Categories of Conflict
In most of cases, conflict is found to arise between two or more people due to the persistence of differences in understanding, beliefs, and values, interests, thought processes, behaviour, and needs. Conflict can be categorised into destructive and constructive conflict. In this regard, Deutsch et al., (2021) underline “the four horsemen ” tool that can be utilised to determine the destructive conflict. Lack of effective communication or poor communication can also generate conflicts that might negatively influence upon one’s emotional and mental well-being.
Wilmot & Hocker (2017) in this context mentioned that communication behaviour plays a significant role in conflict and highlights four communication paradigms such as perspective taking, decoding or encoding, dialogic, and intentionality respectively. Interpersonal conflict is often identified at the workplace due to improper role clarification or communication issues. In addition to this, interdependence, status differences, expectation, authority, and others are the key reasons behind the occurrence of interpersonal conflict at the workplace.
In relation to business context, criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling are the primary communication behaviours that can lead to the generation of conflict at the workplace. On the other hand, it has been identified that non-verbal and verbal communication behaviour can also lead to the rise of conflict for different reasons. The key reason behind this statement is that the way one individual interacts with others can be one of the primary sources of miscommunication (Sillars et al., 2021). For example, one person might perceive the communication attitude of another differently and this can be the beginning of the conflict. On the other hand, tone and the way individuals deliver their perspective while interacting with others also may lead to the generation of conflict in case those perspectives are misunderstood or misinterpreted by others. Thus, a positive attitude and communication style will be required while interacting with others to prevent the occurrence of conflict.
Interpersonal communication is considered as the systematic process for exchanging ideas, feelings, information, thoughts, and others between two or more people with the help of non-verbal and verbal communication. As mentioned by Folger et al., (2021), communication plays a significant role in minimising misunderstanding and enhancing the chance for building effective relationships with others. For instance, aggressive communication is often identified in a displeased situation or person. This kind of communication behaviour needs to be resolved quickly before it leads to the occurrence of more aggressive behaviour. On the other hand, assertive communication is found to be identified while two or more parties believe that other parties have the authority to their respective opinion and seek for interaction to resolve any kind of conflict appropriately.
In contrast, passive communication has been identified while one tries to put the needs of the other person before their own. Though this type of communication behaviour is effective, due to the passiveness of the party conflict might be generated in some cases.
Culture and gender influence directly the way people interact or communicate due to the adoption of different communication behaviour and styles. Culture can always be considered as one of the major factors for conflict. For example, conflict between the teenagers and parents are found to be shaped by the generational culture, whereas, conflict among partners or spouse is found to be influenced by gender culture. On the other hand, at the workplace, conflict is found to be raised due to different cultures such as poor communication, interest difference, stressed relationships, and others (Smith et al., 2019).
Communication Behaviour and Interpersonal Conflict
It is identified that interpersonal conflict can be generated within a personal relationship or at the workplace. Incompatibility, perceived differences, lack of trust is the commonly identifiable cultural difference that leads to the occurrence of interpersonal conflict. Antecedent culture or situation can be considered as one of the key sources for the occurrence of race-related interpersonal conflict. At the workplace, this type of conflict can negatively influence organisational sustainability, productivity, and growth.
Conflict can be considered as one of the specific parts of any business entity and this requires it to be resolved strategically. Following are the certain strategic approaches that can be considered to resolve or prevent the occurrence of interpersonal conflict.
- Maintaining an effective, diverse, and suitable workplace culture to eliminate conflict
- Instead of avoiding conflict, the team and management need to analyse the root cause of the conflict in accordance with which appropriate countermeasures can be undertaken
- Acknowledging the belief, values, and perspectives of others can be another way to resolve interpersonal conflict
Business entities in this fast-changing and dynamic business environment have experienced workplace conflict that negatively influences upon their organisational productivity and performance. Poor communication, misunderstanding, and personal differences can be considered as the three most primary reasons for conflict. The key reason behind this statement is that for example one specific task is being assigned to specific employees, however, due to poor communication that employees may fail to complete the task. This might lead to work discrepancies leading to the generation of unintentional conflict (Kim et al., 2020). On the other hand, a lack of transparency of organisational policies and procedures can also lead to institutional conflict that negatively influences ongoing and future organisational performance.
Personal differences are found to be common at the workplace due to the engagement of different people with different attitudes, perspectives, thought processes, attitudes, or interests. For instance, highly dogmatic and authoritarian people at the workplace are found to be prone to antagonise co-workers through highlighting minimal differences that may or may not exist. This directly contributes to the generation of workplace conflict (Sultana et al., 2021).
