Organizational Behavior

CASE INCIDENT 1: CHOOSING YOUR BATTLES

1. How would you ensure sufficient discussion of contentious issues in
a work group? How can managers bring unspoken conflicts into the
open without making them worse?
What is conflict? A conflict is a process that begins when one party perceives
that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect,
something that the first party cares about. Different people have different view on
conflicts. Some might think conflict is bad and should be avoided. People will view
conflict negatively and discussed it with terms like violence, destruction and
irrationality. This is what called traditional view of conflict. Traditional view of conflict
advocates that conflict is a dysfunctional outcome which will cause malfunctioning
within a group or a team. Yes, for me, conflict is not really good and should always
trying to be avoided. But, there will be a point that we couldnt avoid conflict as
conflict might be an effective manner to solve problems and interactionist view of
conflict is supporting this statement. The interactionist view of conflict encourages
conflict on the grounds that a harmonious, peaceful, tranquil, and cooperative group
is prone to becoming static, apathetic, and unresponsive to needs for change and
innovation. This view is recognizing that a minimal level of conflict might be a
positive force to keep a group viable, self-critical and creative. There are three
distinct views of conflict. The last view of conflict is the resolution-focused view of
conflict which recognize that conflict is probably inevitable in most organizations,
and it focuses more on productive conflict resolution. (Robbins & Judge,
Organizational Behavior, Pearson Global Edn 2013, pg. 481)
Although interactionist view of conflict proposes that conflict can be a positive
force in a work group but it does not propose that all conflicts are good. Basically,
there are 2 kinds of conflicts which are functional and dysfunctional conflict.
Functional conflict is commonly referred to in management circles as constructive or
cooperative conflict and is characterized by consultative interactions, a focus on the
issues, mutual respect, and useful give and take. While in the other hand,
dysfunctional conflict is conflict that hinders group performance or even threatens
an organizations interest. People normally choose to avoid conflict because they
fear various combinations of harm, rejection, anger, loos of relationship and so on.
But avoiding conflict is like ignoring cancer that might be fatal. Hence, as a group
leader or a manager, managing conflict is one of the biggest challenge that should
be managing with care. (Robbins & Judge, Organizational Behavior, Pearson
Global Edn 2013, pg. 482)
Sometimes committees and decision-making groups become so bogged down in
details and procedures that nothing substantive is accomplished. Carefully
monitored functional conflict can help get the creative juices flowing once again
because it generally involves people who are genuinely interested in solving a
problem and are willing to listen to one another. Hence, stimulating functional
conflict is a great way to improve a team's performance and generate new ideas. It

involves getting the team to either defend or criticize ideas based on relevant facts
rather than on the basis of personal preference or political interests. There are two
widely accepted techniques for doing this: devil's advocacy and the dialectic
method. (Kinicki & Fugate, Organizational Behavior, 5th Edn 2012, pg. 297)
Devils advocacy involves assigning someone the role of critic. One individual
is assigned the role of devils advocate to uncover and air all possible objections to
the persons canonization. There are six steps in a devils advocate decision
program. (Figure 1-1) Conflict is programmed by devils advocacy to prevent
groupthink. This is because groupthink is a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality
testing and moral judgment that results from in group-pressures. Devils advocacy is
crucial to generate critical thinking and reality testing which will increase a groups
performance by accomplishing missions with innovative ideas. Moreover, periodic
devils advocacy role playing is also a good training to develop analytical and
communication skills and emotional intelligence. The dialectic method is the other
technique which calls for team or group leaders to foster a structured debate of
opposing viewpoints prior to making a decision. By hearing the pros and cons of all
the different ideas, teams will have greater success in making sound decisions.
However, it should be noted that a major drawback of this method is that the
emphasis to win a debate often clouds the issue at hand. Also, dialectic method
requires more skill training than devils advocacy does. Both techniques are more
effective than consensus decision making which will improve a groups performance
by pumping creative ideas back into stalled deliberations.

Exhibit 1-1
A conflict is only functional to a group only when it can be managed
effectively. This is because avoiding conflict may cause further escalation even it
may be functional to a groups performance. A leader should act decisively to
improve the outcome and he or she must always remember that delaying only will
cause the problem, real or perceived, to fester because addressing a conflict in
short order can help unveil misunderstandings or simple oversights before they
grow into something more or spread. Leaders should also make the path to
resolution open and honest by involving all relevant parties, collecting information
to determine a desired outcome. This helps to resolve misunderstandings between
group members which might lead to relationship conflict which is always
dysfunctional. Besides, working in an open environment is always useful to develop
a shared perception of the problems at hand and it allows groups to work toward a
mutually acceptable solution. Using descriptive language instead of evaluative is
always critical to solve conflicts effectively. This is because accusations and
judgmental language will put people on the defensive and impede progress which
helps conflict to grow bigger.
Unspoken conflict is conflict that should be noticed and handle with care. This
is because unspoken conflict may be devastating when it erupts. With unspoken
conflict, although everyone knows about the problem theyre not talking about it.
Theres a feeling of tension in the air, and if given an opportunity people will discuss

the issue. Hence, how to bring unspoken conflicts into the open without making
them worse becomes the biggest challenge for managers in conflict management.
Managers should know whether there is unspoken conflict by observing his or her
subordinates and through involvement in work or communication. Managers will see
the symptoms of unspoken conflict which are tension and irritability within the
workplace and generally low morale and loss of productivity. Therefore, creating a
friendly and open environment is always crucial in this challenge because people
will feel free to bring up issues and it helps to have sufficient discussion. When there
is fear, people will be reluctant to speak in order to avoid problems. Hence, making
employees or team members comfort and assure them to feel psychologically safe
to bring issues is always important to bring up unspoken conflict and manage it
correctly yet effectively. As a small summary, well communication between
managers and subordinates is always important as communicating is the only way
to turn unspoken conflict into healthy open conflict! Remember, unspoken conflict
shouldnt be avoid as unspoken conflict inevitably develops into hidden conflict
when the time is long enough. Just because were not talking about it doesnt mean
its gone and until its resolved it will seriously weaken an organization and continue
to cause problems.
As summary, conflict management is very important for a manager in order
to achieve organizational goals and to improve an organizations performance.
Managers should always encourage employees to challenge the system and
develop fresh ideas. Conflict is not necessary dysfunctional as what been stated in
traditional view of conflict. Sometimes, conflict is necessary to bring in new blood to
an organization or to a group in order to improve its performance. Managers should
handle conflicts with care and when its necessary, managers might use some
conflict management techniques to stimulate functional conflict. Last but not the
least, managers should face unspoken conflict seriously instead of avoiding that will
be devastating to a group and even an organization.