Causes of Workplace Conflict Arising from the Inclusion of People with Disabilities
Workplace conflict reflects a state of discord developed by the perceived or actual opposition of values, needs and interest between people working within the same organizational structure. Workplace conflict can arise in many different situations, which eventually would reduce the effectiveness of the overall operational process of the organization. For that reason, management of all the organizations always focuses on developing strategies that would minimize the probability of arising conflict within the workplace. In this study, the focus would be workplace conflict arises due to the inclusion of people with various disabilities. It has been assessed that many organizations have recognized the importance of recruiting people with superior knowledge and skills regardless of the physical disabilities (Harvey & Allard, 2015). As a result, general employees have to deal with employee with disabilities on a regular basis. It has highlighted many cases where other employees treat people with disability differently. It has increased the possibility of workplace conflict in a major way. It has also damages the overall healthy working atmosphere, which eventually create barriers on the fulfilment of business objectives. In this study, the focus would be on covering all possible aspect of conflicts arises due to the inclusion of people with disability. The study would also focus highlighting all the legislative rules and regulations that focuses on minimizing discrimination within the workplace perspectives. The study would also focus on identifying different strategies that organizations have used in order to eliminate workplace conflict due to disability. It would also focus on providing effective recommendations so that organizations can counter any possibility workplace conflict in an appropriate way.
Darby (2015) has highlighted two prime reasons for increasing interest in the participation rate of people with disabilities with the labour market. Firstly, human right legislation and employment equity has imposed huge amount of pressure to all the business entities to recruit people with disabilities so that labour market for those people remains at the optimum level. Analyzing the differences in the education, labour force participation and occupation may allow the employers and government to utilize disability people workforce in an appropriate way (Kirton & Greene, 2015). Secondly, increasing rate of job opportunity for the people with disability has also highlighted the trend that employers are looking to include people with superior knowledge and skills regardless of the disabilities. For that reason, it has exposed the people with disabilities in front of normal people on daily work basis. Now, organizations often discriminates the roles and responsibilities provided to the general employees and staffs with disability (McDowell & Fossey, 2015). In fact, inclusion of disability member has also induces other employees to take some additional responsibilities, which in turn creates conflict situation within the workplace. It has also been assessed that people with physical disabilities often require more time compared to any normal employee. Therefore, organizations often have to consider some specific areas to get the job done. For that reason, it often creates chaos within the workplace regarding the roles and responsibilities of the employees.
Impact of Workplace Conflict on Organizational Process
As per the article by Canas and Sondak (2013) organizations often hire people with disabilities for addressing all the CSR needs in an appropriate manner. It the present time, inclusion of people with different time of disabilities has emerged as one of the prime social issues. Therefore, many business entities have focused on increasing the rate hiring for the people with disabilities. For that reason, it has also enhanced the rate of interaction among employees regardless of disability perspectives. As a result, it has created several major challenges for the organizations to establish a common way for communication (Way et al., 2013). On the other hand, lack of effective communicational channel would lead to create confusion among the roles and responsibilities each employee would have to perform for achieving organizational goals and objectives. This confusion will eventually lead to different conflicting situation among each other. Barak (2016) has highlighted different types of conflicts including personal conflict, intra-group conflict, and intergroup conflict that can occur at the organizational workplace. Personal conflict reflects conflict between two individual mostly due to personality clash or mutual dislike. Now, in case of including people with disability the probability of personal conflict increases at a rapid rate. Many employers perceived that inclusion of people with disability would eventually create extra burden for the organizations, as it will have to invest more for fulfilling organizational responsibilities (Kirton & Greene, 2015). On the other hand, majority of the time employees without disability treats disable employee differently, which eventually would increase the probability of developing conflict within the workplace.
