Need assignment done

RSCH 600 Research Methodologies and Inquiry

30th August 2020

Organizational Conflicts: Causes, Negative Impacts, Benefits, and Solutions

Introduction

Over the years, the concept of conflict has acquired multiple meanings and connotations, and this has left many scholars and administrators quite unsure about its meaning and relevance, and therefore, the best ways to cope with it. Conflicts are inevitable in any one's life as long as they are in an environment that has other people. Conflict is also a process where one party feels that another party is opposing its interests. In most cases, people only see the observable nature of the conflict, which includes being angry and bad words, but conflict is deeper than that. It is considered a perpetual gift of life, but it depends on the viewpoint of the parties involved. Some people see conflict as a negative situation, which makes the life of those affected harder, while others see it as a necessary tool for management. Other people may see it also a tool for growth or making them better people in the society. It all depends on the person and how they view conflict (Omisore & Abiodun, 2014).

Conflict can be defined as the struggle over claims and values to scarce status, resources, and power, whereby the opponents aim to neutralize, harm, or eliminate their rivals. Conflict in organizations has some characteristics like; it is natural, it can be reasonable and necessary, and the basis of many conflicts is on real differences (Omisore & Abiodun, 2014). Conflicts mostly occur when working with toxic people who may be defined as those that show patterns of counterproductive behaviors, which may affect their workmates and the organization as a whole. Conflicts have some adverse effects like; it may cause stress, anxiety, or depression to those who are subjected to it, it may reduce the productivity of the company, especially where the workers don't get along well, and it can generally affect relationships among people. The proposed benefits include; improved understanding of the task at hand, improved decision making, and team development (Overton & Lowry, 2013).

This topic attracted my attention because conflicts in any organization will cause significant issues such as a decrease in productivity. In some severe cases, it might also lead to Hugh amount of wealth loss to the companies. This paper shall look at the various aspects of conflict, including its classification, causes, negative implications, benefits, and solutions. This paper also explains various causes of conflicts and why these conflicts are caused. The impact of these conflicts are unknown, so this paper also provides some of the benefits along with the solutions to resolve this conflict to increase productivity among organizations.

Literature Review

Classification of Conflict

Omisore & Abiodun (2014) classified conflict in various ways which include; relationship conflict which is caused by incompatibility among the members of the organization which may be due to animosity, tension, personal clashes, and annoyance, task conflicts which are caused by the disagreements about the contents of a task and the set objectives and are due uneven distribution of resources, differing interpretation of facts, and differences in the procedures to be followed, and process conflicts which arise to how a particular task has to be done and the how roles and responsibilities should be awarded to those involved. The authors also classify conflicts as interpersonal, intragroup, interdepartmental, and inter-organizational. Classification of conflicts is an essential step in understanding its concept better.

Thakore (2013) also expounds on forms of conflict. The first category is an intrapersonal conflict that is experienced internally by a person but may also affect those around them. It is considered one of the most challenging forms of conflict to manage. It occurs when an individual is torn between two incompatible tendencies, and they have to discriminate between the two, which often leads to them expressing frustration. The second classification is intergroup, which occurs among members of different groups. It is widespread in organizations. For instance, there might exist conflicts between the manufacturing department and the marketing department on how many units to produce. The third classification is intragroup, which occurs between teams and groups. It can be classified further as relationship and task conflicts. The other classification is an inter-organizational conflict that takes place between two or more organizations.

Yasmin & Aleya (2017) show their efforts as well in trying to classify conflicts. In their work, they perform a qualitative study to be able to accomplish their objects. They use various sources like newspapers, scholarly articles, and books to describe the forms of conflict as follows; an interpersonal conflict that takes place between two individuals, which may be caused due to differences in views, beliefs, and lifestyles. The second classification is an intrapersonal conflict or intrapsychic conflict, which occurs in an individual. It might occur due to one own ideologies, thoughts, and emotions. The third classification is an intergroup conflict that arises between two groups, which have different viewpoints on a particular issue. Lastly, an intragroup conflict that takes place among the individuals in the same group.

Causes of Conflict

Isa (2015) points out that conflicts are bound to happen in any organization. In his article, he lists several factors that lead to conflict, and they include; poor communication, which hinders the effective passing of information from one party to the other. Poor communication has been considered as the leading cause of conflict in organizations. Lack of enough information may make the employees make assumptions and, therefore, make poor decisions that may have a negative effect on the whole organization. The other causes are; differences in personalities considering that the employees come from different backgrounds, and they have different beliefs as well, lack of enough resources to share equally, stress due to mental or emotional pressure, and sexual harassment, which targets a person because of their sex.

