CHAPTER FIVE

MANAGEMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT

5.1 WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT?
All of us have experienced conflict of various types, yet we probably fail to recognize the variety
of conflicts that occur in the organizations. Conflict is defined as any situation in which
incompatible goals, attitudes, emotions, or behaviors leads to disagreement or opposition
between two or more parties.
A number of definitions of conflict can be found in the organizational behavior literature,
Examples of these are:
 Conflict is a type of behavior which occurs when two or more parties are in opposition as a
result of a perceived relative deprivation from the activities of or interacting with another
person or group.
 Organizational conflict is a disagreement between two or more organization members or
groups arising from the fact that they must engage in interdependent work activities and/ or
from the fact that they have different statuses, goals, values, perceptions.
Today’s organizations may face greater potential for conflict than ever before in history. The
market place, with its increasing competition and globalization, magnifies differences among
people in terms of personality, values, attitudes, perceptions, languages, cultures, and national
grounds. With the increasing diversity of the workforce, furthermore, comes potential
compatibility and conflict.
5.1.1 Different Perspectives on Conflict
There are different schools of thought on perspective of conflict. One school of thought -
traditional view of conflict argues that conflict must be avoided. Another school of thought, the
human relations view argues that conflict is a natural and inevitable phenomenon. The third
school of thought is inter-actionist approach which argues that some conflict is absolutely
necessary for group to perform effectively. Let us look at each of these views.
A. The Traditional View
The early approach to conflict assumed that all conflict was bad, conflict was viewed negatively,
and it was used synonymously with such terms as violence, destructive, and irrationality to

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 reinforce its negative connotation. Conflict, by definition, was harmful and was to be avoided
This school of thought has viewed conflict as organizations is often assumed to be unnatural and
undesirable to be avoided at all costs and noted that many organizations approach the
management of conflict with the traditional view assuming that:
 Conflict is avoidable
 Conflict is the result of personality problems within the organization.
 Conflict produces inappropriate reactions by the persons involved.
 Conflict creates a polarization within the organization.
B. The Human Relations View
This view argued that conflict was a natural occurrence in all groups and organizations. Since
conflict was inevitable, the human relations school advocated acceptance of conflict. Conflict
cannot be eliminated and there are even times when conflict may a benefit a group's
performance.
C. The Inter-actionist View
The belief of this view is that conflict is not only a positive force in a group but that it is
absolutely necessary for a group to perform effectively.
Such a view of conflict recognizes not only that conflict is inevitable but also that it should
sometimes be encouraged in order to allow new ideas, to surface and to create positive forces for
innovation and change.
Old and Current Views of Conflict

Old View Current View (cotemporary view)

Conflict is avoidable and harmful Conflict is inevitable and even necessary.
Conflict is caused by management errors in Conflict arises from many causes,
designing and managing organizations including organizations differences in
goals, differences in perceptions and values
of specialized personnel, and so on.

Conflict disrupts the organization and Conflict contributes to and detracts from.
prevents optimal performance. Organizational performance in varying
degrees.

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The task of management is to eliminate The task of management is' to manage the
conflict. level of conflict and its resolution for
optimal organizational performance.
Optimal organizational performance Optimal organizational performance
requires the removal of conflict requires a moderate level of conflict.