It has been assessed that causes of personal conflict can be differences in personality, family problem, personal problem and childcare issues. For instance, disable employee often had to go through different abusive comments from the fellow employees, which creates extremely negative working atmosphere (Thomas, 2012). On the other hand, intra-group conflict focuses on factors like resources, position and scarcity of freedom that eventually lead employee to create different conflicting situation. Now, many organizations have often provided lesser freedom or resources compared to any other employee, as they give lesser importance to the disabled employee. Thus, it highlighted the fact that employee with disability often have to go through serious discrimination from other employee, which damages their moral or motivational level in a major way. As a result, it would also create workplace conflict in fulfilling all the provided responsibilities by the organization. Finally, intergroup conflict highlights the struggle between the management and a group of employees. It also includes competition within the hierarchical position in same department. Now, it has been assessed that people with disability often has to go through different misjudgement, negligence or misbehaviour from the management, which would eventually create dissatisfaction towards the management. As a result, it would also create workplace within the similar group. As per the article by Patrick and Kumar (2012) people with disabilities is more likely to remain associated with the organization for a long period of time. It has been assessed that rate of attrition is extremely low for disable employees compared to other employee. It highlights the fact that employee with disability are more likely to avoid conflicting situations. However, the strategies initiated by the employers or employees within the organization have enforced different types of workplace conflict. Specifically, avoidance or discriminating policies have focused on providing lesser opportunities to the disable employees to move forward towards the right direction (Player, 2013). On the other hand, government has induced organizations to maintain different expectations from the disable employees, which has created negative environment within the other employee group. Majority of the employees with disabilities have perceived that inclusion of disable people would eventually increase the pressure of the organizational responsibilities in a major way.
Strategies to Minimize Workplace Conflict Arising from the Inclusion of People with Disabilities
As emphasized by Wolff (2013) workplace conflict is a serious issue that can have adverse impact on the overall effectiveness of the operational process. In fact, organizations can lose competitiveness or market share due to increasing conflict within the workplace. For that reason, every global organization has focused on including diversified work force so that it can able to handle all the organizational challenges in an appropriate manner. Now workplace diversity focuses on including employee regardless of location, religion, disability and sex, which can create different conflicting situation. Specifically, people are not used to of working with disable people. Therefore, it can be expected that they will face challenges in understanding believes and thoughts of the other employee. For that reason, organizations would have to focus on developing strategies for countering any conflicting situation in an effective manner. The strategies for handling organizational conflict are as follows:
As highlighted by Pines et al. (2012) understanding of actual source of conflict is essential for the organizations to eliminate any adverse impact on the workplace. Specifically, when conflict involves people with disabilities, organizations would be extra sensitive in understanding the issue. It has been assessed that any biased approach towards the disable employee can actually send wrong message to other employee. As a result, it would create much worse situation for the organizations in fulfilling all the responsibilities. Wolff and Yakinthou, (2013) have mentioned that workplace conflict often arises due to combination of many factors. Therefore, organizations have to analyze all the factors in order to identify the root of conflicting situation. It has been assessed that one general issue regarding the disable person is not the source of conflict. In fact, it is the reflection of people irritation at the time of performing responsibilities. For that reason, organizational strategy must have to involve identification of conflict sources so that it can eliminate the adverse power in a major way (Namie, Christensen & Phillips, 2014). Thus, organizations need to focus on conducting surveys among different group of employees so that it can able to understand differences in perspectives comprehensively. As a result, it would eventually create positive impact on handling workplace conflicting perspectives in an appropriate manner.
Organizations also have to focus on acknowledgement of the problem so that it can tackle all the conflict situations in an appropriate way. Now, acknowledgement of the problem requires acceptance of the recognized issues, which would eventually help to take right decisions. For instance, discriminative approach by the employers towards the employees with disability has created the conflicting situation (Condliffe, 2012). Therefore, management have to accept their fault and also need to ensure that all the employees are provided with similar approach and benefits. Moreover, management also have to focus on providing proper recognition to the employees with disabilities so that they remain motivated towards their roles and responsibilities. As a result, it would help organizations to create positive vibe within the workplace, which will eventually eliminate conflicting situation from workplace.
As per the article by Prenzel and Vanclay (2014) organizational conflict can occur due to differences in values, believes and thoughts. Specifically, as organizations have started to expand its reach all the across the global market, employees will have to work with people coming from different geographical region. Now, people from different location also create differences in the way entire work has to perform. As a result, it would also create conflicting situation within the workplace. Moreover, the differences become twice at the time when employees from different region are suffering from different disabilities. For instance, an employee with learning disability would require lot of training facilities for performing all the provided responsibilities at the desired order. On the other hand, physically challenged employee would require different support services for completing all the provided responsibilities in an appropriate manner. Therefore, the strategies initiated by the organization will have to be unique that would also have to vary from individual to individual (Harvey & Allard, 2015). Otherwise, it would create dissatisfaction among the employees with disabilities, which would create workplace conflict on a regular basis. On the other hand, organizations strategies also have to focus on developing proper communication channel for the employees so that they can able to understand the necessity of providing additional support to the disable employees.
