The major causes of the chosen conflict

Introduction:

Conflict situations are inevitable in one’s personal life, in

organizations or even between nations. Conflict is a process in
which one party suggests that its interests are being opposed by
another party. (COPY PASTE 100% PLAGIARISM)

Conflicts are the inevitable situations in organization, between

nation, community and even personal life. It is a process in
which the idea or interests of one party are being opposed by
the another party. (SAME ONE, BUT CHANGED THE WAY IT IS
WRITTEN IT SHOWS 0% PLAGIARISM)

For some people conflicts will be a negative situation which should

be avoided at any cost.
For Others conflicts are phenomenon which necessitates innovation
in management.
Same time few people consider conflict as an better opportunity to
use it to their best advantage.

The concept of conflict theory is one of the significant concept to be

understood by the person who is in the role of the administrator. but
it emanates primarily from fields such as business, sociology,
psychology, etc.

According to Coser at all , conflicts are struggle over values and

claims to scarce power, resource and status in which the idea of the
opponents are to injure, neutralize or eliminate.

There are many issues which arises in community or organization,

hence conflict will be a part of life. These Conflicts can occur between
committee members, volunteers, clients, employees, community or
ordinary members.

According to Deetz and Stevenson, there are three assumptions that

will indicate that conflicts can also be positive in nature.

Their assumptions are as follows:

1. conflicts are natural;
2. conflicts are necessary and good
3. Most of the conflicts are also based on real differences.

C.Wright Mills is known as the founder of modern conflict theory.

In his view, because of conflict between people with differing
interests and resources have created social structures. The “unequal
distribution of power and resources in the society” has influence on
the individual and organizational structures.

The Forms/Classification Of Conflict:

A. Relationship Conflict:
These types of conflict happen because of interpersonal
incompatibilities between the group members which also includes
tension annoyance and clashes.
interpersonal incompatibilities among group members, including
personality clashes, tension, animosity and annoyance.

B. Task Conflicts:
These conflicts are due to disagreements about the work goals and
content of a task, such as interpretation of facts, distribution of
resources and procedures. It also include differences in idea, opinion
and view points.

C. Process Conflicts:
These are because of disagreement on delegation, individual
responsibility and how a task should be accomplished. For example
the group employee may disagree about whose responsibility it is to
complete a particular duty.

There are four types of Intra-Organizational Conflict:

A. Vertical
B. Horizontal
C. Line-staff conflict
D. Role conflict.

A. Vertical Conflict:
This refers to conflict between the levels in an organization; For
example : The conflicts between superior authority and subordinate.

B. Horizontal Conflict:
The conflict between the employees of same hierarchical level in an
organization is referred as horizontal conflict.
 C. Line-Staff Conflict:
The conflict between the staff who are appointed to assist the line
departments.

D. Role Conflict
This is one of the most common type of conflict. Where individual
expects other employee to perform the role, which are not assigned
in particular way.

There are two sources of Conflict:

A. Internal Sources:
These are inherent within the structure or framework of an
organization. The major prime factor are opposing interests /
divergent interests, which causes the conflicts between the two
parties in organizations.

B. The External Sources:

This occur when the third party intervene into the industrial dispute
becomes biased or one sided. They occur outside the walls of an
organization.

Structural or personal factors are the major causes of Conflict:

A. Structural Factors
1. Specialization:

When employees are specialists in a particular job but also get a

general knowledge of other many tasks leads to conflicts because
they will also have little knowledge of each other’s job
responsibilities.

For example, a receptionist at a hospital desk can say that a MRI scan
can be completed in an hour, even though some scans take more tha
hour. Since the receptionist does not know much about the
technician’s job she should not give an unrealistic deadline when the
scan will be completed.

B. Common Resources:
In many work situations, we have to share resources. The scarcer the
resource in the organization, the greater the chance for a conflict
situation. Limited resources may include money, supplies, people or
information.

Goal Differences: Very often, the possibility of conflict increases

substantially when departments in the organization have different or
incompatible goals. For instance, the goal of a computer salesperson
is to sell many computers as fast as possible. The manufacturing
facility may, however, be unable to meet the sales person’s promises.

Interdependence: The possibility of conflict usually has a tendency

to increase with the level of task interdependence. When a person
has to depend on someone else to complete his/her. task, it becomes
easier to blame a co-worker when something goes wrong.

Authority Relationships. There is an underlying tension between

managers and employees because most people do not like being told
what they have to do. It is observed that very strict managers often
have conflicts with their employees. Sometimes people try to engage
in conflict to increase their power or status in an organization.

Roles and Expectations: Manager– subordinate conflict can

result when the subordinates role is not clearly determined and
each party has a different understanding of that role.

