CONFILTS DUE TO MANAGEMENT BEHAVIOUR

Conflicts are inevitable in one's organizational life and personal life.

Probably, the executive starts his work-day with a conflict and ends the
day with another conflict. He is fortunate if he does not carry a conflict
home, but more often, he does, to the chagrin of his spouse, his
children and himself.

IMPACT OF CONFLICTS

As we know conflict may occur between two individuals, as in the case of

superior vs. subordinate, between two HODs, etc. Groups may be drawn into
conflict with each other on the basis of performance, importance to a particular
group and in general the union- management rivalries. Conflict can also occur
within an individual as in situations of dilemma of choice, vividly characterized
by phrases such as ‘between the devil and the deep blue sea’ or ‘caught on the
horns of a dilemma’. For example, a personnel manager may be quite undecided
about how to deal with the conflict (with workers, union) that is likely to result in
work stoppage &loss in productivity.

The general assumption is that conflict tends to have negative consequences for
both the individual and the organization. For example, imagine yourself in an
intense conflict situation. Examine your state of mind. You are tense, uneasy,
extremely anxious & probably unable to concentrate on your work. Naturally in
such situations, your performance is adversely affected. Decisions made may
not be appropriate. Occasionally, they might even be unrealistic or irrational.
Thus, conflicts tend to impair one’s efficiency.

Sometimes, conflict is also observed to give rise to certain maladjusted

behaviors in individuals trying to cope with it. These include alcoholism, drug
abuse, excessive smoking, under eating or overeating and extremely aggressive
or submissive behavior.Apart from the above psychological & behavioral
consequences, conflict has also certain physiological consequences (more so
under intense conflict situations) in that, certain changes take place within the
physiological system which are often ignored or unnoticed. Some of the changes
that occur within the system are:

- More adrenalin & nor adrenalin are shot into the blood & continue the state of
arousal & excitation;

- Speed-up of the heart beat & increase in blood pressure; More of hydrochloric
acid is secreted into the stomach.

Hence, it may be understood that conflict not only affects an individual’s

performance, but also gives rise to psychosomatic disturbances, which
undermine the health of the individual.

Below is a summarized list of the affect of conflicts on an individual

1. Psychological Responses 2.
Behavioral Responses

• inattentiveness to other things •

excessive smoking
• lack of interest in work •
alcoholism
• job dissatisfaction • under
eating or overeating
• work anxiety •
aggression towards others or work sabotage
• estrangement or alienation from others •
decreased communication
• frustration •
resisting influence attempts

3. Physiological Responses

• peptic ulcers
• respiratory problems such as asthma
• hypertension
• headaches
• coronary problems

Conflicts in work situations may also give rise to organization related individual
consequences:

- Job dissatisfaction
- Apathy or indifference to work
- Role-set members & the company
- Job stress & burnout
- Disloyalty
- Work sabotage
- Employee turnover
- Increased territoriality & resistance to change
- Decreased information sharing, etc.

Can conflicts be positive? It can also be argued that conflicts are not necessarily
bad. The progress we have made so far in our civilization is due to the conflict
between nature & man. Conflict releases energy at every level of human
activity- energy that can produce positive, constructive results. Conflicts tend to
have a motivational value; they drive or energize an individual to tackle a
situation. To resolve a conflict one might explore different avenues or
alternatives of action, which make him/her more knowledgeable. Conflicts also
provide opportunities to test one’s own abilities.

Beneficial Consequences

- Motivate individuals to do better and to work harder. One‘s talents and abilities
come to the forefront in a conflict situation.

- Satisfy certain psychological needs like dominance, aggression, esteem and

ego, and thereby provide an opportunity for the constructive use and release of
aggressive urges.

- Provide creative and innovative ideas. For example employee benefits of the
preset day are an outcome of the union –management conflicts over the past
decades.
- Add variety to one’s organizational life, otherwise work life would be dull and
‘boring.

- Facilitate an understanding of the problem, people and interrelationships

between people, better coordination among individuals & departments, in
addition to strengthening intra-group relationships, etc.

Dysfunctional Consequences

- Conflicts affect individual & organizational performance. Resolving conflicts

consumes a considerable amount of managerial time & energy, which could be
more productively spent in the absence of conflicts.

- In a conflict situation people may promote their self-interests or personal gains

at the cost of others or the organization. For example, a union leader may call
for a strike to assert his superiority or to stabilize his leadership.

- Intense conflicts over a prolonged period affect individuals emotionally &

physically& give rise to psychosomatic disorders.

- Time spent on conflicts, if costed, could mean considerable amount of money

wasted.

- Conflicts may lead to work sabotage, employee morale problems, and decline
in the market share of product/services &consequent loss of productivity.

RESOLVING CONFLICT

The conflict resolution requires great managerial skills. Here we are trying to
give a solution to a conflict turning it in a constructive side.If one party exercises
the principles of interaction, listens, and us the six steps of collaborative
resolution, that party may be able to end the conflict constructively. At the very
least, he or she may be able to prevent the conflict from turning into a fight by
choosing an alternative to destructive interaction?"

There is a difference between resolving a conflict and managing conflict.

Resolving a conflict ends the dispute by satisfying the interests of both parties.
Managing a conflict contains specialized interaction that prevents a dispute from
becoming a destructive battle. Managing a conflict attends to the personal
issues so as to allow for a constructive relationship, even though the objective
issues may not be resolvable. For example, the former Soviet Union and the
United States managed their conflict during the Cold War by using a variety of
mechanisms. The objective issues in the dispute were not resolved, and neither
were the personal issues, which contained significant perceptual differences.
However, both sides attended significantly to the relationship to keep the
disagreement from turning into a destructive battle.

1. The Framework for conflict resolution

When conflicts arise, we assess a variety of factors before selecting our
approach to the situation. We may choose to compete, or dominate, where we
try to impose our will on the other side through physical or psychological means,
or we may choose to accommodate, or surrender, and cede victory to the other
side. Likewise, we may decide to withdraw by either doing nothing or refusing to
participate in the conflict altogether, or we may collaborate and reach a
constructive and mutually acceptable solution. And if none of those approaches
proves effective, we might choose third-party intervention, a form of
collaboration in which an individual or group external to the conflict intercedes
to move both parties toward agreement.

2. Competitive Bargaining
When most people think of negotiation, they think of competitive bargaining. In
this type of negotiation, a seller asks for more than he expects and a buyer
offers less than she is willing to pay. Then, through a series of concessions, the
two sides meet somewhere in the middle where each side is reasonably
satisfied. This form of negotiation also is frequently called distributive bargaining
or concession-convergence. It maintains a competitive, win-lose orientation, with
the goals of one party and the attainment of those goals in direct conflict with
the goals of the other party. In other words, competitive bargaining is a
positional conflict in which "winning" is determined by how much of the original
position was obtained. The parties believe that resources are fixed and limited,
and that they must battle to maximize their share of the wealth.

3. Collaboration
The collaborative approach to conflict resolution, also called mutual gains or
integrative bargaining, argues for the possibility of solutions that all sides find
acceptable. It embodies the notion of "win-win," a core component of our
principle of mutual gain. Collaboration is about identifying a common, shared, or
joint goal and developing a process to achieve it. It is a process in which both
parties exchange information openly, defines their common problems, and
creates options to solve these problems.