1. What is a conflict?
A conflict is a condition in which concerned parties in a transaction experiences a sense of incompatibility of goals and other issues affecting the engagement.
2. How can conflict be functional for an organization? How can conflict be dysfunctional for an organization?
Conflict can be functional to an organization when it enhances innovation, creativity, and the creation of policies that promotes efficiency at work. Many professionals in an organization pit each other with diverse perspectives on how best various tasks can be performed. Organizations with innovative cultures always promote constructive conflicts and tolerance to people with divergent views. Also, disagreements in an organization promote unity since it brings people together so as to overcome the challenges. Besides, limited conflicts can prevent the escalation of contentious issues (Instructor’s Resources).
Dysfunctional conflict in an organization can lead to hostility and stress among employees a fact that has an effect on the quality of life in an organization. Also, dysfunctional conflict promotes high turnover of employees. Furthermore, conflicts can reduce the commitment of the employees since people will always strive to avoid conflicts. Sabotage and a loss in self-esteem when one loses in a conflict can have a negative impact on productivity.
3. Describe four types of conflicts which illustrate the conflict cycle?
Inter-organizational conflict
This is an antagonism that occurs between two organizations. Primarily, this form of competition is caused by competition among corporate.
Inter-group conflict
These are disagreements that occur between that occurs between teams or groups. Sources of this form of conflict can be aggression, competition for resources. The conflict develops in stages from antecedent conditions, perceived conflict, felt conflict, manifest, resolution and conflict aftermath (Green & Media, 2016).
Intragroup conflict
This form of conflict occurs within various groups in an organization.Intragroup conflicts include gender prejudices, ethnicity and religion.
Intrapersonal conflict
The intrapersonal conflict occurs within an individual. For instance, the inter-role conflict happens when an individual experiences conflict among the multiple roles in his or her life.
4. List and describe five sources of conflict in an organization?
Personality conflicts; Differences impersonality can spur conflicts since one person might become impatient with the assertiveness of the colleague.
Conflict in values; Differences in values can cause conflicts in an organization. An individual who values strict adherence to the dateline may be in conflict with lazy colleagues.
Organizational structure; Hierarchy in an organization can cause conflict among ambitious employees who are aspiring for positions on the top of the ladder.
Perceived injustice; A sense of injustice in an organization can be a source of dissatisfaction which can then turn to be a conflict. For instance, issues related to unfair compensation and the changes in the working conditions without proper remuneration can spur antagonism in an organization (Instructor’s Resources).
The diversity of the workforce; May organizations have employees from diverse backgrounds. A diverse workforce brings together people who have different cultures a fact that can cause conflict is the diversity is not managed carefully
5. List and describe three means of managing conflicts within an organization?
Mediation; this involves the use of a neutral third party to help the warring groups reach an agreement. Mediation entails successive steps of shuttle diplomacy.
Communication-based technique; this strategy seeks to resolve the tension between the warring sides through mutual understanding. The groups in conflicts usually analyze the needs, grievances and the techniques to be employed so as to reach a compromised ground.
Direct intervention; this is a technique whereby the management takes an initiative to resolve the conflict between employees through unilateral judgment. Primarily, the manager can order the warring parties to work out things together or make references to the organizations regulations to help in bringing order (Instructor’s R resources).
6. Does conflict strengthen or weaken ties within an organization? Why do you think this is so?
In my opinion, conflict wakens an organization if it is not properly managed. This is because employees spend a lot of time, solving issues instead of using the energy and time on productive activities. Also, persistent conflict in an organization can cause dissatisfaction among the employees thus leading to high turnover rate. High turnover rate increases the operation cost of the organization since the process of hiring and training new employees is so expensive.
7. How do sources of conflict differ in smaller and more informal groups like families when compared to large and more formal goal-oriented groups like schools and workplace?
In small and informal groups like families, conflicts usually originate from differences in opinions on how to govern family affairs. Also, the conflict may arise from the interdependence between people in the family. However, conflicts informal groups like the work are always issue based, competition for resources or differences in goals on how to better accomplish a particular task. In many organizations, the organizations have formal internal mechanisms that can be used to solve the disputes. Nonetheless, most of the informal institutions lack the capacity on how to resolve the contentious issues.
References
Green, C. and Meda, D. (2016). Examples of 4 types of conflict. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-4-types-conflict-1207.html