Here what we have to understand is that the inter-actionist view does not consider that all
conflicts are good. Rather, some conflicts support the goals of the group and improve its
performance; these are functional, constructive forms of conflict, In addition, there are conflicts
that hinder group performance; these are dysfunctional or destructive forms of conflict.
5.2 Levels of Conflict in Organizations
There are different stages of conflict in organizational life:
1. Conflict within the individual: occurs when an individual is uncertain about what work he
or she is expected to perform, when some demands of the work conflict with other demands,
or when the individual is expected to do more than he or she feels capable of doing. This type
of conflict often influences how an individual responds to other types of organizational
conflict.
2. Conflict among individuals in the same organization: is frequently seen as being caused
by personality differences. More often, such conflicts erupt from role- related pressures (as
between managers and subordinates) or from the manager in which people personalize
conflict between groups.
3. Conflict among individuals and groups: is frequently related to the way individuals deal
with the pressures for conformity imposed on them by their work group.
4. Conflict among groups in the same organization
5. Conflict among organizations: - Conflict that occurs between two or more organizations
6. Conflict among individuals in different organizations.
5.3 Functional versus Dysfunctional Conflict
All conflicts are not bad. In fact, some types of conflict encourage new solutions to problems and
enhance the creativity in the organization. In this case, managers will want to encourage the
conflicts. Therefore, managers should stimulate functional conflict and prevent or solve

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dysfunctional conflict. This is the key to conflict management. However, the difficulty lies in
trying to tell the difference between functional and dysfunctional conflicts. The consequences of
the conflict can be positive or negative.
A. Functional Conflict: is a healthy, constructive disagreement between two or more people.
Functional conflict can produce new ideas, learning, and growth among individuals. When
individuals engage in constructive conflict, they develop a better awareness of themselves and
others. In addition, functional conflict can improve working relationships, because when two
parties work through their disagreements, they feel they have accomplished something together.
By realizing tensions and solving problems in working together, morale is improved. Functional
conflict can lead to innovation and positive change for the organization. Because, it tends to
encourage creativity among individuals, these positive forms of conflict can translate in to
increased productivity. A key for recognizing functional conflict is that it is often cognitive in
origin; that is, it arises from someone challenging old policies or thinking of new ways to
approach problems.
B. Dysfunctional conflict: is unhealthy, destructive disagreement between two or more people.
Its danger is that it takes the focus away from the work to be done and places the focus on the
conflict itself and the parties involved. Excessive conflict drains energy that could be used
more productively. A key for recognizing a dysfunctional conflict is that its origin is often
emotional or behavioral. Disagreements that involve personalized anger and resentment
directed at specific individuals rather than specific ideas are dysfunctional. Individuals
involved in dysfunctional conflict tend to act before thinking, and they often rely on threats,
deception, and verbal abuse to communicate. In dysfunctional conflict, the losses to both
parties may exceed any potential gain from the conflict.
5.4 Causes of Conflict in Organizations
Conflict is pervasive in organizations. To manage it effectively, managers should understand
many sources of conflict. They can be classified into two broad categories. Structural factor
originated from the nature of the organization and the way in which work is organized. And
personal factors, which arise from differences among individuals.
A. Structural factors – The cause of conflict related to the organization’s structure include
specialization, interdependence, common resources utilization, goal differences, authority
relationships, status inconsistencies, and jurisdictional ambiguity.

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 I. Specialization: - When jobs are highly specialized, employees became experts at a certain
tasks. Highly specialized jobs can lead to conflict, because, people have little awareness of
the tasks that others perform.
II. Interdependence: - Work that is interdependent requires groups or individuals to depend on
one another to accomplish goals. Depending on other people to get work done is fine when
the process works smoothly. However, when there is a problem, it becomes very easy o
blame the other party, and conflict escalates.
III. Common resources: - Any time multiple parties must share resources, there is potential for
conflict. This problem is enhanced when the shared resources became scarce.
IV. Goal difference: - When work groups have different goals and these goals may be
incompatible.
V. Authority relationships: - The nature of a traditional boss-employee relationship brings to
mind a vision of a hierarchy or of a boss who is superior to employee. For many employees,
this relationship is not a comfortable cure. Some people resent authority store than others,
and obviously this creates conflicts. In addition, some bosses are more autocratic than others.
This compounds the potential for conflict in the relationship.
VI. Status inconsistencies: - Some organizations have a strong status difference between
management and non management workers. Managers may enjoy privileges such as flexible
schedules, personal telephone calls and longer lunch hours that are not available to non
management employees. This may result in resentment and conflict.
VII. Jurisdictional Ambiguities: - A sense of unclear lines of responsibility within an
organization. When a problem occurs within an organization, for which there is no definite
source of responsibility, workers tend to “pass the buck”, or avoid dealing with the problem.
Conflicts emerge over responsibility for the problem. The factors just discussed are structural
in that they arise from the ways in which work is organized. Other conflict comes from
differences among individuals.
B. Personal Factors: - The causes of conflict that arise from individual differences include; skill
and abilities, personalities, perceptions, values and ethics, emotions and communication barrier.
I. Skills and abilities- The work force is composed of individuals with varying levels of skills
and ability. Diversity in skills and abilities may be positive for the organization, but it also
holds potential for conflict, especially when jobs are interdependent. Experienced,

