Causes and management of workplace conflict in organizations

Conflict in the Workplace

Workforce within organizations, whatever the level, constitutes one of the most important resources within such environments. Harmony among the human resource and shared vision among employees is one mandatory factor in ensuring that goals are appropriately met. Conflict if however, one inevitable occurrence in the workplace and organizational leaders has to deal with it appropriately (Flagan & Craig 8). Conflict in organizations neither occurs nor happens in a vacuum. Usually, there are some underlying issues which instigate the conflicts either between workmates or teams. Fortunately, the capacity of conflict management can help in such situations and even turn the organization into a better place. This can be achieved either through preventing the conflicts or resolving them. Personally, I have been in a conflict situation within the office; a state which was handled appropriately by the management but would however been avoided had appropriate prevention structures been constituted.

Causes of Conflict

Conflicts in the workplace are exhibited in different form and occur between different kinds of people or groups. Just as natures of these conflicts differ so are the causes which give rise to them. Some of the common ways in which conflicts originate within organizations include;

Scarcity of resources; when there exists shortage of resources within different departments or the entire organization, competition becomes widespread and the occurrence of conflicts almost inevitable. This scarcity can come in the form of finances, office facilities and equipment just to mention but a few. When it becomes impossible for individual to share the few resources provided for them within a work environment, quarrels erupt and disagreements emerge.

Personality differences; this is probably the most common factor that causes disagreements, more so between individuals in an organization. The clash between personalities and language among workers in workplaces is widespread and sometimes leads to unpleasant occurrences like rumours and gossip. Differences in race, family background and ethnic identities are among the instigators of personality differences in organization and occur in varied degrees from one organization to the other.

Ambiguity in roles and responsibilities; proper accomplishment of tasks and achievement of goals calls for clarity in the way roles and responsibilities are defined among individuals and groups within organizations. When instructions, more so from the superiors, are not provided clearly, it becomes possible for workers to fail in their lines of duty. Inappropriateness in the accomplishment of tasks encompasses one of the most irritating instances for bosses. This could cause conflicts between workers and their superiors within the departments or in the entire organization.

Poor communication; lack of proper forms of communication can plunge individuals and teams into conflicts. Communication is the single most important aspect when it comes to things being done within any environment. The workplace is clearly not an exception in this case. When communication is poor within an organization, things either do not get done or are done in an appropriate means. Poor communication can lead to other causes of conflict in organizations. For instance, it can interfere with team work which is an essential element in the success of organizations.

Personal Experience

Personally, I have experienced some conflict between me and a member of my group over the instructions required for the development of software. Considering that he is good with a specific programming language, he was advised to work on the Graphical User Interface for the program. He was however displeased with the demand as it seemed to constitute much of the task for creating the software. He declined that responsibility but never failed to communicate his dissatisfaction with neither member nor the other two members of the group. He however chose to direct his grievances to other members of the department. It was only after the deadline that he raised his concerns voicing the idea of getting another member to team up with in the development of the interface. It was however disappointing for me considering he failed to raise his concerns at the appropriate time. Owing to the fact that he had also discussed the issue with parties inappropriate to me, a conflict arose between the two of us.

In resolving the solution, I reported the matter to our departmental head who consulted the two of us separately, arranging for a meeting at a later date. Prior to the meeting, the departmental head advised us to keep confidential the matter that was between us and to avoid discussing with other members within the department. On the date of the meeting, the department's head gave both of us room to relay our discontent. He later made us convey our interests with regards to our relationship within the group and our work on the project at hand. We were later allowed to express the things we wished would change between us and within the department before we were provided with options for solutions. We settled on a solution which entailed adding one more member to the team to help my colleague accomplish working on the user interface. The departmental head gave us a go ahead but promised to monitor the effectiveness of the solution we settled upon.

Though the problem was solved, the issue would have better been avoided than having us go through all the trouble that we had. The problem within our department, which has since been corrected, seemed to be the lack of proper communication channels across the department. Fear of seniors seemed to cause this and as such, the team member feared talking to me directly over the issue considering that I was his senior within the group. Had appropriate communication structure been there, the conflict wouldn't have existed in the first place.