WORKPLACE CONFLICT: A CASE STUDY

Introduction
Depending on the workplace environment, worker conflict can occur
frequently leading to violent disputes which were the case with the
woodwork factory. The workers have substantial cultural and religious
disparities resulted in major conversation problems. The management
dilemma is the increasing number of worker conflict cases leading to a
.decrease in production and worker morale
In addition, there are ethical concerns on employing immigrant workers at
the factory. While the workers are paid the standard hourly rate, most of
them lack the necessary legal documentation to ascertain their migrant
status and lack the necessary skills that would guarantee job
advancements but are effective at manual labor. The management is
aware that the workers need the jobs to sustain their families which would
.face challenges if the workers are dismissed
This report evaluates the causes of the worker conflict in order to identify
the leading cause of conflict at the factory. It is only after establishing the
causes of conflict that conclusions can be drawn from the case study
allowing for the proposition of appropriate recommendations. Primary data
will be acquired through structured interviews that will be administered to
all workers and the theoretical context will be based secondary sources,
primarily journals and academic textbooks. It is hypothesized that the
main cause of conflict among the factory workers is poor communication

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which is attributed to the differences in religious and academic

.backgrounds

Purpose of research
This essay is trying to prove, what are some of the strategies used by
companies when looking for Conflict Resolution when they face is the
combination of daily work with the interaction between people. Describes
in greater depth, which depends on solving these problems, I will mention
some of the recommended strategies, the importance of using them to
improve employee productivity, how is the implementation of the same,
the potential advantages and disadvantages

Literature Review
De Dreu and Weingart (2003), describe workplace conflict as form of
hostility that occurs within the human resource of an organization. The
incidence of conflict in a healthy organizational culture is infrequent which
is why the conflict at the factory is a cause for concern. Workplace
conflicts are estimated to decrease the performance of the management
by 25% by diverting attention, time and resources from the core business
.to conflict management and resolutions (Liu, Spector & Shi, 2007)

Management Dilemma
As is evidenced at the factory, workplace conflict is a significant
managerial impediment which can lead to the total collapse of an

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organization.. According to De Dreu and Weingart (2003), the main causes

:of workplace conflict are

,Poor communication

,Contradictory values

,Opposing interests

,Insufficient resources

Differences in personalities, as well as

.Non-performance

In addition, de Wit, Greer, & Jehn (2012) identify three common types of
:workplace conflict namely

,Task conflict

Interpersonal conflict

Procedural conflict

The authors distinguish task conflict as a disagreement between workers

.or workers and management
Interpersonal conflict is defined as the disagreement between the
.individualities of workers

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Procedural conflict is identified as the disagreement between workers and

.management on the procedures taken to complete a task
In the discussion of social conflict Rahim (2011), delineates four
:fundamental conditions that precipitate conflict, that is

,Alliance of individuals into organized groups

,Interaction and communication within the groups

,Internal hierarchy within the group members

A common grievance or agenda between the group

.members (Rahim, 2011)

Based on the general assessment of the factory workers, it is evident that
poor communication, contradictory values, opposing interests and
differences in personalities are the prime conflict drivers at the factory.
The interests and personal goals of the workers are also dissimilar and
their conflation effectively undermines organizational goals. The workers
from different backgrounds also breeds personality differences as a result
of different work ethics and workplace conduct. According to the
preliminary analysis of the factory workforce, the primary form of conflict
at the factory is the interpersonal conflict considering the workers interact
based on their ethnic and cultural backgrounds leading to significant
.differences in the personalities
:Plans

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We are going to conduct this research using the technique of Interview

Questions. Surveys of personal interviews were used to investigate the
responses of respondents and at the same time, to observe the behavior
of respondents, either individually or as a group. The interview method is
.preferred by us for a couple of the advantages
High response rates

.1

One of the main reasons why researchers achieve good response rates
through this method is face-to-face interview survey nature. Unlike the
administration of questionnaires, people are more likely to answer
questions live easily on the subject (eg, a product), simply because they
.can actually see, touch, feel or try the product
Interviews longer tolerable .2
If you want to analyze the respondents' answers, you may do so through a
focus on the personal interview. Open questions are more tolerated by
interviews, due to the fact that respondents would be more convenient to
.express their long answers orally in writing
Better Behavioral Observation .3
Market researchers can benefit from the personal interview survey
because it presents a greater opportunity to observe the attitude and
.behavior of respondents / consumers to a product

