Conflict and Cooperation in the Workplace - Coursework Example

Name: Subject: Institution: Name of Instructor: Date of Submission: Abstract Conflict in the work place may be caused by a number of reasons. This could be as a result of diversity within the work place with respect to gender, experience, race and knowledge conflict can also be personalized, substantial or situational. This is as a result of the increasing diversity within the work places. For instance over the past few years many industries ranging from health, financial, educational and even management have a constitution of female employees is almost level if not level with that of male employees. This essay is aimed at putting into focus the impact of teamwork and diversity in work places with regard to conflicts and cooperation. It also looks into the strengths and weaknesses associated with teamwork diversity that contribute to the conflicting interests or cooperation within an organization. This essay also looks into other research findings that have been brought forward with regard to cooperation and conflict within the work place. Most organizations and industries have adopted diversity in their workplaces as they seek to cope with the changing markets through adaptation of teamwork based strategies. Through teamwork, individuals are most likely going to disagree on some matters probably due to their differing characteristics hence leading to conflicts within the work place. On the other hand group work or team work enhances cooperation by the individuals who bring together their differences and use them as strength to the advantage of the industry or company. Conflict and Cooperation in the workplace As a result of the ever changing demography and structures within the organizations, diversity in the work places s seen to yield both positive and negative results. This is mainly as a result of adopting group work in quest to remain competitive within the ever changing markets. Diversity in the workplace has been viewed from different perspectives by different individuals. To some, diversity entails the differences in age, gender and race among others, while to some diversity entails difference in knowledge and expertise in some issues. However despite the different perceptions with regard to diversity, there is no agreement that has ever been reached to exactly determine what diversity stands for in social and organizational context (Campion 828). To some scholars, the difference should relate to organized and historic trends in line with the advantages or disadvantages associated with an individual’s social identity. Fore instance, minority ethnic groups, women, individuals with disabilities or any other stigmatized group members characterize a social identity that has been disadvantaged historically hence should be put into perspective when talking about diversity. It has been argued by Barrick 385, that those research and studies that disregard the social status and differences in power among different groups might lead into inaccurate or misleading results that could probably divert the organizational attention and efforts from the real issues and problems that might have the greater impact. Other scholars on the other hand argue that there is a broader meaning and existence of diversity apart from just the social identity of disadvantaged groups. They define diversity as any differing aspect between individuals with respect to their character and attributes that differentiate one individual from another. This is translated into a collective set of differences between different individuals in the same social unit. However, despite this definition that diversity could be measured on any attribute, these researchers also pointed out that these differences should be within the context of demographics, expertise, personality, values and beliefs. This is because in the wider capacity and sense, most individuals have differing attributes from one another (Campion 830). Diversity therefore can be viewed from different dimensions. This could be differentiation by features that are task dependent such as the level of education, membership, skills and expertise, and ones knowledge and abilities. It could also be viewed from another dimension with regard to relations such as age, gender, race, values and an individual’s personality. As indicated earlier on, conflicts and cooperation in the work place is attributed to diversity between different individuals in a workgroup or team work. There is therefore the need to understand what a work group stands for. A work group is a group of individuals who work together or bring together their synergies and are interdependent on each other for completion of a certain task which will benefit the organization in the long run. A work group is in most cases under the umbrella of a larger social entity or system such as the community (Barrick, 385). In group work or team work different individuals contribute through input to the group which influences the overall effectiveness of the group. For a group to work effectively first there is need to develop trust within the group, put in place plans for completing the underlying task and also laying structures for group norms and how to interact. After this first stage the group then ventures into the second stage which involves bonding, adaptation and learning. The final stage is completion of the task being undertaken or when the team is finally dissolved. For the team or group to effectively accomplish the task being undertaken, it calls for interaction. How or the manner in which the group interacts dictates the level or extent to which the group conflicts or cooperates and is a key determinant of the effectiveness of the group (Barrick 387). This underlying importance of the group interaction has made it a key focus of many scholarly researchers. Conflict is brought about by tension among different individuals within a workplace due to their differences as expressed in the definition of diversity. According to Campion (826) Conflict can be seen from different angles that is task conflict and emotional conflict. Task conflict is brought about by disagreements among group members with regard to issues related to the underlying task. These include the procedures being followed, the goals intended and decisions made while emotional conflict also referred to as relational conflict is brought about by tension or disagreements due to the differing personal tastes and styles of the individuals within a group. There is also another form of conflict which is common within workplaces referred to as constructive conflict. This form of conflict involves looking into different opinions openly and also openly tackling differences as well as criticizing different options (Guastello 435). A group that continuously dips into constructive conflict tends to be