Functional conflict can be a positive conflict for an organisation in relation to institutional change. Functional conflict is found to endorse an effective thought exchange, clear air as well as stimulates the creative thinking that enhances the chance for making optimal business decisions. As mentioned by Adams & Plaatjies (2021), functional conflict can be considered as constructive disagreement and healthy between individuals or groups. In most of the cases, it is identified that persistence of functional conflict enhances the chance for establishing an effective conflict resolution process. Functional conflicts are found to be aligned with organisational goals and policies. It maximises organisational productivity and employee morale by generating proactive solutions to specific complex situations. For example, an organisation can perform surveys among employees to undertake initiatives for organisational initiatives (O’Neill et al., 2018). In this regard, each of the employees will obtain an equal opportunity to present their thoughts and perspectives that can lead to positive change for the institution.
Dysfunctional conflict can be considered as a negative conflict and impact negatively on business. The consequences of dysfunctional conflict can be categorised into soft and hard costs in relation to the institution (Mikkelsen & Clegg, 2019). Hard costs are found to be tangible, which signifies it will reflect on the organisational financial statement. Soft cost on the other hand intangible costs that gradually and adversely influence upon financial performance.
Personal Differences and Culture in Interpersonal Conflict
For example, an organisation that intends to improvise its existing network infrastructure that will be highly reliant upon the acceptance of technology departments. In case, changes are incorporated without determining their consequences to each of the organisational departments, it can negatively influence upon organisation’s growth, performance, consistency, and future opportunities (O’Neill & Mclarnon, 2018). In this regard, it can be mentioned that in relation to the institutional change, the persistence of dysfunctional communication can lead to the decline in performance and communication of a specific group.
Conflict resolution strategy for functional conflict that could be utilised by organisational leadership is to follow a decisive and clear leadership style. The key reason behind this statement is that adoption of a strong and effective leadership style such as participative, transformational, or democratic, will help to establish a suitable work culture that will positively influence employee morale (Martin et al., 2019). In addition to this, having an effective leadership style will help to build strong relationships with subordinates and enhance the chance for analysing the employee’s perspective upon a specific situation in a more accurate manner. This, in turn, minimise the chance for occurrence of undesirable conflict that positively influences workflow and business operations.
One of the effective and suitable ways to resolve the occurrence of dysfunctional conflict is to rebuild trust as well as utilisation of constructive behaviour during the occurrence of disagreements (Deutsch et al., 2014). In this respect, it can be mentioned that one can adopt this strategic approach by learning different types of issues, understanding those issues, and developing strategic conflict resolution skills gradually. In order to obtain employee trust, it is important to avoid destructive behaviour that maximises the chance of creating undesirable workplace conflict.
While dealing with the dysfunctional conflict, consideration of constructive behaviour helps to resolve any kind of specific issues collaboratively. For example, in the context of partnership for supply chain operations, dysfunctional conflict is often identified and this requires it to be resolved strategically. In this scenario, constructive behaviour enhances the chance for making optimal solutions for specific issues by developing common agreeable solutions.
Different types of factors are found to contribute to the generation of conflict between authors of the law of enforcement and community members or citizens. Racial profiling can be considered as one of the primary contributors to the conflict within which one member of a specific community distinguishes members of another community due to their race. In this regard, it can be mentioned that generation of racial profiling abolishes the trust that needs to exist between the police and society (Blumberg et al., 2019). It can be referred to as discriminatory behaviour, which may lead to illegitimate action by police against a specific citizen without adhering to the procedure of law enforcement appropriately.
This kind of activity can lead to the generation of adverse consequences for both police officers and citizens. This kind of attitude is inappropriate and illegal as it has the potential to divide the community and makes the situation difficult to handle properly for police. Usages of excessive force during dealing with specific situations can be considered as another contributor to conflict. For example, police officers can abuse power and authority by mistreating and intimidating a civilian. Activities such as unwarranted threats for arrest, frisks, unlawful thorough search, and traffic stops can contribute to the conflict between law enforcement and citizens.
Functional Conflict and Its Positive Impact
Most of the time, conflict between members of the community and law enforcement may lead to a requirement for law enforcement to utilise excess forces to tackle a hectic or turmoil situation. In the United States, people are found to die every day by the police force. It is the responsibility of the police officer to identify that power is required for any specific situation and to focus on not exceeding that power. For example, some of the police officers felt that as they have power badges, they have authority beyond the law and they avoid adhering to some regulations and laws that people within a community do. Thus, it can be mentioned that while improper usage of authority occurs in the law encroachment, it leads to the occurrence of barriers and conflict between community and police (Shackleton et al., 2019).
