Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Submitted To –
Dr. Rupsha Roy
Submitted By-
Group 10
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Detailed Discussion
3. Search Process
4. Result
6. Suggestions
7. References
8. Contribution
INTRODUCTION
Types of Conflict -
Organizational Conflict can be classified in 5 ways.
1. Intra-individual/Intra-personal Conflict –
Intra-personal/Intra-individual conflict occurs within an individual. The
experience takes place in the person’s mind. Hence, it is a type of conflict
that is psychological involving the individual’s thoughts, values, principles
and emotions.
2. Inter-personal Conflict –
Inter-personal conflict is the conflict between two individuals of the
organization. Basically, this occurs because of some differences in people.
We have varied personalities which usually lead to incompatible choices
and opinions.
3. Intra-group Conflict –
Intragroup conflict occurs among individuals within a team. These are
conflicts that typically involve more than one person within a group. The
incompatibilities and misunderstandings between team members lead to
intragroup conflict.
4. Inter-group Conflict –
Intergroup conflict occurs when a misunderstanding arises among different
teams within an organization. This is due to the varied sets of goals and
interests of these different groups.
5. Inter-organizational Conflict –
Inter-organizational conflict is the conflict that arises across different
organizations. When different businesses are competing against one
another, this is an example of inter-organizational conflict.
DETAILED DISCUSSION
1. INTER-ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICTS:
Conflict also occurs between organizations which are dependent upon each
other in some way. This conflict may be between buyer organizations and
supplier organizations about quantity, quality and delivery times of raw
materials and other policy issues.
i. Management-Government:
ii. Inter-Management:
Managements may compete against each other in ways that they believe
will enhance their position in the industry. Disputes over patents and
fulfilment of contracts, price wars may be included here.
iii. Inter-Union:
Unions may compete for members or jobs, as in jurisdictional disputes.
iv. Union-Government:
If management and labour are to retain their institutional ideal ties, they
must disagree and must adopt appropriate roles. Conflict is essential to
survival for the union; lack of conflict would weaken it. Conflict between
labour and management is expressed in many forms like strikes, peaceful
bargains, grievances, debates, loyalties, sabotage and absenteeism.
i. Hierarchical Conflicts:
This type of conflict may arise between the people working at different
levels of management. A conflict situation may arise between top and
middle level or middle and lower-level executives.
Customer Competition -
When companies compete with one another for customers, conflict almost
always occurs. While this type of competition can be friendly and
professional, it can become destructive and lead to the circulation of
negative rumours about competing firms and unethical behavior to lure
customers away from rivals. Corporate espionage and copyright
infringement are examples of destructive interorganizational conflict that
crosses the line of legality.
Business Negotiations -
When a client company negotiates with a vendor company for products
and services, conflict can occur. Though both companies want to do
business with each other, their objectives may not coincide completely.
The vendor organization wants to secure the contract but also desires to
maximize profits while ensuring repeat business. The purchasing
organization likely wants the lowest possible price while maintaining
freedom to purchase elsewhere in the future. Give and take on both sides is
necessary to work through the conflicting objectives to reach mutual
agreement.
Collaboration -
When multiple companies work together on projects, conflict is likely. If,
for example, disputes arise over a newly constructed house, it may be
difficult to determine who is at fault. The customer is likely to blame the
builder, but the builder may assert that the problems lie with materials
suppliers, the architect or others involved in construction. All of the
organizations involved in designing and building the property might butt
heads before matters are settled.
Two popular health drink brands in India, Horlicks and Complan came in
conflict because of customer competition. The war for supremacy between
these two brands started as early as the 1960s and has continued ever
since.
Over the years, the brands were involved in aggressive comparative
advertising in print and television over attributes such as ingredients,
protein content, growth, and flavours.
However, in late 2008, the makers of Horlicks, GlaxoSmithKline
Consumer Healthcare, and the makers of Complan, Heinz India, came out
with advertisements that directly compared the brands using the
competitor brand's trademarks.
Industry observers felt that in their bid to outdo each other, the two
companies had ended up denigrating the competitor brand. Usually, issues
related to disparaging advertisements by rival companies were resolved by
the Advertising Standards Council of India. But with constant mud-
slinging at each other, the two companies decided to solve the issue in
court.
In September 2008, Heinz approached the Bombay High Court objecting
to the Horlicks advertisement, while in December 2008, GSK approached
the Delhi High Court against the Complan advertisement.