attributed to high task conflict and minimal emotional conflict which is an indicator or facilitator of effective performance by the group through constructive variance. Cooperation on the other hand is the opposite of conflict. It points out to an inversely related though separable process that can manifest itself in teams. It is possible to a find a team or group that is characterized by high levels of conflict and at the same time elevated levels of cooperation. Cooperation entails the intention of working together with other individuals to achieve certain pre-established common goals. Some other authors as pointed out by Guastello 428, indicate that cooperation is the interactive and relational behaviour that is focused on achieving a set of goals. Such interactive behavior includes helping and assisting one another, listening attentively to what ideas and opinions the other group members have to say, and working as a unit in consensus towards the good of the group and achieving the set targets and objectives. A group that interacts well through cooperation and working together for the better of the group offer learning opportunities and also facilitate coordination in complimentary tasks (Campion 826). Cooperation is therefore an essential aspect for effective and functional team especially on an instance of interdependent tasks. However it is important to note that some scholars have been unable to distinctively distinguish between cohesion within a group, cooperation and conflict. This is quite understandable since cohesion includes aspects of cooperation such as commitment as well as a comparative lack of conflict. According to Guastello 432, this is because cohesion is defined as the underlying situation of a group as perceived by the said group. This cohesion in the group is brought about by any aspect that would enable the group to remain in one piece for instance, cooperation. Cooperation and conflict are two factors that are just a representation of the many factors that result into perceptions of cohesion within a group or team. Perception of the group members with regard to cohesion can be a determining factor of the level of cooperation or conflict within a group. Such perceptions include the similarity in the task being undertaken or having a common fate. Having already looked into the conceptual definitions and clarifications regarding diversity, conflict and cooperation in the work place, it is also of importance to look into how these two aspects interrelate with regard to the existing theoretical and empirical studies. Some studies indicate that diversity in groups leads to better performance than when a group is homogeneous although for an extensive period of time. However, other studies of similar nature indicate that there is no actual relationship between task performance and diversity or even that heterogeneity within team work and groups can minimize cohesion, increase conflict and interfere with task performance (Barrick 388). This article however focuses on the effects of work teamwork diversity or diversity within a workgroup on the outcomes of conflict and cooperation. Different perspectives explain the reasons behind change in interaction patterns when there is diversity in membership of a certain work group. According to Campion 828 social categorization perspective indicates that diverse personal characteristics lead to creation of beliefs regarding similarities and differences among the different social identity groups. According to this perspective, group diversity should be related to increased emotional conflict and minimal cooperation. On the other hand decision making perspective forecasts that diversity within a group should be interlinked to elevated task conflict and performance on multifarious tasks. In the modern world as the market environment continues to diversify as well as being competitive many organizations and managers have sought ways in which to remain competitive hence seeking strategies that can be of importance to the organization. Among these strategies is the adoption of team work or assigning tasks to a certain group with different attributes among its membership. Of major importance to these managers too is conflict management and enhancing or else facilitating cooperation among the various employees of the company. Many reasons have been brought forward as the reason behind conflicts in workplaces most of them being relational oriented (Guastello 435). However, conflicts in workplaces are not only as a result of personal disagreements between employees but also due to other reasons or circumstances. These include; Situational conflict; these are conflicts caused by the situation under which the organization has exposed its employees. For instance, where the organizational goals and procedures are conflicting it leads to a situational conflict. It is hard to find any organization that has no cases of conflict to deal with at any one point. Another form of conflict in the workplace is the substantive conflict. This arises where two parties within the work place disagree about an issue. It can be viewed from two angles as a positive or as a negative thing. When handled in the right manner a conflict can give the parties involved the ability to and even for the parties around them within the organization an opportunity to learn and hence the ability to resolve conflicting issues among themselves with creativity hence coming up with something better than any of the parties individual original position or ideas (Campion 829). Another form of conflict is the personalized conflict. This is completely different from the substantive conflict in many ways. It often does not result in anything positive but tends to disrupt the peaceful working environment. This is because it is caused by anger or negative perceptions about a workmate’s personality, character or even motive. When a conflict is personalized each party treats the other one as a suspect. This conflict is made worse by the fact that it is fuelled by emotions hence finding a solution or working towards finding a solution becomes almost impossible because none of the conflicting parties is ready to bow down to resolve the problem. Often each party goes out of the way to even fuel new conflicts that were not there. Work Cited Guastello, & Guastello. Origins of coordination and team effectiveness: A perspective from game theory and nonlinear dynamics. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1998. 83, 423–437. Barrick, Stewart, Neubert, & Mount. Relating member ability and personality to work-team processes and team effectiveness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1998. 83,377–391 Campion, Medsker, & Higgs. Relations between work group characteristicsand effectiveness: Implications for designing effective work groups.Personnel Psychology 1993, 46,823–831. Read More