Conflict Benefits and Destructive Impacts - Essay Example

Name: Professor: Institution: Course: Date: Conflict can be defined in many ways and can be considered as an expression of hostility, antagonism, rivalry, negative attitudes and misunderstanding. It is also associated with situations that involve contradictory or irreconcilable interest between two opposing groups. Singh (2008) define conflict as, “the struggle between incompatible or struggling needs, wishes, ideas, interests or people. Conflict arises when individuals or groups encounter goals that both parties cannot obtain satisfactorily.” conflicts are sometimes unavoidable and they arise where people are bound to work in the same organization. It is normal for people or organizations to disagree normally as a result of differences in opinion. However, if conflicts are unmanaged and allowed to get out of hand, they can be destructive to the organization and will ultimately affect the productivity of the employees in the workplace as well as the health of those involved. Conflicts can be destructive or can be turned into opportunities depending with how the person in charge deals with it. This else will describe various sources of conflicts, sources of these conflicts and the destructive impacts of conflicts as well as the benefits of conflicts (Rahim, 2002). Conflicts can be broadly classified into personal, groups and organization. Under personal conflict, there are two major types of conflicts: intrapersonal conflict and interpersonal conflict. Intrapersonal conflict can be defined as conflict within a person. This type of conflict arises where an employee has to choose between two conflicting goals, role incompatibility, when what they have to do is not in line with their values, ideas and thoughts. Choosing between fulfilling personal goals or organizational goals could be a source of intrapersonal conflict. This type of conflict is sometimes difficult to identify. Interpersonal conflict on the other hand refers to conflicts between employees (Butler, 2013). Interpersonal conflicts occur due to differences in individuals in relation to ethics, beliefs and personality. This type of conflict is characterized by people not liking one another or not agreeing with one another, pointing out the weakness of other person, expression of hostility towards one other and criticism. Employees may disagree over ways of achieving set goals, shared resources, problem solving techniques or may disagree with customers over service delivery. Managers and their subordinates may disagree over the management styles and expectations. Interpersonal conflict may also be as a result of competition, vicious gossip, jealousy and intimidation. This conflict may result into reduced profits for the organization and reduced productivity for the employees. It is important to understand the impacts of personal conflicts because they happen on a day to day basis. Some of the destructive impacts of intrapersonal conflict and interpersonal conflict is reduced productivity and profit, reduced motivation level in the employees and frustration (Butler, 2013).. Although personal conflicts have destructive impacts, they can also be of benefit. Healthy conflicts may result to the employee gaining more skills for example where both employees want to gain promotion for the same position, they may be forced to better their skills for the position. Personal conflict may also lead to employees better understanding themselves. For example, conflict as a result of role incompatibility may lead to an employee discovering that they do not have interest in that line of business and probably discovering jobs that they are interested in and can enjoy. By resolving the conflicts, the parties involved may develop better relationships and learn skills of avoiding damaging reactions towards a conflict situation. Interpersonal conflicts as a result of role ambiguity will lead to the organization redefining jobs and giving clear job description to do away with the ambiguity. Group conflict comprise of both intragroup conflicts and intergroup conflicts. Intragroup conflicts can be defined as disagreements between the individual members of a group. Intragroup conflicts are mainly as a result of incompatibilities in the team members and misunderstanding between the individuals. This type of conflicts is as a result of difference in personalities in the team members that ultimately lead to tension among the team members or differences in opinions and ideas where some team members may feel that the views of the other members are erroneous or do not make sense simply because they are different from their own view. Intrapersonal conflict can be helpful when it is honest in that it will help the team come up with the best way of achieving the objectives of the team. However, left to prolong, intrapersonal conflicts are disruptive and can lead to negative feelings between the team members which will ultimately affect the performance and productivity of team. Intergroup conflicts on the other hand refer to conflicts between different groups in the organization. For example, finance department may have a conflict with the sales department as a result of variances in the budgeted expenses and the actual expenses. Stiff competition may also result into intergroup conflict for example where the best department in the organization is getting a prize and both groups are trying their best to get the prize. Reward structures and scarce resources can lead to intergroup conflicts. Difference in the group goals and difference in points of view between different groups may also be a source a conflict. Reorganization of the organization coupled with integration of new services is stressful and may sometimes lead to conflict situations. If not managed well, intergroup conflicts are destructive (Van de Vliert, & Kabanoff, 1990). Unresolved intergroup conflicts can lead to reduced productivity in the functional departments or groups involved as they spend more time and energy on the conflict which will ultimately affect the profitability of the company. Intergroup conflicts can however be of benefit to the organization if handled well. For example, if competition between the departments is healthy, this may encourage each department to perform well so that they will be awarded as the best department of the year. Intra-organizational conflict refers to conflict within the organization within individuals, teams or departments and therefore comprise of both group conflicts and personal conflicts. Interorganizational conflicts on the other hand refer to conflicts between two or more organization that could be as a result of competition, scarce resources and shared resources (Van de Vliert, & Kabanoff, 1990). . As discussed in the above section, each type of conflict has advantages and disadvantages. It is however important to analyze all the benefits and disadvantages of organizational conflicts in general. There are several benefits of conflicts in an organization. Creating engagement with the employees is the first benefit of an organizational conflict. When employees disagree on an idea they are able to engage while airing their different opinion. Another benefit of organizational conflict is it encourages people to