Murerwa & Guantai (2019) also talk about various causes of conflict in an organization. Interpersonal conflict is caused by individual dissimilarities, which include; personality, behavior, culture, opinions, approaches, views, and beliefs. Power struggle also causes conflict, especially where two individuals are competing for a position of power in an organization. Personality conflict is caused differences in drives or where there is malice towards each other. The conflict between the man and the society may be caused where the individual stands against an institution, practices, and social evils such as human trafficking, oppression, and corruption, to mention but a few. Other causes of conflict include; scarcity of resources, which sometimes is called economic conflict and value conflict, which occurs due to differences in ideologies.

Tonder, Havenga, & Visagie (2008) researched sources of conflict where they considered one local public authority, and one private agricultural company. The former was a nonprofit organization while the latter was profit-oriented. The data was collected utilizing questionnaires to explore the participants' views on the causes of conflict in organizations. The study also utilized a 4-point Likert scale to determine the extent of agreement or disagreement with the provided causes of conflicts in organizations. From the results, it was possible to point out some of the causes of conflicts. Employees indicated that many of the conflicts resulted from the actions of the management, which may seem racially related and workplace discrimination, which may also be referred to as abusive of power. Other causes include; lack of physical resources, adoption of new technology, shortage of adequate personnel, and scope and content of work, to mention but a few.

Negative Implications of Conflict

Ongori (2008) performed quantitative research intending to understand organizational conflict and how it affects the performance of the organization. The study employed managers from various organizations as participants. The researcher used questionnaires in which the first sections required demographic information, while the rest of the documents had open-ended questions. The study showed that if not managed well, the conflict could easily lead to reduced performance of the employees. Conflict also leads to a lack of cooperation among the employees or between the management and the workers who also affect the productivity of the company. The researcher also discovered that conflict leads to wastage of resources, which adds expenses to the organization. Therefore, conflict interferes with the normal functioning of the organization.

Gwakwa (2015) also talks about the adverse effects of conflict on both individuals and organizations. The author does both qualitative and quantitative studies to reach his goal. Data was collected by the use of questionnaires, telephone interviews, and existing material. If the conflict is not managed well, there is a risk of promoting presenteeism, which is a high turnover in companies. Employers do not quit their jobs, but they allow others to take on their responsibilities. It's like the employees have retired from their work, but they still perform the essential functions as required of them if they have to. Such mentality affects the performance of the business, which leads to a reduction in profits made. Allowing uneven distribution of the workload does not guarantee the long-term survival of the organization as well. Other effects include; loss of customers, increased absenteeism, and morale problems, among others.

Erol-Korkmaz (2019) did a study on organizational conflict to establish the various adverse effects associated with the situation. The participants were various academic members. Data was collected via questionnaires, which were divided into the demographics section and coping style questionnaire. The results were that the individuals who were victims of employees had a reduced performance in the organization. This was primarily due to the fact the management hadn't provided practical ways of dealing with conflict, most of the time leaving the employees to deal with conflict on their own. The individuals affected by conflict seemed to be stressed, and this affected their relationship with the rest of the members in their organization. Therefore, this prompts the organization to invest in practical conflict management approaches for the betterment of the working environment.

Benefits of Conflict

Hussein & Al-Mamary (2019) discussed the concepts of conflict and their effects. One specific part they talked about is the positive effects of conflict. This means that conflict is not always negative, as many people may think of it. Some of the benefits include; individuals are influenced to work harder and exert more effort, it satisfies specific psychological requirements such as egos, dominance, and esteems, it gives creative and productive ideas, they lead to social changes which ensure that work lives are not always monotonous, it leads to better understanding among people and influences coordination among them, it increases creativity by allowing parties to compete towards finding solutions to specific problems, and they also discourage premature group decision making which would have caused detrimental effects to the organization.

Yarbag (2015) also talks about some of the benefits of conflict in organizations. Conflict pushes workers to express their creativeness to the highest level as possible because of trying to prove their viewpoint as being better than the other groups. In the process, new ideas are also generated, and these might be very helpful to the organization. In trying to prove their points, the workers will be prompted to carry research on the issue, and in the process, they may discover things they had not anticipated. This also improves the creativity of the members. The members can then present their findings to the management to support their claim. This improves the performance of the organization. Conflict also gives the organization a chance to resolve problems that had been overlooked before.

Potluri, Puttam, Pemula, & Butta (2014) describe conflict as necessary evils in their article. Conflict encourages novelty and transforms where members are required to do away with some of their unwanted character traits. Conflict also encourages better decision making because all the facts are considered before arriving at an inevitable conclusion. It also leads to group cohesiveness by encouraging discussions among the members. Conflict may also hold up the goals of the group, and in the process, percolate its performance. Conflict also gives the management an idea that certain unwanted practices are present in the company, which makes them address the issues to prevent them from affecting the whole organization. Conflict encourages internal and external transformation. It also acts as a prospect for people to check their performance.

