Conflict Management

Conflict Management in Organizations

By Ravishankar Bhat

What is Conflict?

Conflict is defined as an interactive process manifested in incapability, disagreement or dissonance within or between social entities. Smith (1996) defines a conflict as “a situation in which the conditions, practices, or the goals of the different participants are inherently incompatible”. Letterer (1996, p 180) “a type of behavior which occurs when two or more parties are in opposition or in battle as result of a perceived relative deprivation from the activities of or interacting with another person or a group”. Smith considers conflict as a situation and Letterer considers it as type of behavior. Afzalur Rahim (2000) states “Conflict results from incompatibility or opposition in goals, activities or interaction among the social entities”.

Origin of a conflict

In organizations conflicts originates from different sources. A Rahim (2000) classifies conflicts based on their origin as Affective conflict, Substantive conflict, Conflict of interest, Conflict of values, Goal Conflicts, Realistic and Non-Realistic conflicts, Institutionalized versus Non-institutionalized conflicts. Conflicts can also be classified into different categories based on their origination as Intra personal conflicts, Interpersonal conflicts, Intra group conflicts, and Inter group conflicts.

Each conflict based on its origin has different impact on the organization. Conflicts create friction between participating entities and most of the time end-up in changing either the situation or the behavior. Conflicts initiate discussion and review/revalidation of an existing condition. The resultant change in situation or behavior by a conflict may be good or bad. The resultant review or revalidation of a situation/behavior by a conflict may be unnecessary and time consuming. If an organization does not want a change in its situation or in its behavior, that organization may look at conflict as destructive or a waste of time. Other organizations may look at conflicts differently.

Traditional management view on conflicts

In traditional management, conflict was considered as a destabilizing force. Conflicts were avoided and crushed if found. Traditional management studied the conflicts and it’s sources and made sure that conflicts are addressed at source. Traditional management defined the organizational structure as hierarchical, which helped to squash the conflict at its origin. Hierarchical structure helped the management to limit the interaction between groups or employees where conflict may occur. Interactions between the groups are clearly defined and are always through a specific person (Head of the group or department etc.). Questioning the goals of the team or questioning the decision of the lead was strongly discouraged. Higher-ups in the organizational hierarchy snubbed suggestions or valid arguments from their employees. Higher-ups felt that change leads to more conflicts even if it is for better. Since organizational hierarchy is strictly followed, these suggestions or valid improvements had no outlet. Opportunities for improvements were lost by not managing the conflicts properly.

Modern project management view on conflicts

Modern project management views conflicts in a much different way. Conflicts are viewed as opportunities for a change or an improvement. Modern project management creates vents for conflicts to come up to surface by defining matrix organizational structure. Well-educated workforce of the modern organization asked lot of questions, confronted traditional processes. Matrix organization with dual or more reporting structure, gave an employee a vent to raise his or hers conflict to either project manager or functional manager. This gave an option to the management to validate the conflict which is otherwise would have snubbed. If there are no conflicts in the organization then the organization has reached its peak with no more improvements in sight. This is a bad news for the organization as its survival is dependant on the continued improvement in its process and products. So in modern project management there are examples of conflicts being introduced within the organization by the senior members of the organization to instigate a change or a discussion or a competition.

Although conflicts are considered as places for improvement by the modern project management, not all the conflicts are good for the organization. If not handled properly, conflicts can spoil the work environment of a project or an organization. Conflicts may lead to loss of time in projects or unhealthy work environment. Sometimes conflicts may lead organizations to brink of a collapse. But in general conflicts between the groups (Intra group conflicts) have better chances leading to a healthy competition or an improvement in productivity.

Conflict Management

There is no single solution to conflicts. Each one of them is unique and has to be handled differently. But there are some general rules or approaches to a conflict. There are nine approaches a manager can take in a conflict situation. The attached table shows the different approaches that can be adopted. Based on the situation and the conflict a manager may need to adopt one of these approaches or try multiple of these approaches.

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