Conflict is an important piece in the evolution of this world and necessary for our very existence. There is conflict in every facet of action and conflict is at large within business systems. When most people think of conflict, they think negatively because most people handle conflict in an inappropriate manner that allows negative differences to flourish and keep unresolved issues that cause a reduction in business productivity. Conflict has several different meanings, but a broad definition of conflict is a process that begins when one party perceives that another party has been negatively affected or is about to negatively affect something the first party cares about. Conflict happens when employees have an ongoing interaction that arises in disagreements such as departmental goal incompatibility, individual perception of facts, and simple personality disagreements. Just as conflict can carry a broad range of meanings, there are different types of conflict that can arise in business; between employees, management, and employees, or management.
Dyadic conflict is a type of conflict that occurs between two different employees.
Intragroup conflict happens between different departments, or with a team of employees within a department.
Intergroup conflict takes place within different employee groups or teams. Conflict is not limited to the types listed, but most conflict within an organization falls into these basic types. The conflict types rising within a company fall into broader categories that could be the cause of the conflict.
Task conflict could be the root of the issue of intragroup conflict within an organization because task conflict is born to differences in the work content and goals.
Relationship conflict is prevalent within an organization’s divisional leadership which can manifest dyadic conflict with divisional leaders. When divisional leaders display ego and personality as if they are “jocking” for an influential position within an organization; they are destroying mutual understandings and increasing personality clashes. Relationship conflict is a very detrimental category of conflict to have within an organization because destructive personalities arise within management and that poisons the rest of the employee workforce.
Process conflict causes dysfunction in achieving an organization’s mission/vision statement; thus, bringing about intragroup conflict because the different departments are attempting to figure out how the work gets done to reach organizational goals.
Conflict is at large within organizations, but organizations can design management procedures and techniques to make sure the conflict promotes positive and higher, departmental performance. An organization must understand the root of the conflict and the type of conflict taking place. This process is manageable with the definition, types, and categories of conflict being explained earlier. There are many ways an organization can handle the conflict arising within the organization. An organization can use a problem-solving technique that works like creating a Problem-Solving Team (PST) within the organization. The problem-solving technique facilitates the conflicting employees having a meeting to help each employee identify the issue, or issues, at hand and have an open, constructive discussion to create a solution. The conflicting employees must understand the purpose of the physical meeting is to resolve the conflict between them only; not to have a shouting match or make attempts to “one-up each other.” Another conflict management technique an organization can use is just simply the avoidance of the conflict. An organization can simply suppress the conflict by using the organization’s code of conduct policies to force the withdrawal of the conflicting employees. This technique is effective when one of the conflicting employees refuses to cooperate with productively resolving the conflict. An organization can also create the ability to find a shared goal that the conflicting employees cannot attain without the complete cooperation of each conflicting party. These are the superordinate goals the conflict management technique is effective with cooperating employees. If timing is critical for an organization and the conflict needs immediate resolution, the company can consider the authoritative command conflict management technique. In this conflict management technique, executive leadership just uses their authority to give non-negotiable communication on how to resolve the conflict, and failure to comply would result in corrective disciplinary action if their desires are not accomplished. If an organization is transforming itself, altering the structural variables conflict management technique is good to apply within the organization. Altering structural variables simply means creating coordinating positions, departmental redesigning, employee transfers, or taking action to change the formal structure of the organization to disperse the conflict. This technique has the possibility of showing avoidance of the root of the conflict and can spread the conflict instead of resolving the conflict.
The techniques suggested above are not the only techniques an organization can use to remove unproductive conflict that is hindering organizational goals. Organizational leadership should make definitive decisions to use conflict management techniques but ensure they do not implement techniques that continue to stimulate conflict. Organizational leadership should stay away from using ambiguous terminology that employees can interpret as a threat or other negative condemnations. To stay productive in conflict, no organizational leader or manager should appoint them in a “devil’s advocate” role because criticizing is very unproductive when it comes to resolving the conflict. Playing “devil’s advocate” can fuel more personality clashes and further hinder an organization from reaching the goals set for the organization.