Perceptions regarding the law of enforcement are not perceived based on integrity, trust, and respect across the country United States. For example, Chicago is considered as one of the highest identified crime rates between law enforcement and community. It is identified that community members in the United States are found to have witnessed police brutality. Along with this, police officers across the country are also found to be treated in a stereotypical and unprofessional manner.
Rational Theory of Power is referred to as the status of an individual’s interpersonal relationship. Power is found to develop in the relationship that individuals have with others. However, it does not refer to the power that someone holds over others, it reflects the relationship status between two or more people. Three specific types of relational power such as integrative, distributive, and designated are found to be existed (Johnson, 2021). This theory concept directly influenced the perception of the power between law enforcement and citizens. The perception of citizens is found to be completely based on their respective experiences along with the information they received from the media. Strong perception of power may not be changed without strong initiatives. The offenses for perceiving different views can negatively influence and create complexities to resolve the connection between community and police.
Community policing can be considered as one of the effective strategic approaches that can be considered to establish police-community partnerships for aiding in identifying, resolving, and prioritising the crime problems. In addition to this, transparency through effective communication can also serve as effective for resolving conflict between police and community (Skogan & Hartnett, 2019). The key reason behind this statement is that communication serves as beneficial to maintain information transparency and enhance the chance for police to understand the complex situation in accordance to which proactive measures could be undertaken.
Based on the identified strategic approach, community policing can be an effective strategic approach to resolve conflict between community and police. The key reason behind this statement is that community policing can be considered as the policing philosophical approach that is structured to minimise disorder and crime from community by fostering respect, trust, and collaboration between community and police (Giwa, 2018). Along with this, community policing is found to be highly emphasised upon problem-solving practices in a routine and systematic manner. The outcome of the mentioned strategic approach would minimise conflict between community and policy by developing suitable relationships.
Strategic Approaches to Resolve Interpersonal Conflict
In the context of provided case scenario, it has been identified that the conflict at the organisation has been arising for the past few years. Presently, the main factor that contributes to the conflict is poor communication, lack of acceptance, lack of trust, and others the key reason behind this statement is that team members within the leadership team are found to make accusations in relation to religion, social status, culture, and race (as per the case study). This type of conic is often identified at the workplace when there is a lack of team commitment, diversity acceptance, and others.
Persistence of conflict at the workplace for unprecedented time negatively influences upon organisational overall performance. For example, as the case study highlights, conflict generates between team members based on religion, social status, culture, and race that may lead to work disruptions across the rest of the organisational department (Hocker & Wilmot, 2014). In addition to this, absenteeism, termination, turnover, declining productivity and others can also be raised due to the persistence of identified conflict at the workplace.
In respect to the mentioned scenario, collaborating conflict resolution style can be considered as to resolve the identified workplace conflict. The key reason behind this statement is that consideration of collaborating style emphasises upon finding specific solutions that will meet the demands and needs of all the respective parties involved within conflict. In addition to this, instead of identifying a “middle ground solution”, collaborating style will help to identify specific solutions that satisfy the needs of everyone and lead to the generation of win-win situations (Ay et al., 2019).
Following are the negotiation strategies that can be considered to deal with the situation that has been underlined in the provided case scenario,
Compromising approach
In this strategy approach, both the parties involved within a conflict try to avoid lose-lose results through acknowledging the fact that they could be benefited by accepting specific outcomes that minimise the negative consequences (Mitzinneck & Besharov, 2019).
Collaborating
Collaborating strategies emphasise upon determining the suitable and effective solution for specific complex situations or conflicts that will be agreed upon by each of the involved parties. Incorporation of this strategy enhances the chance for team collaboration and strengthens organisational productivity by resolving conflict.
Prioritising the needs of the parties
Conflict at the workplace generally occurs due to differences in thought, ideas, personality, behaviour, interest, and others. In this regard, prioritising and understanding the needs of employees to perceive the main reason for the conflict enhances the chance for generating suitable solutions for minimising those conflicts accurately (Xu et al., 2018).
Considering each of the mentioned strategies, approach helps to generate suitable solutions for conflict in accordance with the needs of the parties and organisational performance. These strategies enhance the chance for retaining employees, improve employee morale, and keep consistency of the performance.
References
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Impact of Workplace Conflict on Organisational Productivity
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