Solutions to Conflict

Overton & Lowry (2013) talk about the various ways of achieving conflict management. The first step towards resolving conflict is by setting a safe environment, as pointed out by many materials. A safe environment guarantees the participants that they will be respected and treated fairly. The second one is communication trust, which ensures that people will be honest in what they share with others and keep private information confidential. Lastly, capability trust, which gives all the members present an assurance that each one of them will deliver on their promises. In a safe environment, various models can be used to achieve conflict management. For instance, VALUED model which entails value, ask open-ended questions, listen to test assumptions, uncover interests, explore options, and decide on solutions.

Madalina (2016) also expounds on various approaches to achieve conflict management. The researcher utilizes an observation method to collect the relevant data to aid in concluding the topic of interest. The approach recommended for the study is conflict management through effective communication. This model consists of the following aspects; encouraging the members of the organization to send their honest feedback to the management on various issues. Management should be able to participate in both formal and informal means of communication to understand their employees fully. This also ensures that the employees participate in the conflict management process without hindrances. Communication should be clear and easily understood by the parties present. Lastly, messages should be delivered as facts and not insinuations.

Hossain (2017) explains the effects of conflict on employee performance and various ways to solve a conflict. The author used primary sources to collect data, and they included reports, government publications, and letters, among others. The study defines five conflict-handling intentions which include; competing where one individual wishes to achieve their goals regardless of those around them, collaborating where individuals with differences come together to make something out of it, avoiding where an employee decides not to participate in a conflict, accommodating where one party puts the interests of the other above its own and compromising where there is no clear winner or loser. Organizations and individuals may apply these approaches according to the extent of conflict to help them find common ground.

Literature Gap

The articles considered do not speak of professional models that have been set up to deal with conflicts in organizations. The methods used are rather conventional and do not, at any point, see that conflict may be related to any health condition. Sometimes the conventional methods may not provide a solution to the problem at hand, and this means that the conflict may always arise because its root has not been dealt with. In such cases, conflict management may require third parties who have specialized in the process of dealing with conflict in a very effective way. The management and the workers may not always solve their problems on their own. Also, the benefits of conflict are not well-defined, and this calls for the need for more research on the same.

Problem Statement

The research is about the significant causes of conflict in organizations and the various methods of finding solutions. The research depends on data from other people's work, which aims at finding solutions to conflict. The research justifies that there is a need to address the conflicts in an organization in a more professional way to avoid future reoccurrence of the same. It also seems that conflict has few benefits, as pointed out by some of the materials considered in this research. This is also a gap area which can be investigated further. I hope to learn more about organizational conflict, how to classify it, causes, effects, and solutions. The anticipated outcome is to be able to devise a practical approach to deal with the problems of conflict. Also, by conducting research, I would hope to learn why organizational conflicts arise in the first place and what these conflicts can result in. The research is important and useful because it will provide various parties with relevant information to help them understand organizational conflict better.

The gap area if this research is to deal with the conflicts professionally so that the problems that arise in the future regarding the conflicts can be solved effectively. By conducting research, we get to understand what are the critical reasons for the rise of conflicts in the first place, and the organizations can take the required measures to stop the conflicts. Also, after completing this research, this paper will provide a detailed explanation of some of the solutions that can be used to suppress the rise of the conflicts and also to solve a conflict that started and ongoing in the organizations. This research will help the researchers the various reasons for the conflict, along with some of the negative effects of these conflicts on the organizations. Researches can also be able to understand what informations is missing in the previous research, and the researcher will understand what steps to be taken for completing the missing research. For organizations and society, this research will help to identify the issues that cause the conflicts, and they can take the required steps to solve these issues by following the solutions provided in this paper.

Research Questions

The research questions as follows:

· What are the various forms and sources of conflicts in organizations, and what measures can an organization undertake to solve these conflicts?

· What are the negative implications of conflict on organizations? What are the proposed solutions to conflict?

Alternate research question:

· What are the impacts of organizational conflicts on organizational productivity and management, and what steps can be taken to resolve these conflicts?

The scope of my research is quite to provide information about the conflict and the various methods which can be adopted by organizations to deal with it effectively. The study also provides solutions on an individual basis. It shows that conflict is unavoidable, but individuals and organizations can learn to live with it. The scope is valid because it helps us to understand conflict and how we can live with it in our daily lives.

References

Aleya & Yasmin, K. (2017). Workplace conflicts: Classifications, causes, and management strategies. International Journal of Academic Research and Development, 2(4): 210-216.

Erol-Korkmaz, H.T. (2019). A diary study on organizational conflict: Augmenters of the negative effects of conflict. Turkish Journal of Psychology, 34(83): 38-43. DOI: 10.31828/tpd1300443320180124m000002

Gakwa, M. (2015). Conflict and violence prevention at workplace: Is it the grass that suffers/ Effects of conflict and violence on individual and organizational performance in Zimbabwe. European Scientific Journal February, 13(5): 231-257.