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 component workers may find it difficult to work alongside with new and unskilled recruits.
Workers can become resentful when the new boss, fresh from college, knows a lot about
managing people but is unfamiliar with the technology with which they are working.
II. Personalities: - individuals don’t leave their personalities at the door step when they are
entering the work place. Personality conflicts are realities in organizations. To expect that
you will like all of your co workers may be inexperienced expectation as would be the
expectation that they will all like you.
III. Perceptions: - differences in perception can also lead to conflict. One area in which
perceptions can differ is the perception of what motivates managers and workers, the reward
system which might create conflicts. Managers usually provide what they think employees
want rather than what employees really want.
IV. Emotions: - The mood of others can be a source of conflict in the work place. Problems at
home often spill over into the work arena, /area/ and the related moods can be hard for others
to deal with.
V. Communication barriers: - Communication barriers such as physical separation and
language can create distortions in messages, and this can lead to conflict.
5.5 Consequences of Organizational Conflict
The traditional view of conflict is that it is something to avoid at all costs and a phenomenon that
brings disastrous consequences for the organization. But the inter-actionist (contemporary) view
of conflict is that it is desirable and must be managed effectively. By accepting that conflict is
inevitable and in certain instances desired, the issue becomes how to manage conflict effectively
so that positive consequences outweigh negative consequences.
Functional outcomes include a better understanding of the issues underlying the conflict,
improved quality decisions, increased attention to the use of creativity and innovation in solving
and resolving future problems and a positive approach to self evaluation. Dysfunctional
outcomes include continued anger and hostility, reduced communication, and a destruction of
team spirit.
Functional conflict is a healthy, constructive disagreement between two or more people. This can
produce new ideas, learning, and growth among individuals. When individuals engaged in
constructive conflict, they develop a better awareness of themselves and others. In addition,
functional conflict can improve working relationships, because when two parties work through

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 their disagreement, they feel they have accomplished something together. By realizing tensions
and solving problems in working together, morale is improved. Functional conflict can lead to
innovation and positive change for the organization. Because it tends to encourage creativity
among individuals, this positive form of conflicts can translate in to increased productivity. A key
for recognizing .Functional conflict is that is it often cognitive in origin; that is, it arises from
someone challenging old policies or thinking of new ways to approach problems.
Dysfunctional conflict is an unhealthy, destructive disagreement between two or more people. Its
danger is that it takes the focus away from the work to be done and places the focus on the
conflict itself and the parties involved. Excessive conflict drains energy that could be used more
productively. A key for recognizing a dysfunctional conflict is that its origin often relies on
threats, deception, and verbal abuse to communicate. In dysfunctional conflict, the losses to both
parties may exceed any potential gain from the conflict.
Consequences of Conflict
Positive Consequences Negative Consequences

-Opens up an issue in a confronting -Diverts energy from the real task

manner - Destroys morale
- Develops clarification of an issue - Polarizes individuals and groups
-Improves problem- solving quality differences
-Increase involvement - Obstructs cooperative
-Provides more spontaneity in - Creates suspicion and resolved creativity
communications distrust
- Initiates growth action - Decreases productivity
- Strengthens a relationship when it is
- Helps increase productivity