Scales and Benchmarks

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A decision scales and Qualification Benchmarks should be made with

respect to the scoring system or rating scale to be used in the interview.
The rating scale can be as simple as "acceptable" or "unacceptable", or
may be a point scale based on three, four, or five levels. "It is difficult to
define more than five levels can be significantly and consistently
evaluated. The most critical of the rating scale element is the number of
levels you have, but how these levels are defined" (Valadez 1987:. 8). 10
Rating scales should be defined by the reference points for each question.
Benchmarks answers to questions that are linked to the rating scale are
suggested. The benchmarks provide a framework for assessing the
responses of candidates objectively and consistently. Generally, there
should be at least three proposed answers for each question: a superior,
satisfactory and a satisfactory answer. For example, with a rating scale of
five points, develop benchmarks for five points (superior response), three
points (satisfactory response) and a point (unsatisfactory response). To
develop benchmarks, with the guidance in Table 4, ask SMEs to create
responses that suit the different levels of the rating scale. If the questions
were used in interviews previously, SMEs can use real answers they have
heard of candidates

Data
The literature review establishes a framework through which worker conflict
can be systematically evaluated. This was facilitated by a structured interview which
was administered among all the workers . The interview questions were designed to
capture information on the main sources of conflict among the plant employees and

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were therefore designed as: (a) 1-7 general demographics, (b) 8 regularity of conflict,
and (c) 9 causes of conflict (See Appendix). Due to the language barrier, it was
anticipated that the interview would be challenging but a majority of the workers
understood and could communicate in elementary English. Only 3 workers required
the intervention of a fellow employee to act as a translator which allowed for a clearer
.recording of their responses

Results
The results on the analysis of the responses of the structured interviews
revealed that there are several factors that incline the workers at the factory towards
conflict. Preliminary analysis of the responses reveals that the workers at the plant
.have significant disparities in their ethnic, religious and language backgrounds

Figure 1: Factory worker religious background

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Of the 146 factory workers, most have Muslim (56) and Hindu (42)
backgrounds, while 28 workers are Christians. 20 workers also have other religious
backgrounds mainly Jains, Sikhs and Taos. The religious and cultural differences of
.the workers are particularly evidenced by the nationality of the workers
Figure 2: Factory workers distribution by nationality

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All of the factory workers are from foreign countries and according to their
responses to the interview; the workers are mainly from 9 countries. As shown in
Figure 2, most of the workers originate from Libya, India and Syria as well as
countries like Nepal, Nigeria, Egypt and Iraq, underscoring the prominence of Islamic
.and Hindi cultures within the factorys workforce
Figure 3: Primary communication language of the factory workers

Figure 3 further shows that most of workers prefer communicate in their first
languages and therefore Arabic and Hindi are the most prominent languages at the
factory. Only a minority of the workers communicate in English resulting in
significant language barriers at the factory between both employee interactions as well
.as management and employee interactions
The workers are primarily grouped by the 3 religious majorities, leading to
differences in their belief systems. For example Muslims have strict deity principles

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which they adhere to by praying 5 times a day which often leads to scheduling
conflicts with non-Muslim workers. This has also led to the resentment of the Muslim
workers by the non-Muslims who perceive them to interfere with their progression of
.tasks since they have to take prayer breaks
Figure 4: Education level of the factory Workers

Most of the plant workers have secondary education while 8 workers having
college education and 12 workers lack education. As a result, most of the workers
depend on the factory as their primary source of income effectively hinging their
.professional goals at the factory
Figure 5: Relationship status of factory workers

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Figure 6: Number of dependents for the factory workers

Since most of the workers are single, they do not have familial commitments
but further analysis reveals that only 16 workers lack any dependents. Since 44% of
workers have familial commitments and 63% have over 2 dependents, then the
personal goals of a majority of the workers is to provide for their dependents. A
majority of workers therefore compete with their colleagues to advance their

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professional and personal goals leading to conflict since there are limited internal slots
for promotions based on the academic level of most of the workers. In addition, the
differences in culture and education lead to diverse work ethics and workplace
behavior among the workers. Considering 68 workers have rudimentary or no
education, it is likely that these workers have different workplace norms from the 78
.higher skilled workers with higher skill levels resulting in personality differences
Figure 7: Regularity of conflict as reported by factory workers

Of all the workers at the factory, only 6 workers indicated they have never
faced conflict at the factory. Among the 140 workers who faced conflict, most
reported the cause of conflict as poor communication while others indicated disregard
of duty as well as misconduct as the leading cause of conflict at the factory. Task
replication incidents along with personal differences were also reported by the
workers. 6 workers also reported that worker competition and ineffective management
.as sources of conflict which were classify under the other category
Figure 8: Cause of conflict

