Conflict Management Strategies in the Modern Workplace

Introduction

Conflicts have become increasingly inevitable in the contemporary working environment because of the diverse nature of the workforce. The modern workplace is a hub of diverse cultures, largely because of globalization. Globalization has contributed to workplace diversity by facilitating increased migration of people who are looking for better market opportunities, personal development, and new challenges (Prause & Mujtaba, 2015, p. 13). These changes have generated numerous conflict situations, resulting in dramatic shifts in the perception of conflict. Since conflict has increased in today's working environment, conflict management has emerged as one of the most important issues for managers and other organizational stakeholders. Managers are increasingly faced with the need to identify and establish effective conflict management techniques.

Conflict in the Workplace

In the past 20 years, the perception of conflict in the working environment has changed significantly because of the numerous changes in the workplace. Prause and Mujtaba (2013) contend that globalization is the major factor that has generated changes in the workplace, which have in turn increased conflicts (p. 13). These conflicts emerge from the fact that globalization has resulted in higher migration of individuals who are pursuing career development and new challenges and opportunities.

Another factor contributing to increased conflicts in the workplace is the new millennium, which has offered several challenges and opportunities for businesses. Today's world is increasingly complex given the rise in diversity that has made nearly four generations work side by side (Deyoe & Fox, n.d.). Since each of these generations is characterized by unique traits, several conflicts emerge as they interact with one another in the working environment.

According to Singleton et al. (2011), conflicts in the workplace arise from the fact that people must communicate and interact with each other (p. 149). Similar to every other environment, conflict is bound to happen in the workplace as people interact and communicate. This implies that conflict is inevitable in both the personal and professional lives of individuals. Accordingly, workplace conflicts are frequently brought about by personality clashes and egos between employees. Conflict is primarily a natural by-product of interactions and communication between people as they seek to accomplish their personal and organizational goals.

In some cases, conflict in the workplace is a consequence of the nature of the working environment itself. Based on the findings of a survey, workplace conflict is sometimes caused by stress and heavy workloads (Singleton et al., 2011, p. 149). In this context, conflicts are viewed as expressions of frustration and concern regarding working conditions.

Teams are another workplace feature considered a contributor to conflict. Teams are widely used by organizations across the globe to achieve organizational goals. They are considered advantageous for various reasons, including enhancing quality, reducing costs, and developing new products (Alper, Tjosvold & Law, 2000, p. 625). As teams work toward achievement of organizational goals, they encounter several issues and challenges that in turn generate conflicts. When working in teams, conflicts emerge when people's behavior or actions infringe upon the organization's social norms or rules and regulations. In most cases, such conflicts arise from differences in personalities, opinions, experience, knowledge, and education.

Singleton et al. (2011) contend that there are two types of workplace conflicts: functional conflict and dysfunctional conflict. These two types do not exist entirely apart from each other, as organizations tend to experience varying degrees of each. Functional conflict arises from differences in opinions, natural diversity, differences in project or process, rapid change, and work teams. Dysfunctional conflict arises from dysfunctional work teams, system problems, heavy workloads, favoritism, unfavorable work culture, clashing egos, ineffective bureaucracy, and difficult personalities (Singleton et al., 2011, p. 151).

Integrative Strategies for Conflict Management

While conflicts are bound to happen in the workplace, they can have devastating impacts on organizational performance and productivity. Given the inevitability of conflict and its potential impact, managers and leaders are faced with the need to identify suitable conflict management techniques. Conflict management in the workplace involves developing effective measures to lessen the impact of conflict and enhance organizational productivity. Conflict management strategies are also used to improve constructive functions so that the organization can optimize learning and effectiveness. Through designing strategies, an organization does not avoid conflict but finds effective ways of dealing with it. Therefore, conflict management in the workplace is a means through which organizations handle grievances and disputes in order to identify a resolution that improves performance and productivity.

When developing or identifying a suitable conflict management strategy, it is important for organizational leaders to examine several issues. First, leaders need to determine how a conflict can be brought into the open in order to be dealt with. Second, they must examine the best possible means for people to understand each other's perspectives. Third, leaders should examine how trust can be developed so that emerging conflicts become more functional rather than dysfunctional. Fourth, leaders should identify how people with varying conflict resolution abilities can be used to teach others. These four considerations have traditionally served as the premise for determining a suitable conflict management strategy.

Apart from these vital considerations, conflict management also entails several activities including problem solving, communication, handling emotions, and understanding people's positions. This range of activities is geared toward promoting healthy dialogue and ensuring positive interpersonal skills. Techniques commonly used to handle or resolve workplace conflicts are classified into two major categories: integrative strategies and avoidance or distributive strategies.