5.6 Conflict Resolution Techniques

Managers can use a number of different approaches to resolve or reduce conflict. Such efforts are
typically aimed at minimizing the destructive impact of conflict.
Changing Situational Factors One obvious way to reduce conflict is to change the factors in
the situation that are causing the conflict. For example, a manager might increase the resources

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available, reorganize to reduce interdependence, redesign reward systems, or take steps to
improve communication systems. Unfortunately these solutions are not always feasible or may
be extremely expensive.
Appeal to Super-ordinate Goals If the situations causing excessive conflict are difficult to
change, managers sometimes are able to refocus the individuals or groups on super-ordinate
goals, major common goals that require the support of all parties. The success of appeals to
super-ordinate goals depends heavily on identifying goals that are sufficiently important to both
parties.
Use an Interpersonal Conflict-Handling Mode Aside from attempting to reduce conflict by
changing the situations or encouraging the parties to pursue super-ordinate goals despite the
situations, managers have five major interpersonal modes that they can use to attempt to resolve
conflicts in which they are involved.
 Avoidance involves ignoring or suppressing a conflict in the hope that it will either go away
or not become too disruptive.
 Accommodation focuses on solving conflicts by allowing the desires of the other party to
prevail. Essentially, the manager voluntarily lets the other party have his or her way rather
than continue the conflict.
 Competition involves attempting to win a conflict at the other party’s expense. In other
words, one party wins and the other loses. Note that the extreme case of competition is
authoritarianism (forcing or dominance), a party that feels it must win at any cost is using
aggression.
 Compromise aims to solve conflict issues by having each party give up some desired
outcomes in order to get other desired outcomes. Compromise often involves bargaining by
the conflicting parties and generally requires a situation that offers both parties the chance to
be in a better position or at least in no worse position after the conflict is resolved. With
compromise each person wins some major issues and loses others.
 Collaboration strives to resolve conflicts by devising solutions that allow both parties to
achieve their desired outcomes. In other words, the solution is such that both parties win at
least their major issues. Collaboration frequently involves considerable creativity in
developing solutions that suit the needs of both parties in the conflict. The technique is
sometimes called problem solving.

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Although collaboration is often an advantageous way to handle conflict because both parties are
likely to be satisfied, there frequently are reasons to use the other approaches as well.
Situations in which to use the Five Conflict-Handling Modes
Competing
 When quick, decisive actions is vital---e.g., emergencies
 On important issues where unpopular actions need implementing -e.g., cost cutting,
discipline.
 On issue vital to company welfare when you know you are right.
 Against people who take advantage of non competitive behavior.
Collaboration
 To find an integrative solutions when both sets of concerns are too important to be
compromised.
 When your objective is to learn
 To merge insights from people with different perspectives
 To gain commitment by incorporating concerns into a consensus
 To work through feelings which have interfered with relationship
Compromise
 When goals are important, but not worth the effort or potential disruption of more
assertive modes
 When opponents settlements with equal power are committed to mutually exclusive
goals
 To achieve temporary settlements to complex issues
 To arrive at expedient solutions under time pressure
 As a backup when collaboration or competition is unsuccessful
Avoiding
 When an issue is trivial, more important issues are pressing
 When you perceive no chance of satisfying your concerns
 When potential disruptive outweighs the benefits of resolution
 To let people cool down and regain perspectives
 When gathering information supersedes immediate decision
 When others can resolve the conflict more effectively

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  when issues seem tangential or symptomatic of other issues
Accommodation
 When you find you are wrong---to allow a better position to be heard, to learn, and
to show your reasonableness
 When issues are more important to others than yourself---to satisfy others and
maintain cooperation
 To build social credits for later issues
 To minimize loss when you are outmatched and losing
 When harmony and stability are especially important
 To allow subordinates to develop by learning from mistakes

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