Experts felt that the latest tiff between GSK and Heinz had brought to the
fore the issues and challenges involved in comparative advertising and the
legal / ethical issues involved in such kinds of advertising.
Being the two leading chocolate brands in the country, Cadbury and Nestle
have their share of strengths and weaknesses. Cadbury enjoys a market
share of 72%, whereas the market share of nestle is around 24%.
The former has a product for every segment of the market. The latter fixes
prices as low as feasible. Also, Cadbury uses aggressive marketing
strategies to promote its products.
Both have had their fair share of criticisms for their products as well.
Child labour, mislabelling, the Maggie ban are some of the stones thrown
on Nestle. Whereas worms found in their chocolate bars led to a backlash
from Cadbury's customers.
Even the purple packaging that Cadbury uses became so crucial that it
decided to trademark the purple shade. This was opposed by Nestle, and
after years of court sessions, Cadbury wasn't granted the trademark.
2. Inter-personal conflict -
Value Conflicts
Everybody has a different set of values. You may have values that are very
close to someone else’s but, we each have our own specific set of values.
Sometimes, when you have an ongoing argument with someone, it’s easy
to think they are being stubborn. Normally, the underlying reason is
because they feel strongly about something due to their values.
In your home life, you might think it’s best to raise your kids a certain way
and your spouse feels differently. At work, maybe your boss thinks it’s
okay to set up a form of payment for referred revenue and you think that
isn’t the way to do business. Value conflicts are typically pretty difficult to
resolve because they are more ingrained.
Ego Conflicts
Ego conflicts are pretty tough as well. In this situation, losing an argument,
or being thought of as wrong, can actually damage a person’s self-esteem.
This is like a power struggle.
Let’s say you feel your spouse almost always picks where you go out to
dinner. This seems to happen to the point that you feel you are losing
power in the relationship because it seems like they always make the
decision. So instead of letting your spouse continue to pick what restaurant
you eat at, you almost always end up arguing about where to eat.
It’s easy to see this type of conflict happening at work. Think about all the
times you were asked to do something you don’t really want to do. You
don’t want to feel like you are getting taken advantage of, so you find
someway to dodge the work, put it on someone else, or simply ignore the
request.
There’s a long list of what can cause interpersonal conflict. Since we are
focusing on our work environment, let’s look at the 5 major causes of
interpersonal conflict in the workplace.
Misunderstandings
Do you remember what they say when you assume something right? It’s
always best to get clarity around an issue if you aren’t clear on what the
expectations are. Were you supposed to follow up with Bill regarding next
steps on the project or was I?
Misunderstandings are easy to come by. A huge area that can cause
interpersonal conflict due to misunderstandings is having different
expectations on a job, role, process, or anything work related.
Lack of Planning
This one is all too common as well. Many companies or departments
within companies work by crisis. That is they don’t really have plans for
many things, they simply react to crisis situations.
Things never seem to improve because they don’t put in a process for how
to make something better. They are too busy running around like their hair
is on fire. And when the fire is out, they relax for a day or two until the
next fire breaks out. This can cause a lot of conflict and finger pointing.
Poor Communication
I saved my favourite topic for last here. Poor communication can lead to
so many problems. Interpersonal conflict at work is a big one. I’m sure
you can think of many examples of when poor communication led to
discord in the workplace.
You didn’t receive the email the rest of us saw? Wonder why that is. The
meeting has been moved to a new time and location – you didn’t know
that? The boss told me we are supposed to be working with the purchasing
team on this, what did he tell you? And on and on. This one is huge.
STEP 1:
Searched the Google search engine on the topic "ORGANIZATIONAL
CONFLICTS" and collected information on the same.
STEP 2:
Chose 2 types of conflicts for writing a detailed discussion on the topics
(as mentioned in the topic given) and researched for different types of
literatures on those 2 topics specifically
STEP 3:
Hunted for information regarding the above from the following sites:
https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com
https://open.lib.umn.edu
https://projectionsinc.com
https://courses.lumenlearning.com
https://www.lifehack.org/846376/interpersonal-conflict
https://www.lnjpitchapra.in
https://www.forbes.comc15
https://www.protocol.com
STEP 4:
In our search process of hanti g for different types of literatures, it
included different other types of organizational conflicts (somewhat both,
inclusive and exclusive of what we chose)
STEP 5:
Searched for live examples of companies wherein such kind of conflicts
were a part of the organisation and how the organisation got rid of them
by which means.
