Question

In this week’s lecture, we learned about the importance of audience analysis and situational analysis, as well as revision and proofreading.

For this week’s lesson, you will use your information literacy skills acquired in prior weeks to share the following this week in discussion with your peers:

1) Locate an article about a subject that is of interest to you. It could pertain to a career issue, an academic issue, or a life issue.

2) Analyze the article and identify the audience the author intended to read it, as well as the situation that might have influenced its writing.

3) Evaluate the quality of the writing; propose how the author might have revised or proofread the the article to make it more readable and appropriate for the intended audience.

4) Share with your peers your response to the ideas expressed in the article. Do you agree? Disagree? Why? Why not?

Article :

What Causes Employee Conflict in the Workplace?

by Rose Johnson ; Reviewed by Jayne Thompson, LLB, LLM; Updated March 06, 2019

Employee conflict may be inevitable, but should never be ignored. Over time, petty grievances can turn to long-standing antagonisms that affect overall morale and even customer satisfaction. Supervisors and managers should be aware of signs of conflict and address them quickly, bringing workers together to discuss, and resolve, areas of disagreement.

Tip

Poor communication is the main cause of workplace conflict, and personality clashes can also be a source of disagreement and mistrust among employees.

Conflict Stems From Poor Communication

Poor communication is one of the main causes of conflict between employees in the workplace. This can result in a difference in communication styles or a failure to communicate. For example, a manager reassigned an employee’s task to the employee’s co-worker but failed to communicate the reassignment to the employee. This may cause the employee to feel slighted, which can transform into animosity among the two employees and the manager.

Failing to communicate in the workplace may cause employees to make incorrect assumptions and believe workplace gossip. Poor communication in the workplace not only causes conflict but decreases productivity and employee morale.

Beware Personality Clashes

A difference in personalities among employees is another cause of workplace conflict. Employees come from different backgrounds and experiences, which play a role in shaping their personalities. When employees fail to understand or accept the differences in each other's personalities, problems arise in the workplace.

For example, an employee may possess a straightforward personality that results in him speaking whatever is on his mind, even if the timing is inappropriate. The employee with the straightforward personality may offend a co-worker that does not possess the same type of personality. The co-worker may feel as if the employee is rude or lacks the authority to deal with her in such a straightforward manner.

Different Work Styles and Values

Similar to personalities, the values of employees differ within the workplace. A difference in values is seen clearly when a generational gap is present. Young workers may possess different workplace values than older workers. The difference in values is not necessarily the cause of employee conflict in the workplace, but the failure to accept the differences is. When employees fail to accept the differences, co-workers may insult each other's character and experiences. When insults occur, the conflict intensifies until the right solution is offered and accepted.

Unhealthy Workplace Competition

Unhealthy workplace competition is a cause of employee conflict. Some industries foster competitive environments more than others. When salary is linked to employee production, a workplace may experience strong competition between employees. Competition that is not properly managed can result in employees sabotaging or insulting one another, which creates a hostile work environment. Unhealthy workplace competition discourages teamwork and promotes individualism.

Answer 1

2. The author has directed this article towards the employees as well as employers of a workplace. The author is also trying to inform the budding managers and employees about the workplace conflicts and the reason behind the same.

The author may have witnessed increasing rate of workplace conflicts between employees as well as those between employees and management. This tussle affects the rate of productivity as well as overall synergy at the workplace. So, to increase awareness about the factors which may cause workplace conflict, the author may have got propagated to write the article.

3. The quality of writing is decent. The author has tried to keep it simple and clear. He has supported his arguments by giving workplace examples. This would increase the total comprehensibility of the article. He has provided a tip in the article, that could have been elaborated a bit more, so as to have an in-depth understanding of the primary reasons behind workplace conflict.

4. Conflict at the workplace is any scenario or situation in which there exists disagreement among the team members. The conflict may lead to difference in opinion as well as can have the potential to impact the team synergy at the workplace.

Workplace conflict can arise due to:

• Change in the existing process
• Personal disagreement among team members
• Poor communication among team members

Usually, there are 2 major types of conflict in an organization -functional and dysfunctional conflict.

• Functional conflict: Healthy discussion among the team members about the different available alternatives for the problem at hand. Constructive discussion leads to find the most effective solution for the same. Example: Making the choice for the best resource for a project-work.
• Dysfunctional conflict: This type of conflict arises due to some confusions, miscommunication or ego/power clashes and is quite unhealthy in nature. No constructive outcome can be obtained in this conflict. Example: A and B try to be friendly in the front while in reality, they have ego clashes and usually try to out-perform each other.

The author has suggested the causes of dysfunctional conflict in his article. It is the duty of the managers and employees to keep a check on the dysfunctional conflicts. This would help in facilitating the synergy and camaraderie in the overall workplace.