think. Although some employees would rather avoid conflict, other employees enjoy being in a conflict situation to a certain level because it helps them think. With a conflict, you are presented with many possibilities which create new ideas that would have otherwise not be considered. Also from the conflict, many questions are raised from both sides of the conflict which lead to generation of new ideas which is of benefit to the organization and even to the individuals involved (Lewicki et al,2007). Conflict situations create opportunities to reconsider a decision which in turn creates a breakthrough in thinking. Change can sometimes result into conflicts and avoiding change is sometimes inevitable. If handled well, conflicts resulting from changes in the organization can lead to innovation that will help the organization to break stagnation that result from change. Conflict creates group and organizational cohesiveness and although conflicts between group creates hostility, external threats to the group may make the group to come together as one unit, intergroup conflicts and inter-organizational conflicts make the individual members to identify with the organization or the groups (Tompkins & Kathryn,2004). Conflicts can also increase organizational and group effectiveness. Conflicts over goals ambiguity and different ways of doing things may lead to the organizations creating new means as well as clarification of organizational goals and innovation. When a conflict has been resolved successfully, there is greater efficiency in the groups and organizations with the members feeling more attracted to the other members. Although being agreeable is nice, conflict could actual result to strengthening of relationships between organizations, individuals and departments through respect and mutual understanding. Learning to listen to others leads to valuable insights from both sides of the conflict. If employees involved in a conflict are allowed to speak freely this can boost their morale and make them feel more valued and when an employee feels that their views are valued, they start to feel comfortable and valued (Rahim,2002). Although conflicts situations can bring about innovation and other benefits to an organization, conflicts can also tear away a cohesive business structure. If not well management, conflict can be destructive. The first destructive impact of conflict is reduced productivity. Organizational conflicts result in a lot of wasted time which ultimately translate to wasted money the two important things that determine the long term success of every business. Conflicts may be as a result of difference in opinion among the employees, rigid view point as well as absence of ethical standard. Conflicts may affect the way people work with each other with extreme cases of conflicts leading to stopping to work together at least until the issue at hand is resolved. This results to decreased productivity which cost organization money and creates barriers to achieving organizational goals (Kasey, 2013). Another destructive impact of conflict is stress. When there is a conflict, this affect the people involves the mediators as well as their family and friends. Conflicts when not handles well may even lead to loss of jobs lost of one’s reputation as well as demotion. Conflict situation also create working environment that is not conducive which ultimately affect the employee family life and also affect the reputation of the organization as a whole. The other destructive impact of conflict is creating dividing organizations. When conflicts arise through misunderstandings with the fellow workers or with the employer, distrust with the employer or with other workers and inability to change, many at such times, parties to the conflict or different parties are forced to take side which ultimately creates divisions in the organization, break personal and business relationships and affect the performance of such an organization (Kasey, 2013). As indicated in the essay, conflicts have both benefits and destructive impacts depending with how it is handled. However, what stands out is that conflicts have to be resolved if an organization is to reap benefits of a conflict. It is therefore important for every organization to understand the various strategies of resolving conflicts. Some of the conflict resolution strategies include: Avoiding, accommodation, competing, compromising and collaborating. Avoiding is the intentional decision to take no action on a conflict or decide to stay out of it. When one party to the conflict has no interest in their own goals or in maintaining a good relationship with the other party to the conflict, he or she may decide to withdraw and not deal with the conflict. In some situation, it may be necessary to avoid the conflict (Ruble & Thomas, 2006). Accommodation is a conflict management style where the party in conflict is concerned about the goal of the party been met but are relatively not concerned with getting their own way (Ruble & Thomas, 2006). Here, the party in conflict is more interested in keeping a good relation and therefore puts the interest of the other party over and above of that of his own and therefore sacrifices his interest so as to resolve the conflict. Competing is an uncooperative but assertive style where the party in conflict wants to satisfy their own interest at the other party expense. This is appropriate when knows he is right (Ruble & Thomas, 2006). Compromising is a conflict management style where all parties to the conflict are willing to listen to each other and sacrifices their initial expectation for the sake of resolving the conflict (Ruble & Thomas, 2006). Collaborating is a win-win situation which is high on cooperativeness and assertiveness where the parties are interested in continued and long term relationship and that the concern of all parties is satisfied to the maximum (Thomas, 2006). References Kasey J (2013). The Disadvantages of Conflict in an Organization. Retrieved on 31st March 2014 from http://www.ehow.com/list_6514167_disadvantages-conflict-organization.html Tompkins T.C , & Kathryn S. R (2004). Using Conflict to Your Advantage Butting heads is not always bad. Retrieved on 31st March 2014 from http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/2010/08/using-conflict-to-your-advantage/ Mooney L (2014). Five Ways That Conflict Actually Benefits You and Your Organization. Retrieved on 31st March 2014 from http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/five-ways-conflict-actually-benefits-organization-5828.html Rahim, M. A. (2002) Toward a theory of managing organizational conflict. The International Journal of Conflict Management, 13, 206-235. Lewicki et al (2007) Conflict and its management Journal of Management, 21, 515-558 Butler A (2013) .Interpersonal & Intrapersonal Conflict. Retrieved on 30th March 2013 from http://www.livestrong.com/article/144539-interpersonal-intrapersonal-conflict/ Ruble, T. L., & Thomas, K. W. (2006) Support for a two-dimensional model for conflict behavior Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 16, 143-155 Van de Vliert, E., & Kabanoff, B. (1990) Toward theory-based measures of conflict management. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 199-209 Read More