STEP 6:
Searched for a very famous text in the field of Organizational Behaviour,
that would have helped us immensely, but was not available, named,
Organizational Behaviour written by K. Aswathappa. Then shifted our
search to find other kinds of texts that could be of use to us in this project.
RESULT
Psychological Responses
- Inattentiveness to other things.
- Lack of interest in work
- Job dissatisfaction
- Work anxiety
- Estrangement or alienation from others
- Frustration
Behavioural Responses
- Excessive smoking.
- Alcoholism
- Under eating or over eating
- Aggression towards others or work sabotage
- Decreased communication
- Resisting influence attempts.
Physiological Responses
These are often ignored or unnoticed: more and more
adrenalin is shot into the blood which increases the heart beat and blood
pressure while more
hydrochloric acid is secreted into the stomach, leading to:
- Peptic ulcers
- Respiratory problems such as asthma
- Hypertension
- Headaches
- Coronary problems.
Advantages of Conflict –
- Time spent on conflicts, if costed, could have been spent doing more
productive things.
1. Very easy
2. Easy
3. Moderate
4. Difficult
5. Very difficult
QB. Was the approach to conflict in the areas you researched quite
different from or similar to the conflict approach described in the
text?
AB.– To be very honest, we were not able to find much literature which
dived very deep in the topic of Organizational Conflict and especially into
the types of conflict. So we will not be able to compare the similarities and
differences in the approach to conflict.
QC. Why do you think the differences and similarities you found
exist?
AC.– Well, what we think after this research is that the differences in
everyone’s approach toward types of conflict is very normal because every
author must be having some different parameters on the basis of which
they have classified the types of conflict.
Also, they might be of different background and work culture. And they
might be facing different conflicts from other authors.
SUGGESTIONS
Conflict resolution is the way for two or more parties to find a peaceful
solution to a disagreement among them.
A solution, in which one party’s needs are met at the expense of the needs
of the other party, is neither just nor likely to last for a long. Resolving a
conflict ends the dispute by satisfying the interests of both parties. Conflict
resolution requires great managerial skills.
During conflict, strong emotions appear which can hurt feelings. When a
person deals with a conflict in a healthy way, it increases the
understanding among people, builds trust and strengthens relationships
Step 1: Identify the source of the conflict. The more information we have
about the cause of the conflict, the more easily we can help to resolve it.
To get the information we need, use a series of questions to identify the
cause, like, “How did this incident begin?”
As a manager or supervisor, we need to give both parties the chance to
share their side of the story. It will give us a better understanding of the
situation.
Step 2: Look beyond the incident. The source of the conflict might be a
minor problem that occurred months before, but the level of stress has
grown to the point where the two parties have begun attacking each other
personally instead of addressing the real problem. In the calm of our
office, we can get them to look beyond the triggering incident to see the
real cause. Once again, probing questions will help.
Step 4: Identify solutions both disputants can support. We are listening for
the most acceptable course of action. Point out the merits of various ideas,
not only from each other’s perspective, but in terms of the benefits to the
organization. For instance, we might point to the need for greater
cooperation and .collaboration to effectively address team issues and
departmental problems.
Step 5: Agreement. The mediator needs to get the two parties to shake
hands and agree to one of the alternatives identified in Step 4. Some
mediators go as far as to write up a contract in which actions and time
frames are specified.
REFERENCES
https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/organization/conflict-
management/organizational-conflict/99695
https://www.healthline.com/health/interpersonal-conflict#conflict-types
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/interpersonal-
conflict
https://open.lib.umn.edu/communication/chapter/6-2-conflict-and-
interpersonal-communication/
https://projectionsinc.com/abetterleader/interpersonal-conflict-at-work/
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-
organizationalbehavior/chapter/types-of-conflict/
https://www.lifehack.org/846376/interpersonal-conflict
https://www.lnjpitchapra.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/CHAPTER-4-B-
ORGANISATIONAL-CONFLICT.pdf
https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelauyeung/2018/02/07/charles-
hoskinson-ethereum-iohk-blockchain-crypto-
cryptocurrency/?sh=27832dc17c15
https://www.protocol.com/fintech/polkadot-ethereum-gavin-wood
CONTRIBUTION -
Online Research -
Rahul Kumar (28)
Barnini Chatterjee (32)
Nilabha Karmakar (36)
Rocky Pandey (39)
Shreemanti Das Roy (55)
Prithis Kumar Roy (57)
Report Preparation -
Rahul Kumar (28)
Barnini Chatterjee (32)
THANK YOU