Conflict Management

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Running Head: Research Paper

Conflict Management

Augustus O. Kwaidah
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Negotiating and Managing Conflict at Workplace

Conflict Management

Abstract

Conflict is necessary outcome of individual and group interaction. People with

different ideologies and backgrounds try to introduce their own principles in work

aspects that give rise to conflict. Conflict, when well managed and directed, is

immensely useful in improving an organization’s functioning and productivity, along

with providing individuals a valuable opportunity to evolve a join philosophy of work

and cooperation. However, if not managed, conflict weakens the organizational

outcome, creates stress for the individual, introduces dissatisfaction and reduces

efficiency. Conflict is resolved through leadership, better communication and good

negotiation, all of them bringing the positive outcome through the issues involved in

the conflict.
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Conflict Management

Introduction

Conflict is an integral part of human society. When a number of people

interact with their own individual perspectives, view points, ideologies, cultural and

social backgrounds and intellectual development then differences and debates are

bound to arise as a logical and inevitable consequence of the interaction (Killian and

Pammer Jr. 2003, 3). These differences, acted upon by incompatible interests of

attaining personal gains and objectives, change into conflict within groups and

organizational structure (Rahim, 2001,1). As stated by Bisno (1988) conflict can

reflect simple aims of opponents in gaining advantage over the competitor, to injuring

or eliminating the competitor, thus leading to intense and sometimes unpleasing

consequences. Therefore it is essential to educate people on understanding and

handling conflict and treat as an integral component of a democratic society that is

important for developing a healthy social life (Killian and Pammer Jr. 2003, 3). This

paper studies the nature and scope of the organizational conflict, while assessing the

range of effects conflict produces on the organization and searches for the possible

conflict management and resolution techniques.

Nature of Conflict

Within the structure and scope of modern organizational setups, conflict has

emerged as a major challenge for managers. It has been often identified as a reason

for waste of precocious human time and resources and has made managers to spend
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their over 20 % of time in dealing with conflict and its consequences (Thomas &

Schmidt, 1976). However against common perception effects of conflict are not

always negative and on many occasions they have benefited organizations by

uncovering persistent problems and opening channels of communication that helps in

highlighting problematic areas for their better resolution (Robert, 1990). The

functional and dysfunctional effects of conflict as presented by Rahim (2001) are:

Functional outcomes:

Conflict can encourage innovation, creativity and growth,

 Brings improvement to alternative solutions of disputes

 Can lead to joint solutions to the common problems

 Enhances individual’s and group performance

 Leads to new approaches in dealing with individuals and groups

Dysfunctional outcomes of conflict:

 May create job stress, depression and dissatisfaction

 Lead to reduction in group and individual communication

 Can lead to a climate of distrust and suspicion

 Relationship damages may occur

 May cause impairment of performance in jobs

 Organizational commitment and loyalty can be adversely affected.

Therefore it is essential for a manager to effectively deal with conflict through

understanding the accompaniment issues in conflict management and create an

environment where its negative effects are minimized while its positive effects are

accentuated to the benefit of the individual and the organization.

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The work nature and pressure in today’s world have made conflict an

unavoidable part in life of people living here. The deadlines of assignment, levels of

responsibility, distribution of work, challenging goals, and coping up with different

personalities and individuals give rise to conflict within society and organization

(Bergman and Volkema, 1989). These issues have led to a number of studies to

evolve models and strategies in dealing with conflict and its consequences.

Choosing among the number of definitions regarding conflict, Baron (1990)

indicated towards a five elements that characterize conflicts. These are

1. Conflict is contrasting or opposing field of interests between or among

individuals or groups.

2. Recognition of these opposing interests by the interested parties

3. Conflict centers on a perception by each side that its opposing party would

injure its interests

4. Conflict is not a stage, rather a process and it results from the way

individual and groups define their relations through the past interaction

5. Actions and efforts by each party with the intention of negating other’s

goals.

Conflict Management and leadership

Conflict, as a primary feature of partnership among groups and individuals

needs effective management for it to become an effective tool in attainment of goals

(Killian and Pammer Jr. 2003, 222). As the usual nature of conflict is often

multidimensional, its study focuses on efforts of collaboration through evolving a

working consensus within groups towards a meaningful solution beneficial to all.

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Approaches to conflict management are successful when they assure the

participants that outcomes are among best of the possible alternatives and meet

expectations of every concerned party with maximum satisfaction on part of each

participant (Killian and Pammer Jr. 2003, 222). Conflict management can be

functional, that facilitates movement and cohesion within groups, taking them

forward, through stimulating energies, encouraging ideas, and clarifying the issue, or

it can be dysfunctional through reduced communication and improper interaction to

lead to chaos and demoralize the participants, from business managers to teachers and

students (Johnson and Short, 1994).

Within a social, institutional or organizational structure, the role of a leader is

crucial in bringing reconciliation and resolution in situation of conflict. Leadership

entails elements of power and authority that are critical to acquire influence. There

are five power bases for a leader, as identified by French and Raven (1959). They are

1. Legitimate power: It is the legitimate right of leader that comes by virtue of

the position and command to control behavior.

2. Coercive power: It is the leader’s control over punishment

3. Reward power: It is the leader’s control over reward

4. Expert power: The special knowledge and expertness that a leader is

expected to possess and use in conflict resolution

5. Referent power: This is the subordinate or group members to identify the

leader

Leaders may opt for any, a combination or all of these power bases to achieve

conflict management and resolution by affecting the psychological and social

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dimension of conflict, trust, and authority (Johnson and Short, 1994). As pointed out

by Krausz (1986), an important aspect of leadership is identification by subordinates

of leader’s power and influence and trust on leader’s ability to mete justice in case of

conflict and dispute.

