Conflict occurs when two or more viewpoints are contradictory in nature. Within an organization, people may keep away from conflict because they feel that their underlying irritation may go out of control or that they cannot assert their views and feelings positively. So, organizational members endure an interpersonal conflict in the effort to avoid open conflict with other organizational members and jeopardize effective communication.

Why conflict occurs?

Within the context of organizational alignment, conflict is often the result of poor and ineffective communication. The failure to construct a two-way process through which employees' achievements are recognized and appreciated, results in employees being constantly uninformed of important organizational developments, while feeling undervalued, distrusted and disrespected. Employees do not know what they are doing and why, they lose their trust to the organization, doubt its practices and prefer organizational inertia. This environment is the result of poor leadership as well. Inconsistency at any level in the organization makes employees feel ignored and misunderstood by management.

What managers need to do?

To ensure effective conflict management, organizations need to incorporate key managerial actions within the context of organizational structure. Managers need primarily to review job descriptions in order to ensure that job roles do not conflict. The development of procedures for routine tasks with the input of employees would motivate employees as they would feel that their contribution to organizational performance is essential and publicly recognized. In addition, the conduct of basic training of employees in regards to interpersonal communications, conflict management and delegation would result in new initiatives and in intentionally built relationships between organizational members.
In addition, individuals should primarily focus on facts. There is a positive relationship between reliance on facts and low interpersonal conflict because facts allow people to focus on the real issues involved in strategic decision making and not on the personalities. The use of alternative solutions diffuses conflict by shifting the process over a range of choices, away from black and white solutions. The use of humor creates a collaborative framework and it works as a releasing mechanism during the stressful strategic decision making process. Within this context, democratic leadership maintains a balanced power structure, avoiding forced consensus.

Alternative inferences

Conflict may lead to organizational alignment and consensus under certain circumstances. We should not forget that workplace is driven by interactionism, which supports the existence of conflicts. Yet, the realization, the identification and the elaboration on own character traits that could put organizational effectiveness at stake is used to enhance employee training, management, and organizational performance.
So, conflict is not necessarily a bad thing. Instead, it helps in raising and addressing problems, while energizing practices to solve those issues. Particularly, in team structures, team conflicts can be productive if team members do not delay decision making for engaging in interpersonal conflicts. Although conflict is considered negative, lack of conflict implies apathy, which leads to inertia. In this case, integration of own character traits with the team consensus is the key to effective conflict management because it provides organizational flexibility reflected on the synergy of team members to contribute to teamwork.

Learn more about this author, Christina Pomoni.
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