Sources of Conflict
There are several sources of conflict. However, these sources depend on the mode (mindset) of the parties involved in a situation. Their mutual understanding, trust and openness determine the mode. The mode influences their perception which may cause conflict. For example, a difference in the goals of two individuals in a group of a potential source of conflict. One member's goal may be to turn out the maximum number of product; the goal of other member may be to ensure quality of the product. Different researches have shown or identified different sources of conflicts. Poor communication, incompatible goals, value and culture clashes, task inter-dependencies, incentive and reward system and resource allocation and scarce are the basic sources of having conflict in an organization.
1. Poor Communication
The greatest source of organizational conflict is poor communication. Communication breakdown may happen where many different people work together, each focusing on work problems in their own way without consulting each other. In other words, the communication source relates to three contradictory forces which steam from semantic problems, insufficient exchange of information, misunderstandings and noise. Although all conflicts are not the outcome of poor communication, there exists evidence to support the assumption that communication gaps hamper collaboration and foster misunderstanding. Semantic problems are caused on account of divergent training, selective perception and insufficient information about others. The potential for conflict intensifies in the face of either has little or too much communication.
2. Incompatible Goals
Differences in group goals can easily lead to group conflict. Goal compatibility implies goals attainment by one or more other groups. The achievement of one department's goal often interferes with another department's goal. Quite often this is due to high horizontal differentiation and task specialization. For example, the production department might perceive its goals as being potentially incompatible with those of marketing. Production department may pose such questions:
- Why do not we have accurate sales forecasts?
- Is it possible to keep everything in inventory?
- Why don't we have enough capacity?
- Why don't we ever have the right merchandise in inventory?
Differences in values can cause conflicts between generations, between men and women and between people with different value priorities. Consider the conflicts that might arise between workers, who realize the value of money in place of unused holiday, and executives, who never take time off, but scowl on those who do not take holidays and prefer to do extra work for extra pay. In other words, the differences in goals among members at the various departments in the organization are frequently accompanied by difference in attitudes, value and perceptions that can also lead to conflict.
Similarly, culture clashes can occur between workers, not only from different countries but also from different parts of the same country. Today's diverse work force is a kaleidoscope of cultures, each with its own unique qualities. The individual bearers of different cultural traditions could easily come into conflict with one another. The issues may be as simple as one person's desire to dress in ethnic fashion and a supervisor's insistence on strict adherence to the company dress code to as complex as work ethics.
4. Task Interdependence
Task interdependence refers to the dependence of one unit on another for resources of information. In other words, task interdependence relations exist when two groups coordinate or collaborate with one another. Coordination and collaboration exist when the sub-tasks allocated to different groups need to be sequenced and agreed upon by the two groups. Collaboration occurs when the two groups share joint responsibility for certain tasks. A dependent task relationship exists between two groups of one group is dependent upon the former for resources. The relationship between mutual task dependence and conflict is not direct. But, in general, it can be said that as interdependence increases, the potential for conflict increases.
5. Incentive and Reward System
When tasks are independent, competition can hurt cooperation among members and performance may actually decline. For example, when all students in a group received the same grade regardless of individual contribution, coordination, communication and quality seem better. But when students are graded according to their personal contributions to the group, they try to succeed at the expense of others and seem more frequently in conflict. Similarly, inter-group conflict is more likely to occur when the reward plan is tied to individual group performance rather than to overall organizational performance. If departments are regarded only for departmental performance, managers are motivated to excel at the expense of others.
6. Resource Allocation and Scarce
Resources symbolize power and influence and are means of accomplishing goals. Resources are always scarce. In our organization, conflict arises at the time of allocating the resources like money, material, manpower, furniture, space etc. Conflict may be minimized if the organization is prospering and new resources are growing by allowing a greater share to each and every department.
According to some other researches completed by experts, source of conflict arise due to the following four sources.
- Personal differences (Perceptions and expectations)
- Informational deficiencies (Misinformation and misrepresentation)
- Role incompatibility (Goals and responsibilities)
- Environmental stress (Resource scarcity and uncertainty)
Stages / Processes of Conflict
The conflict process generally consists of five stages.
1. Potential Opposition
The first step in the conflict process is the appearance of conditions that create opportunities for conflict to arise. They need not lead directly to conflict, but one of these condition is necessary to bring conflict to the surface. Antecedent conditions for conflict exist at the interpersonal level. One party plans to block the attempts of another party from achieving a goal. In organizations, some potential danger and harm threaten the harmonious functioning and perhaps their very existence. It can be categorized as communication, structure and personal variables.
2. Cognition and Personalization
Cognition and personalization is the second step of the conflict process. Under this step, the person, whose attempts are sought to be thwarted, perceives the harm that might be done to him and feels or realizes the potential damage. Realization makes him emotionally involve himself. Emotional involvement makes him feel frustrated, anxious and tense, all of which are symptoms of conflict. The same pattern prevails between two groups or departments in the organizations.
3. Intentions
In this step, there are five conflict handling intentions. These are competing, collaborating, avoiding, accommodating and compromising. The first term competing means individual desires of others to satisfy his/her desire or wishes without caring others desires. Another term collaborating is the intention to fulfill desires jointly by conflicting with other parties. The third avoiding is the intention to suppress conflict. Similarly, next accommodating is the intention of conflicting party to see the problem in favor of other party. Finally, compromising is the situation in which different conflicting parties are ready to scarify something.
4. Behavior
In the fourth stage of conflict, a party engages in action that was planned in stage I. In other words, he blocks the other party's attempts in attainment of goals. The conflict is out in the open. Overt conflict covers a full range of behaviors from the subtle indirect and highly controlled forms of interference to direct, aggressive, violent and uncontrolled struggle. At the organizational level, strikes or lock-outs are the result.
5. Outcome
The conflict finally results in an outcome which may be functional or dysfunctional. If conflict is handles well, the result is functional conflict. If it is mismanaged, the result is dysfunctional conflict.
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