Jurisdictional Ambiguities: When the lines of responsibility in an

organization are uncertain, then jurisdictional ambiguities appear.
Employees have a tendency to pass unwanted responsibilities to
another person when responsibilities are not clearly stated.

Personal factors:
Misunderstandings:
Misunderstandings about:

The nature, aims and objectives of a job

Differing expectations about how things should be done
Work conditions and wages
The different responsibilities of management and employees
Differences in values, beliefs, needs, or priorities

Poor communication:
Communication relies on clear and complete messages being sent as
well as being received. Unclear communication from staff to clients is
another common source of conflict.

Lack of planning:
Lack of planning often means an organisation moves from one crisis
to the next. This sense of disorganisation and lack of direction can be
stressful and can create many problems including
misunderstandings.

Poor staff selection:

Inappropriate selection of staff can result in ill-feeling and conflict.
Feelings of ill-will may be increased by dismissing staff members.

Frustration, stress and burnout

When people become frustrated or stressed they are more irritable
and more likely to create conflicts than at other times. It is important
to recognise the signs of stress in people's work situations in order to
prevent burnout.

The effect of organizational conflict on performance of

employees:

The general assumption is that conflict tends to have negative

consequences for both the individual and the organization.

1. Psychological Responses
- Inattentiveness to other things.
- Lack of interest in work
- Job dissatisfaction
- Work anxiety
- Estrangement or alienation from others
- Frustration

2. Behavioural Responses
- Excessive smoking.
Alcoholism
- Under eating or over eating
- Aggression towards others or work sabotage
- Decreased communication
- Resisting influence attempts.
Physiological Responses:- These are often ignored or unnoticed:
more and more adrenalin is shot into the blood which increases
the heart beat and blood pressure while more hydrochloric acid
is secreted into the stomach, leading to:
- Peptic ulcers
- Respiratory problems such as asthma
- Hypertension
- Headaches
- Coronary problems.

Hence it may be understood that conflict not only affects an

individual’s performance, but also gives rise to psychosomatic
disturbances, which undermine the health of the individual.

Employees Stop Working or Stay Home:

Decrease in Productivity:
Conflict causes members to focus less on the project at hand and
more on gossiping about conflict or venting about frustrations.
As a result, organizations can lose money, donors and access to
essential resources.

Customers Receive a Poor Service and May Look Elsewhere:

Workplace conflict can ultimately cause the organization's customer
base to crumble. Employees who are at odds with each other may
spend more time creating ways to fight back or argue their point
instead of focusing on the quality of their work. Poor quality –
whether it's a service or product – is guaranteed to send customers
to a competitor.

Conflict Destroys the Company Reputation:

An organization with a poor reputation is unable to recruit
talented and motivated job candidates, and current employees
likely won't dispel industry gossip by showing how proud they
are to be a part of the organization.

Change:
Conflict accelerates change in an organization, especially in
small businesses, where it is easy to formulate and implement
new policies.

Waste of Time and Resources

The business may lose precious time and resources at times of
conflict. Instead of concentrating on meeting their objectives,
employees waste time on divisive issues. Misuse of business
materials and funds is quite rampant when conflicting parties
engage in “warfare.” Wrangles, stress and emotional
confrontations reduce the workers' productivity, and
eventually, the profitability of the business.

Violence
When conflict escalates without mediation, intense situations
may arise between organization members. It’s unfortunate, but
organizational conflicts may cause violence among members,
resulting in legal problems for members and possibly the
organization.

The benefits of conflict include the following:

 Motivates individuals to do better and work harder. One’s

talents and abilities come to the forefront in a conflict
situation.

 Satisfies certain psychological needs like dominance,

aggression, esteem and ego, and thereby provides an
opportunity for constructive use and release of aggressive
urges.

 Provides creative and innovative ideas.

 Adds variety to one’s organizational life, otherwise work

life would be dull and boring.

 Facilitates an understanding of the problems, people have

with one another and leads to better coordination among
individuals and departments,

 Inspire creativity

 Conflict can inspire members to brainstorm, while

examining problems from various perspectives.

 Share and Respect Opinions

  Conflict can also cause members to actively listen to each
other as they work to accomplish the organizational goals

 Improve future communication

 Conflict can bring group members together and help them

learn more about each other

The conflict management techniques to overcome the

designated conflict in the organization.

Conclusion:

Since conflict is seemingly unavoidable, it is obviously necessary for

managers to be able to recognize the source of the conflict, to view
it’s constructive as well as destructive potential, to learn how to
manage conflict and to implement conflict resolution technique in a
practical way.

Conflict is viewed as natural due to life’s uncertainty. Conflict is good

and necessary because it can stimulate innovative thinking when it is
managed in the right way