For the existing research the investigator will use probability or random sampling method. This will help to ensure that there is unbiasedness in the matter of selecting participant for the survey and interview. The researchers will select 50 workers in random method and 5 managers at the board level of the Woolworths Limited.
In case of non-probability or fixed sampling method, the researchers only collect data from predetermined sample size. One of the major drawbacks of this type of sampling method is due to the fact that it is not possible to get wide range of data or information from all relevant sources.
Data Analysis Plan
The relevant information that is collected from interview and survey will be analysed using statistical tools. This will help to represent the collected data in the form of tabular chart form, which will help in proper representation.
Ethical Issues
Ethical issues are one of the major challenges, which prevent the researchers to draw suitable conclusion. Tuohy et al. (2013), have mentioned about the fact that it is important for the investigator to follow certain ethical protocol, while collecting relevant information. While conducting interview or survey, it is important for the researchers to ensure that they take full consent of the participants and not try to manipulate them at any level. It is also important for them to ensure use of reliable sources, which will ensure authenticity of the data analysis process. Proper validations of the data are also required to ensure that the result of the research work can be used as a reference for all future investigation work. It can also help large scale retail sectors to implement new theories in management, which will help to ensure less internal conflict in the workplace.
Limitations
The ethical challenges are believed to be one of the major limitations of the current research work. This is mainly due to the fact that most of the workers within the Woolworths Limited may not be agree to share personal information in survey or interview. Hence, accessibility issue of proper information is one of the major limitations.
The researchers will have also had to face issue due to limitation of time frame work and overall budget of the research work.
Budget
The total estimated budget is estimated of the research work is A$ 14,000
Reference
Ayoko, O.B. and Ayoko, O.B., 2016. Workplace conflict and willingness to cooperate: The importance of apology and forgiveness. International Journal of Conflict Management, 27(2), pp.172-198.
Brett, J. and Brett, J., 2017. Intercultural challenges in managing workplace conflict–a call for research. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management.
Choi, Y., 2013. The influence of conflict management culture on job satisfaction. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 41(4), pp.687-692.
Estlund, C.L., 2013. The Development of Employment Rights and the Management of Workplace Conflict.
Gast, D.L. and Ledford, J.R. eds., 2014. Single case research methodology: Applications in special education and behavioral sciences. Routledge.
Gilin Oore, D., Leiter, M.P. and LeBlanc, D.E., 2015. Individual and organizational factors promoting successful responses to workplace conflict. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 56(3), p.301.
Johansson, K., 2016. ‘In a Male Workplace, Things Would Never Be Like This’: Using Gendered Notions to Neutralize Conflicts in a Swedish Supermarket. Gender, Work & Organization, 23(5), pp.505-517.
Lipsky, D.B., Avgar, A.C. and Lamare, J.R. eds., 2016. Introduction: New Research on Managing and Resolving Workplace Conflict: Setting the Stage. In Managing and Resolving Workplace Conflict (pp. ix-xxxi). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Liu, Z., Deng, C.J., Wu, B. and Ge, L., 2017, January. Workplace Conflict, Status-conferral Criteria and Job Performance: Status Competition Perspective. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2017, No. 1, p. 16085). Academy of Management.
Price, R., Bailey, J. and Pyman, A., 2014. Varieties of collaboration: the case of an Australian retail union. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(6), pp.748-761.
Purcell, J., 2014. Line managers and workplace conflict. The Oxford Handbook of Conflict Management in Organizations, p.233.
Saundry, R., Latreille, P. and Ashman, I. eds., 2016. Reframing Resolution: Innovation and Change in the Management of Workplace Conflict. Springer.
Saundry, R.A., Latreille, P., Dickens, L., Irvine, C., Teague, P., Urwin, P. and Wibberley, G., 2014. Reframing Resolution-Managing Conflict and Resolving Individual Employment Disputes in the Contemporary Workplace. Acas Policy Discussion Papers, pp.1-21.
Sonnentag, S., Unger, D. and Nägel, I.J., 2013. Workplace conflict and employee well-being: The moderating role of detachment from work during off-job time. International Journal of Conflict Management, 24(2), pp.166-183.
Tarone, E.E., Gass, S.M. and Cohen, A.D. eds., 2013. Research methodology in second-language acquisition. Routledge.
Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R. and DeVault, M., 2015. Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons.
Teague, P., Roche, W.K., Gormley, T. and Currie, D., 2015. How Should Workplace Conflict Be Managed? Contrasting Pathways in the Literature.
Tuohy, D., Cooney, A., Dowling, M., Murphy, K. and Sixsmith, J., 2013. An overview of interpretive phenomenology as a research methodology. Nurse Researcher, 20(6), pp.17-20.
Upchurch, M. and Grassman, R., 2016. Striking with social media: The contested (online) terrain of workplace conflict. Organization, 23(5), pp.639-656.
Vaioleti, T.M., 2016. Talanoa research methodology: A developing position on Pacific research. Waikato Journal of Education, 12(1).
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