Organizational leaders handle conflicts through integrative strategies, which are also known as social-oriented, collaborating, or problem-solving techniques. These strategies are used to initiate open communication, solve problems, or ensure information sharing when dealing with conflict (Singleton et al., 2011, p. 153).

Collaboration

One of the techniques most commonly used to manage conflicts in the working environment is collaboration. This is an integrative strategy since it focuses on promoting healthy relationships between organizational members through resolving the underlying issue. Collaboration involves working together to find a solution that will satisfy all parties involved in the conflict. It can be described as cooperation with every party to express and listen to concerns with the aim of identifying a mutually satisfactory solution (Prause & Mujtaba, 2015, p. 19). In most cases, this conflict management technique is described as a win-win approach, since the views of each party are taken into consideration during conflict resolution. The advantages of this integrative approach include the fact that it incorporates each party's wishes, widens the scope of possible solutions, and examines all ideas to develop a fresh outcome.

Brubaker et al. (2014) state that collaborative processes and approaches to conflict resolution have become common in organizations worldwide, especially in North America (p. 357). The most common collaborative approaches include coaching and mediation, which are used to lessen the impacts of unresolved conflict on organizational performance and productivity. To achieve this goal, many organizations have established an ombudsman tasked with identifying at least one conflict management approach suitable for handling a given issue.

McAllum (2013) views collaboration as a participation-based conflict management system that examines conflict from an interpersonal and intra- or inter-organizational perspective (p. 53). The core of a participation-based system such as collaboration is relationships and the belief that involvement generates personal, organizational, and societal benefits. Through a participation-based system, conflict is resolved by creating a collaborative organizational culture that helps enhance operations and improve the quality of life of employees. Conflicts are viewed as natural processes that require participation or collaboration rather than discrete episodes that emerge outside the organization's norms and processes.

Accommodating

The second integrative conflict resolution approach is accommodating, which is a problem-solving technique that works when parties to a conflict cooperate well (Prause & Mujtaba, 2015, p. 18). This approach involves setting aside one person's concerns in favor of the concerns of others. When this occurs, one of the members in the conflict management process is typically an expert in the specific issue being examined. This expert provides the most suitable solution even if it contradicts another party's goals and desired outcomes.

Brubaker et al. (2014) consider accommodating to be part of collaborative processes in conflict management, since it primarily involves mediation by an expert or organizational ombudsman (p. 357). The increased use of this technique has contributed to the growth of pre-mediation coaching. Through this coaching, mediators utilize coaching techniques to help parties prepare more deliberately for the resolution process. To help the parties accommodate each other's concerns, the mediator helps them focus on desired outcomes, identify their specific concerns, and determine their response to difficult messages or information (Brubaker et al., 2014, p. 357).

According to McAllum (2013), accommodating is a management-based system of conflict management in which conflicts are regarded as natural phenomena (p. 51). Management-based systems deal with workplace conflicts by encouraging involved parties to define their interactions and adapt to emerging situations. This helps transform conflict management in various ways, such as widening the conflict discussion beyond legalistic debates about personal rights. In addition, the approach examines the interests of each party and addresses grievances, which in turn enables the parties to have more control over the final outcomes of the resolution process.

Compromising

The third integrative conflict management technique is compromising. Unlike accommodating, compromising involves considering each party's concerns and promoting cooperation through lowering demands. Through this strategy, each party reconsiders some aspects of their demands in order to help resolve the underlying issue amicably. As an integrative conflict management strategy, compromising contributes to the partial satisfaction of both parties, since each of them sets aside one of their concerns or demands in favor of the other party (Prause & Mujtaba, 2015, p. 18). However, this strategy may be disadvantageous in some cases because it sometimes resolves the conflict only temporarily.

Compromising is a management-based system because its main emphasis is on contributing to the mutual gain of all parties in the conflict. It helps resolve a conflict by enlisting a series of interest-based policies and processes that focus on the mutual benefits of both parties (Brubaker et al., 2013, p. 51). This approach gives parties more control over the final outcome by enabling them to examine their grievances and relinquish some of their demands in favor of the other.

Conclusion

Workplace conflicts are inevitable since human interactions are characterized by conflicting situations and issues. There are two major categories of factors that contribute to conflicts in the workplace: individual factors and organizational factors. Conflicts have potentially devastating impacts on individual, work team, and organizational effectiveness, which can negatively affect organizational cohesion, performance, and productivity. As a result, there is a need to identify effective approaches to deal with conflicts in order to enhance organizational performance and productivity. Integrative strategies, especially collaboration, appear to be the most effective approach to conflict management in the workplace, as they generate numerous advantages and benefits unlike distributive or avoidance strategies. Organizational leaders and managers can also manage conflict effectively through establishing an organizational culture that addresses both the individual and organizational factors that contribute to conflict situations.

References

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