Reflection 10: ISSUES BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS

As organizations continue to diversify, the opportunities for workplace problems

intensify. Managers typically face one or more of three potential levels of conflict, the
employee, team or organization-wide issues. Often the underlying causes of these
problems are the lack of open, flowing communications or using the wrong
organizational structure. Many organizations compound problems by avoiding
communicating a clear chain of command path.

Individual employee problems can be personality conflicts, supervisor issues,

personal trauma, or company structure oriented. Management must learn the cause of
the problem and who or what keeps "fueling the fire." If there is no clear trigger, the
answer could fall back to insufficient or confusing communications. For example, an
employee in a decentralized organization may feel they must answer to multiple
supervisors if the chain of command is not communicated clearly.

To be high performing, teams must be dedicated to working toward an agreed

goal. Should they experience personal disconnect with other team members, the team
can become non-functional. These issues often stem from organizational or
management communication breakdowns that confuse team and personal common
goals. Team leaders must offer constant feedback and foster cohesiveness. When
facing team issues, managers must diagnose the problem and take immediate
corrective action to avoid more serious performance breakdowns.

Simple employee or team issues can quickly expand to your total organization
if you don't take immediate corrective action. You must avoid this situation at all
costs, as it often results in your staff forming two groups, both at odds with each
other. Should all your avoidance actions fail, be ready to take much more dramatic
corrective measures. You must prevent these problems from negatively changing the
corporate culture you have carefully cultivated to make your company and workplace
a high performing entity.

We have discovered that conflict is pervasive throughout organizations and that

some conflict can be good for organizations. People often grow and learn from conflict,
as long as the conflict is not dysfunctional. The challenge for managers is to select a
resolution strategy appropriate to the situation and individuals involved. A review of past
management practice in this regard reveals that managers often make poor strategy
choices. As often as not, managers select repressive or ineffective conflict resolution
strategies.

Dealing with conflict lies at the heart of managing any organizations.

Confrontation or facing issue, about which there is disagreement, is avoided only at a
manager’s peril. Many issues can be postponed, allowed to fester, or smoothed over;
eventually, they must be solved. They are not going to disappear.

Where dysfunctional conflict already exists, something must be done, and

managers may pursue one of at least two general approaches: they can try to change
employee attitudes, or they can try to change employee behaviors. If they change
behavior, open conflict is often reduced, but groups may still dislike one another; the
conflict simply becomes less visible as the groups are separated from one another.
Changing attitudes, on the other hand, often leads to fundamental changes in the ways
that groups get along. However, it also takes considerably longer to accomplish than
behavior change because it requires a fundamental change in social perceptions.