Relentless Conflict

Relentless Conflict

“Happiness is not the absence of conflict but the ability of resolving it effectively”

While I was on my morning walking, I encountered two incidence of Conflict .One was on a badminton court both the players blaming each other for not winning. Second was conflict of allegiance between veterans, their heated argument was about the outcome of ongoing Bihar Politics. All of us do experience some form of conflict in our personal life too. As a matter of fact no two people in this planet agree, they end up trampling on their shoes during the course of any exchange of ideas. Unlike other management Conflict Management is not as easy to resolve. Though it is the method of restraining the negative aspects of  conflict while increasing the positive aspects, it is seldom captivated by stake holders. The focus on conflict management is to enhance learning, study group outcomes, including effectiveness or performance in organizational setting. An objective of Conflict Management is to portray the different types of conflict, identify the sources of conflict and to clarify the levels of conflict.

Let us assume the HRM and the GM of an MNC meet for the upcoming agenda to draft a presentation to the CEO. Both come up with numerous opinions. Every reflection is carefully examined by both even if it is conflicting to their personal ideas and they present it to the superior for final decision. Constructive conflict is the most effective conflict situation that you can encounter. It encourages the expression of opinions on a controlled and respectful manner. Constructive conflict also sets the stage for healthy conflict and for resolution. It also encourages growth and innovation.

On the Contrary If the HRM insists his/her ideas to be implemented and overrules the suggestions of the GM, Destructive conflict surfaces. And this is basically an unhealthy environment, which controls thoughts and does not empower those for alternative ways of thinking. This allows issues from a personal perspective to get in the way of controlling an environment, and it causes more destructive behavior. It can ultimately poison the company. As a matter of fact present day HR is privileged with humongous power to call the shot.

Daniel Katz' theory of Destructive Conflict, divides the source of conflict into three categories Economic, Value, and Power. Economic conflict is basically a situation where the resources are in short supply. These sources can be many different things, they can be human resources, office supplies, budget, social loafing, they can be displaying fixtures, or company products. Most of the offices joust over the only available office assistant..

When the sources are scarce in an organization, the employees tend to hoard these resources, as they never know when the access to these resources will become available. So, you might find individuals in reality watching and waiting for resources and are not made available to them by their team members. They will not provide their team the support necessary by sharing the resources that they've hoarded. This is clearly a dysfunctional behavior and what ensues when this practice takes place is additional conflict between the teams, peers and managers.

Value conflict is between ideals, and principles, and preferences. This is very difficult to sort out individuals because values are something that all take it to the work environment. Many individuals in the work environment may mirror the values of the organization, and some of the values that the individuals hold very dear may be contradictory to what the environment supports.

So when individuals bring their own personal values into the work environment, and expect other individuals to behave within their definition of values, a conflict can result. For the reason that as you can envisage, not everyone follows the same set of values. So if these values, principles, or preferences are taken to extreme, where individuals expect everyone to behave such as they do, believe such as they do, or follow the same philosophies such as they do. You’ll have discord and it'll be a source of conflict. You can always find disagreement among the members arising out of state political allegiance.

 Power and control are other interesting factors in destructive conflict. When you think about power and control; you may imagine an individual you’ve worked with on a team, in a department or maybe in a division. Power is very obsessive to some individuals. Power is something that some people believe to be identified who they are. Maybe a designation, maybe be in charge of over a team or a project, pleading for a power position can be counterproductive, and then this course cause destructive conflict.

 Let's take a team setting, where an individual takes the power in always being the first to speak. Overpowering individuals in a dialog are enforcing their situation or their position or their decision to the rest of the team. It can also happen when an individual is dominant or control of a work unit where no one's appointed them for this position. But they've decided to be the one that does take the lead role even though it's not supported by anybody else on the team. Power is something that's very common in a work environment and I'm sure you've experienced it and have already experienced the source of conflict that it can cause.

Professor Ms Najila Debow lecturing on Conflict resolution states,"Conflict resolution is key to any life situation be at home, occupation, social gathering or sports activities". It is mandatory higher level of Communication is needed to understand and participate in the efforts necessitating for positive Conflict resolution. Through your natural styles you will be able to strengthen your Communication, identifying the best approach reviewing the facts of conflict, using these skills to establish a collaborative approach and discovering the options important for resolution. It may be deterrent to have controls of all variables while seeking diffusion. It ultimately boils down on how you react to ease the tension, challenge yourselves and utilize these new found skills to increase your effectiveness in resolving conflict.