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The results of the analysis show that the occurrence of worker conflict at the
factory is high, mainly as a result of poor communication disregard for duty as well as
worker misconduct. In addition, religious and cultural differences have been fueled by
the use of diverse languages at the factory. Poor communication and the lack of an
official language at the factory are therefore main causes of conflict at the factory and
therefore the management should focus on solutions that mitigate poor
.communication
The most direct approach for management is dismiss all the existing workers
and replace them with more qualified workers in terms of skills and education. This is
expected to reduce the employee conflict and increase productivity due to an
expansion of the skill pool. This approach would however be expensive to execute
given that the management would have to recruit and train the new workers. As a
result, the lead time of existing deliverable would increase and production would

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decline and training period which could potentially result in the loss of clients due to
.the delayed deliveries
Alternatively, the management can institute comprehensive conflict
management policies to guide the workers on how to address incidents of conflict.
The objective of this policy would be formalize how conflicts are handled and
increase the level of accountability of each worker in deference to conflict.. This
would decrease the occurrences thereby reducing interpersonal conflict. The policy
should also insist on the communication in English as the exclusive official language
since most of the workers are able to communicate in simple English. Penalties can
then be introduced to discourage workers from using other languages to communicate
.and can include financial fines or a day off
The policy should also offer a clear guideline on how conflicts should be
resolved and the expected conduct of workers during conflict. The policy should
stipulate that the workers should report any conflict to the supervisor who is expected
to impartially solve the conflict and any conflict based on religion or ethnicity will
.result in existing a formal warning to the workers involved
It is also important for the workers to freely interact despite their religious and
ethical differences in order to overcome basic stereotypes. The management can
achieve this by creating common areas for employees such as meal halls where they
can have meals and breaks collectively. In addition, the management should arrange
social functions for the workers for instance form a factory sports team or have
weekend picnics allowing workers to interact with their families in a casual setting.

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Such an approach will allow the workers to overcome their stereotyping and prejudice
barriers and perceive each other as individuals. The management should also increase
the breaks allowed for workers during their shifts since according to Gruman and Saks
.(2011), workers are more productive with an increase in their rate of rest
In order to convert residual conflict into healthy competition, the factory
management should implement performance metrics to merit the promotions and the
bonuses offered to the workers. Anitha (2014) shows that the use of performance
metrics increases employee engagement and productivity while also boosting the level
of worker commitment to an organization. This approach is effective with minimal
cost, implying that the factory can immediately implement this new approach with
.minimal resistance to these changes by the workers

Conclusion
This study has revealed that employee conflict at the woodwork factory is
primarily due to poor communication and facilitated by religious and cultural
differences. Unless this problem is effectively mitigated, the level of productivity at
the factory will continue to decline and could lead to financial losses in the event of
extensive violence. The main message that management and other decision makers
can use from this research in order to make informed business decisions is that it is
important to have a healthy workplace culture where employees can easily
communicate among themselves and with the management. If an organization faces
high incidents of employee conflict, it is essential that the management immediately

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puts in place structures and policies to reinforce communication and cohesion among
.the employees
The main strength of this study is that it effectively evaluates the workforce at
the factory and uses the requisite tools to identify poor communication as the leading
cause of employee conflict at the woodwork factory. The main weakness of the study
is that resource limitations could not allow for the effective study of how the
management has facilitated the conflict at the factory. Future research should focus on
identifying effective data collection tools that account for the complexity and scope of
the roles management in order to develop a comprehensive analytical framework that
.will quantify the impact of management on levels of employee conflict

References
Anitha, J. (2014). Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on
employee performance. International Journal of Productivity and
.Performance Management, 63(3), pp.308 - 323
De Dreu, C. & Weingart, R. (2003). Task versus relationship conflict, team
performance, and team member satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Journal of
.Applied Psychology, 88, pp. 741-749
de Wit, R., Greer, L. & Jehn, A. (2012). The paradox of intragroup conflict: A meta.analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(2), pp. 360-390
Gruman, A. & Saks, A. (2011). Performance management and employee engagement.
.Human Resource Management Review, 21(2), pp.123136

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Liu, C., Spector, P. & Shi, L. (2007). Cross-National job stress: A quantitative and
.qualitative study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 28(2), pp. 209-239
Rahim, A. (2011). Managing conflict in organizations (4th ed). New Jersey:
.Transaction Publishers
Ting-Toomey, S. & Chung, L. (2012). Understanding intercultural communication
.(2nd ed). New York: Oxford University Press

Appendix
Structured interview questions
Age
.1
Gender
.2
Relationship status
.3
Academic level
.4
Nationality
.5
Religion affiliation
.6
Preferred communication language
.7
?Do you frequently face conflict with fellow workers
?For what reasons do you mostly experience conflict

.8
.9