CONFLICT

Definition:

Conflict is the condition in which peoples concerns appear to be

incompatible. A concern is anything people care about.
Several scholars defined separately having mostly similar meaning.
Few of them are:
Two or more interdependent parties who perceive incompatible goals,
scarce resources, and interference from others in achieving that goal
(Hocker & Wilmot, 1995).
Competition between interdependent parties who perceive that they
have incompatible needs, goals, desires, or ideas (Van Slyke, 1999).
The interaction of interdependent people who perceive opposition of
goals, aims, and values, and who see the other party as potentially
interfering with the realization of these goals (Putnam & Poole, 1987) .

So, Conflict may be defined as : A situation where two or more

parties are in opposition at their ideas, goals or process to
achieve the goal. The situation can be extended from personal
level to team, organization and national level.

Types of Conflict:
1. Intrapersonal or intrapsychic conflict
2. Interpersonal conflict
3. Intra-group Conflict
4. Intergroup Conflict
General causes of conflicts
Poorly defined goals
Divergent personal values
Lack of cooperation/trust
Competition of scarce resources
Unclear roles/laof job description

Form & Field of Conflict:

1. WAR
2. Class Conflict
3. Racial Conflict
4. Religious Conflict
5. Political
6. Inter and Intra Community Conflict
7. Relationship Conflict
8. Data Conflict
9. Interest Conflict
10.
Structural Conflict
11.
Value Conflict
Sources of Conflict or Basis of Conflict:

Sources at Personal Level:

1. Land
2. Money
3. Women
Sources at Organizational Level:
1. Organizational Conflict: stems from a disparity between the existing
organizational culture and the organizations written mission & value
statements
2. Interest-Based Conflict: stems from clashes between different
departments, units, &/or Functions
3. Informational Conflict: stems from poorly used, formal channels of
communication
4. Interpersonal Conflict: stems from poor relationships between
managers and employees on the one hand and among peers on the
other
5. Cultural Conflict: may stem from differences in racial, ethnic, or gender
perspectives and/or communication styles

The Conflict Process:

It is a five stage process.

1. Initially due to miscommunication, structure and personal
variable, the suitable for conflict is created.

2. Then it comes to personal level involving perception and

feelings.
3. It then comes to the intention of how to handle conflict.
4. Accordingly behavior and approach is expressed.
5. The outcome of all the above come out positively is managed
properly or negatively otherwise.

Positive Functions of Conflict

1. Makes employees more aware & able to cope with
problems.
2. Promises organizational change & adaptation.
3. Strengthens relationships & heightens morale.
4. Promotes awareness of self & others.
5. Enhances personal development.
6. Encourages psychological developmentit helps people
become more accurate & realistic in their self-appraisals.
7. Can be stimulating & fun.
Negative functions of Conflict
1. Competitive, win-lose goals
2. Misperception and bias
3. Emotionality (uncontrolled)
4. Decreased communication
5. Blurred issues
6. Rigid commitments
7. Magnified differences, minimized similarities
8. Escalation of conflict

Steps to prevent conflict:

Frequent meeting of your team
Allow your team to express openly
Sharing objectives
Having a clear and detailed job description
Distributing task fairly
Never criticize team members publicly
Always be fair and just with your team

Being a role model

Steps to resolve conflicts

Assure privacy
Empathize than sympathize
Listen actively
Maintain equity
Focus on issue, not on personality
Avoid blame
Identify key theme
Re-state key theme frequently
Encourage feedback
Identify alternate solutions
Give your positive feedback
Agree on an action plan
Conflict Management Strategies:
Two major prevalent tools exist to resolve conflict:
Compromise and Collaboration
Each of this tools is to be used according to the
situation considering time constrain, number of
people involve, relationships of the parties involved
and difference of the people involve.
Compromise: it is the simplest tool. It means all
parties is giving up something to come to the
mutually agreed point.

Dimension
Dimension
ss of
of
ConflictConflictHandling
Handling
Intentions
Intentions

Collaboration: It assumes that the conflict is due to difference of the parties

involve. It views the difference in strength, values that causing delays and
demands all parties to be 100% satisfied.
How do minimize interpersonal &maximize functional conflict?
1. Gather information & Stick with the facts.
-Worked with more, rather than less, information &
debated on the basis of facts.
2. Consider options.
-Teams developed multiple alternatives to enrich
the level of debate.
3. Get on the same page.
-Teams shared commonly agreed-upon goals.
4. Laugh.

-Teams injected humor into the decision process.

5. Equal voices, equal say.
-Teams maintained a balanced power structure.
6. No contrived consensus.
-Teams resolved issues without forcing consensus.
Basic Rules for Confronting a Coworker:
1. Always remain calm, no matter how the other person speaks to you.
2. Always treat others with respect.
3. Don't overreact.
4. Take a wait-&-see approach whenever possible.
5. Get a neutral person's perspective on the situation if you feel it'll help.
6. Always speak in specifics & be prepared to share examples.
7. Don't try to change people; focus only on changing the behavior.

Conclusion:
Conflict is unavoidable. So we must learn to manage it and utilize it
positively. The more we learn to handle it the more useful it can be.

The challenge is to keep constructive conflict over issues from degenerating into
dysfunctional interpersonal conflict to encourage managers to argue without
destroying their ability to work as a team. (Bourgeois, Eisenhardt, &
Kahwajy, 1997)