Question

We live in a very complex and culturally diverse society. When we bring individuals together from diverse backgrounds in a work environment, conflict can arise when expectations are not realized or met. Rather than hoping that the conflict will go away, this paper will explore and identify the reasons for conflict and how to successfully address them in a team environment.

Tasks:

• Describe a conflict within an organization or team that you are familiar with. Identify and describe the source(s) and level of the conflict, and support with evidence.
• Analyze how an individual’s conflict management style influences the outcome of a conflict situation.
• Apply various strategies for managing and resolving interpersonal conflict.
• Describe a minimum of three conflict outcomes that could reasonably occur because of the conflict resolution. Support your reasoning for each possible outcome

Answer 1

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 functional conflict can be considered optimum level of conflict in an organization as it facilitates healthy exploration of available options, thereby resulting in choice of effective solution for the problem.

Recently, I was working on a project at my workplace. In my office, projects are allotted on team basis where each team member is given a substantial job. Every team member is required to take ownership of his or her job. There was a member, Berry who had a habit of procrastinating work, because of which the entire project was suffering. I went to confront him regarding the same, but instead of feeling responsive, the person started blame-gaming and a conflict happened in the team.

This was a clear case of dysfunctional conflict. In my views, the difference in mindset of the entire team and Berry, eventually led to the conflict. Also I feel that the project leader, Mark was not able to perform his job well, because of which Berry lacked the ownership instinct.

As the tussle became quite evident and posed disturbance to the smooth flow of the project, I took the initiative to solve the differences between Berry and the team. I resorted to collaborative style of conflict management where I desired collaboration from each member of the team to solve the conflict at hand. Every team member shared his or her perspective and inhibitions. Berry was made to realize that he was affecting the overall synergy of the team. The team pledged to have mutual understanding of each other’s perspectives and inhibitions and support each other in any kind of challenging situation. This way, the collaborative conflict management technique was used to solve the conflict in the team and establish harmony and team synergy.

Basically there are 5 conflict resolution styles, adopted by managers at a workplace

• Avoiding: In this method, the manager considers that the best way to solve the problem is by ignoring it. The conflict gets resolved by itself, with time. This style is appropriate when the conflict is due to a meagre issue.

• Accommodating: The manager uses this technique by prioritizing the concerns of the conflicting parties over his own interests to solve the problem at hand. The manager uses this style when he feels that the concerns of the conflicting parties are genuine and need attention.
• Collaborating: The manager makes both the conflicting parties to arrive at a mutual consensus. This technique results in a win-win situation for both the parties. This style is used when the manager wants to please both the conflicting parties.
• Compromising: The manager makes the conflicting parties to compromise on some ends so as to resolve the conflict. The manager uses this method when he feels that the interests of the conflicting parties need to be compromised, to arrive at a consensus.
• Competing: One of the conflicting parties, enforces its opinion and interests on the other party. This technique is used when the interest and opinions of one party are genuinely strong and concerning than that of the other party.

A collaborative conflict resolution technique will be the best in this case. The manager can persuade the staff to work early by giving them an early off for lunch and snacks in the afternoon. This way, the interests of both the staff as well as the management will be satiated.