Essay on Dysfunctional Conflict

Introduction

A Dysfunctional conflict is a disagreement that leads to communication shutdown and a decline in the achievement of goals that is set by a team or a group of people. The destructive conflict has outstanding characteristics such as distrust, dissatisfaction, a lot of tension in both parties and decline in performance. In most cases, one party wins while the other one loses.

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Indeed, in the past, I have been a victim of the destructive conflict that was so bad. The Dysfunctional conflict in my case was at my workplace during the holidays. I was a marketing and sales person for a software solutions company. My main job was to ensure that marketing of all the software gets done, maintaining our clients as well as attracting new customers. Due to the demand for the position, the organization had hired another employee making us two people to work together. Therefore, to achieve the goals and improve performance, we were to work together, corporate and have strong communications. However, after a few weeks of working, my co-worker became withdrawn, communicated less and did not consult me in most cases.

I tried to talk to him since his behavior was directly affecting our work in all ways but he was not taking it. Apparently, his behavior became worse as I ended up doing almost all the work just to ensure we produce something and keep up with the organization's expectation. Surprisingly, I heard word go around that my co-worker had been bad-mouthing me on how I have been delegating all duties to myself and leaving him out in order to come out as the most competent worker. It is then that I decided to go to the manager and report the issue on what has been happening around. However, the problems in sales and marketing in the organization had escalated and the sales were declining with fewer clients making the manager to make a random decision.

The major source of conflict in my scenario would involve the perception of scarce resources as well as the personality-based aspect. Instead of working as a team, my co-worker felt threatened that I was competing with him when it came to responsibilities in the job. He made it look like I was taking all the opportunities and not giving him a chance to show what he is capable of doing. Hence, he resulted in limiting communication as well as withdrawing himself from the major. In addition, too much personality got involved in the mix. I was trying hard to reach him and try to solve the issue, but his ego and pride would not let him be open to me. On the other hand, I am a person who is deliberate, dutifulness and self-disciplined. Thus, the conflict was further accelerated due to the contrast in personalities.

The dysfunctional elements usually come in when one individual o party focuses on individualism and does not see the need to seek help from others. For instance, my co-worker felt the urge of individual independence and as a result, he was not open to consultations with myself. Moreover, it was clear that one party that I was concentrating on the perception of rightfulness where I thought I was always rights since I only judged my co-worker from his behavior and personality. However, the approach was not one of the best since it hastened the conflict further.

My attitude towards the conflict is that of collaboration. I am ready to compromise in order to strengthen things with my co-worker. I believe its through a corporation that we can find a common ground of the disagreement and find ways to solve it. Each of us will have to spend an equal amount of time in our conflict resolution. I think we are willing to take two weeks for us to solve the problem since we need to perform in our respective jobs. I feel like the pace of the conflict is so fast and it is nice to find resolution methods early before we bring the company down. The working relationship is of great importance since without it the institution is at risk of not achieving its goals and increase its performance. Speaking and listening skills will be my strengths in the resolution. Speaking will enable me to express myself and air my grievances while listening will help me understand my co-worker's insecurities and worries.

Conclusion

Constructive conflict characteristics are very vital in a dysfunctional conflict. One major feature is an opportunity for dialogue, instead of a competitive debate. Dialogue helps in arriving at a unanimous decision that will favor each one of us. Moreover, my co-worker and I will get a chance to give our different views on how the conflict affects our roles as opposed to competitive debate. A second valuable characteristic is working together as a team in idea evaluation. Notably, working as a team will facilitate creativity, helps in an in-depth exploration of ideas, it will build on collaboration as well as helping in ensuring tasks get handled appropriately.

Citation

DeChurch, Leslie A., Jessica R. Mesmer-Magnus, and Dan Doty. "Moving beyond relationship and task conflict: Toward a process-state perspective." Journal of Applied Psychology98.4 (2013): 559.

Fry, Douglas P., Kaj Bj, and Kaj Bjorkqvist. Cultural variation in conflict resolution: Alternatives to violence. Psychology Press, 2013.

Montes, Carlos, Damaso Rodriguez, and Gonzalo Serrano. "Affective choice of conflict management styles." International Journal of Conflict Management 23.1 (2012): 6-18.

Sierau, Susan, and Philipp Yorck Herzberg. "Conflict resolution as a dyadic mediator: Considering the partner perspective on conflict resolution." European Journal of Personality 26.3 (2012): 221-232.