According to Reigel’s (1979) theory of development, the relevant categories

to leadership practices and conflict management are:

1. Optimism-faith in goodness of humanity. It works on the principle of faith

in inherent goodness of humanity with a sense that goals and objective are achievable.

2. Interconnectedness-responsibility for the whole. The principle is extension

of sense of responsibility to greater issues affecting the world that connects individual

with the entire humanity.

3. The contradictory nature of things. It teaches about recognizing and

respecting that contradiction occurs in people, their experience and circumstances.

4. Life is characterized by crises. Recognition that crises and conflicts are

inbuilt of component of life and progress is achieved by incorporating them in the

philosophy towards life.

5. Kinship with others. It stresses on building associations and help in

realizing that every one is important and deserves equal respect from others.

6. The opposition. It teaches about taking opposition as contradiction, instead

of viewing it in negative perspective.

7. Acknowledging other’s contribution. It stresses on frank and appreciative

acknowledgment of success and achievements of others.

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According to the model presented by Rahim(2001) the core ingredients of

effective conflict management are problem solving and learning. A leader should be

informed and educated on these two issues to deal with any crises and problem

arising out of varied and sometimes unpredictable causes. A leader should be able to

intervene with creative problem solving techniques. The three suggested stages in this

process are (Rahim, 2001)

1. Problem recognition, involving problem sensing and problem formulation

2. Planning for change, that includes recommending solutions to problems

and preparing plans for intervention

3. Implementation that includes putting the plans into action and reviewing the

outcome of the plans.

Conflict management and leadership

Within the society or an organization the role of leader demands exercise of

influence, that is the ability to transform someone else’s behavior (Einstein and

Humphrey, 2001). As a leader a person is required to involve his/her subordinates

through wielding authority and power towards the end. Transformational leaders stay

focused to the power relationships and continuously monitor the leader-follower

relationship to understand the background of various problems, situations, crises and

pressures to evolve an effective strategy for conflict management and resolution.

These measures provide leaders with a control of situation and they are able to deal

with people successfully through helping them grow and develop by injecting in them

a sense of responsibility towards their own as well as organizational goals (Einstein

and Humphrey, 2001).

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A transformational leader and manager handles conflict by inspiring the

followers/subordinates with trust, confidence, responsibility, helping them understand

the importance of mutual dependence, share the success of goal achievements and

realize the greater need of abandoning the personal differences towards the one aim

of the group/organization of which they are part of ((Einstein and Humphrey, 2001).

Conflict management and communication

Effective communication strategies are keys to resolve conflict by providing

channels that provide expression of grievances and bring conflicting parties together.

In the field of conflict management, communication strategies help through the

channels of

1. Negotiation: Negotiation has emerged as an important form of conflict

management within organizational and social setups. As such research in

communication theory in conflict management has started to pay close attention to

communication behaviors, types and strategies towards successful negotiation.

Negotiation, as a part of managing conflict, requires interested parties to trade

proposals for settlement that include, out of court settlements, business contracts,

collective bargaining contract etc (Womack, 1990, 32). As Womack further

elaborates, generally the process of negotiation proceeds through motives that are

both competitive and cooperative. The approach of communication in the entire

process of negotiation is concerned with the messages that are transferred among

negotiators and the concerned parties.

Communication intervenes in the process of negotiation through its both

verbal and nonverbal forms and constitutes the entire base on which the goals and
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terms of the bargain are negotiated. Communication plays the central role in not only

developing the relationship among the parties in conflict, but also in determining its

direction. It is also central in every form of bargaining process, whether the

bargaining is done for organizational form of conflict management, involves conflict

resolution, negotiation on legal agreements or for negotiation in inter-group an intra

group conflict. The entire role of communication in negotiation processes and

strategies is quite vast and it ranges from defining the conflict issues, selection and

implementation of strategies to presenting and defending the viable alternatives and

finally helping in reaching on a solution (Womack, 1990, 35).

2. Third party intervention: Third party intervention in conflict situation is a

tricky and challenging situation. It is considered as one of those areas that offers real

test to the communication skills of the intervening person. Although mediation

requires a neutral and third party to bring the disputants on the resolving chairs and

solve the conflict, the mediator per se, has no authority and commanding power to

force the parties into acquiescing to an agreement. At the best, the mediator can use

persuasive and convincing dialogues through which the involved parties voluntarily

agree to reach at accord through advises, admonishments, ideas, and views of the

mediator and break into meaningful dialogue with each other (Burrel, 1990, 54). It’s

easy to see that this entire procedure requires very high level of communication skills

on the part of the mediator to successfully negotiate agreement among the conflicting

parties.
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According to Burrel, one of the important communication skills in third party

intervention is the ability to collect as much information as possible on the cause,

background, and nature of conflict as well as on all the parties and individuals that are

involved in the conflict. Citing Berger & Kellermann, (1983), Burrel informs that an

effective communication strategy to gather information is question-asking within a

variety of communication approaches, some for example being, employment

interviews, initial interactions and parent-child discourses, although there has been

insignificant research on role of particular types of questions in mediation itself.

However, it is established beyond question that the questioning abilities of a third

party mediator are very important in striking a collaborative approach to the entire

process of conflict management.

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References

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Baron, R.A. (1990). Theory and Research in Conflict Management.: M.

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Bergmann T. J., and Volkema R. J. ( 1989). "Understanding and managing

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Bisno, H. (1988). Managing conflict. Newbury Park, CA: Sage

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