Conflicts in an organization

1. CONFLICTS
BY BAHA EDDINE BEN HADJ HAMIDA

2. DEFINITION
• Disagreement between individuals or groups within an
organization, that may have an impact on the overall functioning
of the organization.
• E.G. : Workers advocate for higher pay and the business owner or
management wants pay levels to remain the same.
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3. NATURE OF CONFLICT
• Conflict arises out of mutually exclusive goals
• Conflict is different from Competition
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4. TYPES OF CONFLICT
Organizational conflict can be classified into two distinct categories :
• Internal
&
• External
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5. INTERNAL CONFLICT
• Internal conflict is personal to the person involved. This type of
conflict takes place within the person.
• It can surface when a person’s values or morals are tested or
otherwise compromised.
• Internal conflict can greatly impact the person’s performance level.
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6. EXTERNAL CONFLICT
• External conflict is observed in outside forces that cause struggle
for the person, such as an unhappy customer or an unruly supplier.
• External conflict can also be caused when the management style
of the business owner does not set well with the employees of the
organization.
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7. OUTCOMES
POSITIVE:
• In a different view, organizational conflict represents an opportunity for
productive change. The use of effective communication lies at the heart of
this view.
• The simple act of acknowledging and seeking solutions to organizational
conflicts can defuse them and draw employees into a stronger relationship
with the business.
• It can also encourage an adaptable organization that copes efficiently with the
rapid changes faced by modern businesses.
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8. OUTCOMES
NEGATIVE:
• Conflicts cause stress, which reduces worker satisfaction.
• This diminished satisfaction can lead to increases in absenteeism and
turnover.
• Conflict can also diminish trust in supervisors and fellow employees, which
can slow or stop progress on projects.
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10. CAUSES FOR CONFLICTS
Managerial Expectations
• It is the job of an employee to meet the expectations of his manager, but if
those expectations are misunderstood, conflict can arise.
• Managers need to spend time clearly communicating their goals to employees
and then confirming those goals in writing.
• A manager should also encourage his/her employees to ask questions about
their goals, and hold regular meetings to discuss the goals and how best to
reach them.
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11. Breakdown in Communication
• If a department requires information from another department in order to do its job,
and the second department does not respond to the request for information, a
conflict can arise.
• Some interdepartmental disagreements might trigger a nonresponsive attitude that
can quickly become an internal conflict.
• When people or departments are late in responding to information requests, or they
are withholding information on purpose, it is best to address the situation
immediately with a personal meeting with both sides to resolve the situation.
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12. Misunderstanding the Information
• One person may misunderstand information, and that can trigger a series of
conflicts.
• In order to deal with this kind of situation, it is best to have the person admit her
misunderstanding and work with the affected parties to remedy the situation.
• For example, if the production manager misunderstands the product manufacturing
goals, then the sales manager may not have enough product to sell.
• Taking responsibility for a mistake can quickly defuse a potential organizational
conflict.
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13. Lack of Accountability
• Organizational conflict might arise from frustration. One source of frustration
is a lack of accountability.
• If something has gone wrong, and no one is willing to take responsibility for
the problem, this lack of accountability can start to permeate throughout the
entire company until the issue is resolved.
• One way to combat a lack of accountability is to have anyone who comes into
contact with a document sign his name to it and include the date.
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14. WAYS TO HANDLE CONFLICTS
• Conflict is inevitable in small businesses. Conflict can arise from a variety of
sources, and between supervisors and subordinates, between co-workers,
and between employees and customers.
• Managers and organizations can choose to see conflict as inherently negative,
acting to suppress it at every opportunity, or as inherently positive, leveraging
to affect positive change.
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15. Positive Perspective
• Accept conflict as a natural growth process and influence your company
culture to view constructive conflict positively.
• Conflict can be an asset to your small business if it is handled properly. It can
help your organization to learn from its mistakes and identify areas of needed
improvement.
• Innovation can be inspired from creative solutions to internal or external
conflicts, and new ways of thinking can emerge.
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16. Grievance Procedure
• Create a formal grievance procedure for all employees.
• Let employees at all levels of your organization know that their voices will
always be heard, and respond promptly and reasonably to employees issues.
• This can prevent bad feelings from festering and growing into resentment and
bitterness. Conflict is best handled quickly and openly.
• If your company culture is sufficiently friendly toward constructive
conflict, your staff should see the value of letting their complaints, ideas and
issues be heard.
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17. Get to the Cause
• Focus on deep-rooted causes rather than superficial effects when assessing conflicts.
• Parties to a conflict often claim to have issues with the behaviour of co-workers or
the outcome of company policies and work procedures, but these issues are likely
being caused by something deeper.
• Attempting to resolve the conflict by addressing surface issues will rarely create
meaningful change or lasting solutions.
• Look deeper to address the reasons that incidents occur.
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18. • As an example, if a supervisor finds himself constantly in conflict with a loyal
employee due to falling productivity levels, the supervisor may naturally want
to address the employees’ behaviour head-on.
• Upon closer analysis, however, the supervisor may realize that the employee
has been increasingly dissatisfied with his job ever since last year’s
disappointing performance
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19. Equal Voices
• Give all parties of a conflict an equal voice, regardless of their position, length
of service or political influence.
• Conflict participants can become defensive if they feel they are being
marginalized or are going through a process leading to a predetermined
outcome.
• It can be tempting to take the word of managers over front-line employees, or
to take the word of a loyal employee over a new employee, but remember
that your most trusted associates are not necessarily infallible.
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20. CONFLICT RESOLUTION
The ideal method for resolving problems and making difficult decisions involves two steps, a
magic formula that is guaranteed to work. In fact, it’s never failed when applied correctly.
Here it is:
• Define the problem
• Decide how to solve it
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21. CONFLICT RESOLUTION STEPS
• Step 1: Defining the problem: Exchange “I messages”
• Step 2: Generating possible solutions (brainstorming)
• Step 3: Evaluating the various solutions
• Step 4: Deciding on a mutually acceptable solution
• Step 5: Implementing the solution
• Step 6: Evaluating the solution
Ps : an I-message or I-statement is an assertion about the feelings, beliefs, values etc. of the person speaking, generally
expressed as a sentence beginning with the word "I"
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22. Thank You!