Conflict management and corporate culture in organizations

Conflict Management

One of the basic functions of management is leading. A good leader knows how to handle diverse members working in the organization. In fact, a good leader would always prefer diversity rather than homogeneity and take utmost advantage of the diverse workforce. However, conflicts also arise when people belonging to different backgrounds, values, experiences, beliefs and perceptions come together at a work place. Conflicts occur on a daily basis when people work in team on certain projects. Whatever the situation the conflict & team management can be considered crucial skills along with leadership role.

Different warning signs show the management that the company is heading for trouble. Business starts to under-perform, more often than not demonstrated by missing trading targets. This could result because of internal conflicts and differences. First minor differences appear among team member but differences become conflicts when they linger on in a negative way and when they are not managed. Conflict management has also become a specialized field and various methods have been devised to deal with the issues. Also, with the use of project management the use of diverse team members has increased considerably which in turn could also expose the organization and the team working on a certain project dangers of conflicts and issues. If conflicts linger than survival of the organization becomes difficult. Therefore it is imperative for management to utilize proper leadership and team management skill for the resolution of differences as well as conflicts.

All teams are groups but not all groups are teams. A group is the mere assembly of people brought together while team members come together for a common cause and mission. The key difference between a team and a group is performance. When employees work as a team or work group they are also responsible for the numbers they are contributing and the targets they are achieving. They become responsible for numbers because they monitor and follow output and try to find out ways to improve it. If they fail to achieve targets work group members can work together to resolve the issues. On the other hand conflicts and differences emerge if team members are not aware of the mission they are achieving and personal goals or egos take over the organizational goals and mission.

An effective team is characterized by open communication, is focused in its efforts, and is able to create a climate in which it can function. A poor team betrays hidden agendas with team goals subordinated to them thus breaching the trust which should serve as a glue. The climate in such a poor team is overly critical, tense, political, cynical, inhibiting and encouraging conflict and disagreements. The style of the team leader becomes really important in creating the right climate. An effective team leader focuses on the goals, ensures a collaborative climate, builds confidence, demonstrates sufficient technical know how, sets priorities, manages performance as well as conflicts.

A good leader should not play politics, should make communication safe, and should help the team members see their relevance to the goal thus keeping the goals alive and the mission stable in order to avoid any conflicts and manage performance. A leader should be fair, impartial, and open and should be willing to match his/her resources with those of others, should the others have the resources the leader may not have. In order to mange a team as well as conflicts within a team an important quality that a leader must possess is that he must be able to manage his/her ego.

In order to manage the conflicts, the idea of self-leadership has also surfaced according to which leader is not a designation on a certain level of organizational hierarchy rather all members are allowed to take up leadership role. "By encouraging self leadership, organization can begin to tap the skills and capabilities of the entire workforce rather than just those of the managerial elite. Approaching leadership as the task of freeing individuals to direct themselves turns many of our strongest notions of leadership on end. The definition of leadership changes to become one of leading others to lead themselves. The measure of a leader's strength becomes the ability to maximize the contributions of others through recognitions of their abilities to guide their own destiny rather than the leader's ability to bend the will of others to fit his or her own" (Miller, 1998).

Diversity is now considered a benefit rather than a problem. If used productively a diverse workforce can do wonders for an organization. Therefore, success of the business today depends on the skill of leaders related to the management of diversity as well as conflict. Organization must make sure that training is imparted at all levels in the organization to inculcate the true concept of a team as well as difference between the team and the group. The training does not need to be blatantly about conflict resolution rather leadership seminars and team management skills make eventually room for conflict management. Modern management practices now encourage teams, empowerment and leadership at all levels and these concepts naturally negate conflicts of personal or other interests. Hence, success lies in adopting such modern concepts of management.

Corporate Culture

An organization is the place where corporate culture brings life and makes it a place where people can spend at least half of their day. Many dismiss the notion of corporate culture as something trivial or unimportant but now the realization has come that it is one of the most challenging tasks to manage the corporate culture. Managing the human and cultural aspect of the business is as important as tackling the financial matters and handling the technical issues. The organizations that consciously try to manage their culture can relate it to productivity, better services as well as employee morale.

In an organization when people get together set out to work for business goals, a culture develops naturally. Not many companies try to design and manage their corporate culture and end up having a culture by default. The parallels are drawn to culture of an organization with the personality of a person. A human personality develops naturally but certain factors like education, upbringing, neighborhood etc. help in developing a better personality and a mature and responsible individual. Similarly, organization with its rituals, management practices, HR system, training & development programs etc. try to create a positive culture. Values, core beefs, code of ethics, goals, reason of being and shred vision are ideals on the basis of which the culture of an organization develops. If the organization does not have solid mission and its employees do not own its vision then such an organization lacks a robust culture.

If the organization has a robust culture based on values and principles then care of its different stakeholders in general and customers in particular becomes its part and parcel. Values and ethic in an organizational culture inculcates a sense of responsibility towards customers in all its employees whether directly or indirectly dealing with the customers. When employees own the purpose and work together for common goals then it also positively reflects in the area of customer satisfaction.

Companies that have stood the test of times are the ones that develop and nurture a shred vision. If the company has a culture that values it vision and mission then work for employees becomes passion rather than job. Culture also helps in attracting and assimilating employees within the organization. In some organization a particular type of culture comes out so strong that misfits realize that they would not be able to gel in while like minded people stay for long-term realizing their true potential would come out in that environment. A strong culture based on vision and mission thus gives a lot of importance to people realizing that people are the blood and soul in an organization. If employees feel good and work for the organizational goals then the overall performance in all areas improves.

Different schools of thoughts have defines culture in different ways. Different qualities have also been attributed to robust corporate cultures. Studies and researches have also been conducted to highlight key characteristics of a sound corporate culture. "Dr. Schneider has identified a phenomenon that is consistent with Collins and Porras' findings. Companies that have a core culture that is distinctly one of the four (Control, Collaboration, Competence, or Cultivation) are more successful than companies that have "fuzzy" core cultures. By fuzzy, it is meant that they have a blend of traits from two are more of the four basic cultures rather than having a core culture that is distinctly one of the four. By mixing traits of different cultures, these fuzzy companies can have great difficulty deciding what they want to be" (Schulz, 2001).