Essay Example on Workplace Conflicts: Causes & Factors

Introduction

Conflicts are a common happening within a workplace and can generally start with a very simple kind of agreement and transcends to a disagreement that might interfere with the performance of the organization. Illustrated below are some of the factors that were most likely to course the conflict that was experienced in the organization. They include:

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Resistance to change

Most of the employees together with the management always get stuck within their habits due to the fact that they are easy to follow and are quite familiar. Therefore the ability of the management to impact new changes to the group was faced with a lot of challenges leading the conflicting nature of the argument that was realist within the organization. It is therefore very important for the members to understand that a portion of the staff and the employees undergo a state of anger, denial, and confusion concerning the kinds of changes that were introduced to the company. It is a common strategy for human beings to resist the changes that are quite new and unknown to them. However, this might course a lot of conflict within the organization.

Unclear job expectations

Another factor that sees to course conflicts within the organization was the fact that the team had unclear job expectation and this was creating some kind of confusion amongst members. In a successful organization, any kind of new job that is being set income with new regulations together with a new position always resulting in the promotion of the staff. This was not the case within this organization because various kinds of responsibilities were being set in without any kind of changes made within the working schedule of the members. In the process that some of the group members are not sure of their performance within the organization, they might get offended and this might contribute to a lot of conflict within the organization. This was most likely to be one of the courses of conflict within the members of the organization.

Poor communication

Communication is involved in almost all the sectors of the organization and within any aspect of the workplace. Therefore lack of proper communication that was realized amongst the members is one of the key factors that lead to a lot of conflict within the organization.

How conflict affects the rest of the organization

The conflict that was realized within the team members has various negative impacts within the organization. The existing conflict within the organization reduces the performance of the rest of the organization because quality services can no longer be offered to the client. The existence of reduced productivity of the organization greatly damages the reputation of the organization which will stand out to be a long term setback to the organization unless proper measures are taken to improve the situation.

Conflict resolution styles to the organization

The following are some of the resolution skills that be applied within the organization to ensure that maximum peace is achieved within the organization. The strategies that need to be applied include,

Collaboration, problem-solving or confronting

This is the kind of problem-solving strategy where the parties within the organization that tends to have a difference in their opinion come forward to discuss the problem in a very open mind. This is a very practical approach that can be used to solve the problem within the organization because all the involved parties will find time to understand one another and through this, the discussion of the changes together with the job description that would have not been cleared would be aired out. The application of this strategy will work to improve understanding within the company and thus assist as a better way of solving problems.

Compromising and reconciliation

In some of the conflicts that arise within the organization, more so those that might be related to racism, there is a need to have a third party here and think amidst the conflicting parties more so in the event that the conflict parties fail to understand each other. The reconciliation process is one of the most fruitful methods that has been applied in conflict resolution and management both in the organization and a personal level to ensure that a proper understanding amongst the involved parties is attained. However, this kind of conflict resolution strategy is always not permanent, and thus an improvement of the same more so by the involved parties needs to be considered.

Withdrawing and avoiding

In some situations where the conflict persists, one of the involved parties might need to withdraw from whatever issue that is causing the conflict. This might involve one of the parties avoiding the discussion and allow goes by the other parties' opinions. However much it might not be the best strategy to ensure that proper production is realized within the organization, it will work to accommodate the conflict within the organization as better results are being taken into consideration.

References

Batton, J. (2004). Commentary: Considering conflict resolution education: Next steps for institutionalization. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 22(1-2), 269-278. https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.101

Fisher, M., & Sablan, T. (2018). Evaluating environmental conflict resolution: Practitioners, projects, and the movement. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 36(1), 7-19. https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21222

Grigorescu, A., & Melin, M. (2016). Multilateral Institutions and Conflict Resolution. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 34(3), 301-329. https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21176

Yarn, D. (2002). Transnational conflict resolution practice: A brief introduction to the context, issues, and search for best practice in exporting conflict resolution. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 19(3), 303-319. https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.3890190305