Finally, organizations have focused on identifying the kind of adverse impact it would create on the overall effectiveness of the operational process. As per the article by Bomers and Peterson (2013) assessment of conflict consequences would allow organizations to take different preventive steps for maximizing the profit within the market. Therefore, organizational strategies would focus on including different calculation tools that would indicate the changing trend of the internal and external environment. It has been assessed that increasing probability of workplace conflict directly impacts on the employee attrition rate. Thus, increasing conflicting would not allow organizations to keep talent associated with the organizations for long period of time. As a result, it would create adverse impact on the competitive advantage perspective of the organization (Barak, 2016). As inclusion of disable employee has become compulsory for the organizations, it would only have to focus on the best way to utilize for achieving sustainable growth in the market.
The above strategies have highlighted the fact that organizations strategy would have to evolve in continues manner for creating maximum impact on the business processes. Thus, organizations would also have to focus on different perspectives for eliminating the adverse impact of workplace conflict. In addition, it would also help the organizations to handle workplace diversity in an appropriate the way. The recommended strategies are as follows:
As highlighted by Christianson (2016) appropriate development of workplace conflict guidelines would create awareness among the employees regarding the best possible way to maintain themselves within the organizational framework. A recent survey has highlighted the fact that lack of awareness or guideline is among the prime reason for developing conflicting situation. Therefore, if organizations can include all possible factors associated with workplace conflict, it would definitely create positive impact on handling complex situation effectively. However, organizations would have to make sure that guidelines do not contradict with the employee empowerment perspectives (Woodrow & Guest, 2014). Otherwise, it would reduce the motivational level of the employees in a major way.
Management have to play prime role in minimizing workplace conflict regardless of the presence of disable employee. For that reason, management would have to acquire for handling both disabled employee and other employee in an appropriate manner (Dipboye & Colella, 2013). For instance, conflict management require proper negotiation skill from the management, as it would help to convince employees. Moreover, proper training facilities would allow managers to understand differences in employee perspectives, which would help to establish effective solution. In addition, training would allow managers to perform the role of mediators in an appropriate manner, which is essential to avoid different unwanted conflicts. Finally, training would allow managers to become better listeners, which is regarded as one of the prime skills for utilizing diversified workforce effectively.
It has been assessed that miscommunication is regarded as one of the prime causes on organizational conflict. Therefore, it is essential for the organizations to focus on developing clarity towards the goals and objectives. In fact, it would have to focus on prioritizing all the target point for achieving sustainable growth in the market. Now, maintenance of healthy working environment has to be listed at the very top of the priority list. It would highlight the significance of maintaining conflict workplace among the employees (Marumoagae, 2012). As a result, it would induce employees to remain indifferent towards the employees with disability. Moreover, management will also have to focus on conducting session with all the employees individually in order to understand the kind of challenges they are facing in performing their responsibilities. It would allow organizations to take some effective preventive steps for ensuring continues success in the market.
As highlighted by Fevre et al. (2013) proper maintenance of legislative rules and regulations are regarded as one of the prime ways of avoiding workplace conflicts. Over the years, government has imposed different rules and regulations for eliminating misbehaviour or harassment against the disable employees. Government has divided the entire discrimination process into four parts including direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment and victimization, which organizations must have to consider at the time o developing conflict management strategies. Organizations need to react according to the given way of legislative guidance for avoiding conflict situation effectively. Moreover, organizations also have to focus on utilizing reasonable adjustment perspective in an appropriate manner.
Conclusion:
The above study has highlighted the fact that managing diversity has emerged as one of the prime challenges for the organizations for achieving sustainable growth in the market. Over the years, diversity has provided business different perspectives for expanding its reach all across the market. Therefore, it is essential for the organizations to include diversity in a workplace. However, diversity does come up with different challenges that organizations need to counter for fulfilling business goals and objectives appropriately. Thus, organizations also have to focus on appropriate use of disable employees, which would not only create positive impact on the diversity perspective but also would help to represent it as a responsible corporate citizen. The study has highlighted that organizations have to initiate different strategies to counter any possibility of conflict within the workplace. Specifically, management would have to focus on providing effective guide and support services in order to handle all the internal and external challenges appropriately.
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