3.

1 The Sources of Inta-persona conflict :

#The Sources of Intra-ppersonal conflict has

two type. These are cognitive dissonance and
neurotic tendencies within an individuals.
3.1.1 Cognitive Dissonance :
# Cognitive dissonance is an unpleasant state
that occurs when individuals discover
inconsistent between two of their attitude or
between their attitude and behaviour.
For example "I am against prejudice " but "I
don't want people of other religion living in
my neighbourhood."
sometimes our aattitudes and behaviour are
inconsistent. "I am on diet" but " I having
icecream."
3.1.2 Neurotic Tendencies :

# Neurotic tendencies are irrational personality

mechanism that an individuals uses often
unconsciously that create inner conflict. Inturn
inner conflict often result in behaviours that
lead to conflict with other peoples.
 Source of Interpersonal conflict

There are a number of factors that can determine whether conflicts will arise or our
working relationships with others will be harmonious. issues, which need to be
considered, are relationships rules, interpersonal differences, how we treat others
and how we perceive particular situations.

Relationship Rules
Factors inherent in relationships are the patterns of communication and breaking
relationship rules. Our relationships are governed by a set of informal rules, the
behavior most people think is appropriate or inappropriate in a particular context.
Four different type of relationship rules have been identified. they are...
• Rules of support: This includes offering practical help on a work related
task, standing in for colleagues in their absence, giving advice, encouraging or
guiding subordinates or patients/ clients and so on.
• Rules of intimacy: This can be understood as respecting the other
persons privacy and refraining from engaging in sexual activity with subordinates
or within professional relationship.
• Rules relating to third parities: Others not involved in our day to
day interactions can have a major effect on our immediate relationships one
should not criticize others in public , nor should one discuss with others what has
been told to him or her in confidence.
• Tusk related rules: All professional relationships, weather teacher or
doctor patient, are largely governed by rules which relate to the completion of
specific tasks. For example, a teacher is expected to prepare the lessons, plan
and assign work , a doctor is expected diagnose, advice and treat the patient,and
so on.
Personality, gender and age related issues

Factors inherent in the people concerned are

personality clash, gender and age differences
 Personality clash
Interpersonal conflict may occur when two or more
persons come from different backgrounds, share
different and varied experiences and hence may
interpret the Same facts differently. it may be due
to difference in cultures or because of different
value and beliefs they hold. Few people are simply
considered as difficult to work with by most people
and the majority of clashes are between two people
who approached the same situation in different
ways.
For example someone who is vary rigid in his
way of working would find it to work with
someone who is very flexible , someone who
is conscientious would find it difficult to work
with a person who rather laid back in his
approach one may clash with other person
because of differencing opinion or belief or
because of a dislike of person al habits.
 Gender differences
• Studies have suggested that women find their jobs more
satisfying but ,at the same time more stressful than men.
It is frequently found that women have more friends at
work but also more people whom they don't get along
well with. In order to succeed women often feel they
have to be better at their jobs then their male
counterparts and are in fact, often better qualified than
males in equivalent positions. women often face
problems in work place by being excluded from social
activities as well as from decision making venture this
many a to me causes interpersonal conflict .
 Age differences
• Age based stereotype influence our perception of and reaction
towards whom we work. The stereotypical notion about
younger people are that they are inventive and flexible, while
older people are seen as conservative and inflexible . This is in
spite of the research facts that older workers have lower
absenteeism , turn over ,illness and accident rate s and higher
jobs satisfaction as well as more positive work values. The
younger worker may feel aggrieved if his or her knowledge is not
taken into account when given instruction by an older manager.
Conversely an older more experience person may fail to respond
possibly more knowledgeable, but more experienced younger
manager. These issues create interpersonal conflict.
 Evaluating Others:

• Factors inherent in our evaluation and treatment

of others are assumptions about others, misuse of
authority and power tactics and manipulation.
Essentially, interpersonal conflict occurs when
one's perception of another person is biased. It is
very easy for us to expect others to see things the
way we do -especially about what we would
consider to be the core work values such as getting
a project finished or advancing in our profession.
 Evaluating the Situation:

• Evaluation of the situation is influenced by our

perception of the situation and its
interpretation. For example, when two people
markedly differ from each other while
perceiving or interpreting the event, conflict is
inevitable. Many a time the situation is more
ambiguous or the nature of instruction by the
superior is not clear leading to
misrepresentation and misunderstanding.
 Role Incompatibility:

• Conflict due to role incompatibility is derived

from both intra-individual role conflict and
inter group conflict. Especially in today's
horizontal organizations, managers have tasks
and functions that are highly interdependent.
 Changes and Stress Resulting from
Environmental Factors:

• Stressful environment may be one of the factors

in interpersonal conflict. Environment
characterized by scare resources, competitive
pressures, high degree of uncertainty, status and
power differences, conflicting goals and
objectives etc., may lead to interpersonal
conflict.
 Difficult Boss:

• Managers, who show favoritism or are extremely

critical of subordinates or take undue advantages of
their positions, create an environment in which
hostility and tension predominate. Sometime they
adopt leadership styles that are not appropriate to
the situation thereby causing conflict. For example,
in an educational institution where democratic style
is appropriate, if the vice chancellor uses autocratic
style, it will lead to conflict and dissatisfaction.
 Difficulties with Colleagues:

• Conflict arises with colleagues when there is

power-play. In close relationships when
attempt is made to exert control over each
other, it can be understood as power play. To
what extent one can control other's behavior
can be done by attempting it control, exploit
and manipulate other people against their
will.
 Source of Group conflict
Some of the sources of group conflict are discussed in the following
subsections….
Negative Stereotypes about the other Group:
Stereotypes are social schema that includes characteristics, which can be positive
or negative, and supposedly belong to almost all members or a group. Conflict
arises when negative stereotypes ( relating to norms, policies) are used to make
prediction about the behavior of the other group.

Not Acknowledging the conflict: The most common repressive

management strategy is not acknowledging the conflict. It is a type of non
action for doing nothing. Doing nothing is a smart thing provided the decision to
do nothing is well thought out and based on an analysis of the situation. Most of
the time, people do nothing about conflict situations.
• Avoiding Conflict:
Avoiding conflict means keeping appeals for change or redress always
“under consideration” It can be termed as administrative orbiting. While
non action of conflict suggests obliviousness since it does not even
acknowledge the problem, orbiting acknowledges will say things like
“We are dealing with the problem”, but the problem never gets addressed.
• Law and order: Managers sometimes use law and order to
repress the outward manifestation of conflict. This doesn’t make
conflict go away, it just sends it scuttling to the underground, where it
will grow and increase its destructive power.
• Frustration: When one parity perceives the other parity as
interfering with the satisfaction of one’s needs, wants, objectives,
etc,.There are three factors precipitating the condition for conflict in
frustration stage. They are
a. Communication ( poor communication arises from
semantic difficulties, misunderstanding and noise in the
communication channels.

b.Structure ( like size, degree of specialization in the task

assigned to group members, jurisdictional clarity, leadership styles,
reward systems and the degree of dependence between group
influence conflict situation)
c. Personal variables (includes individual value
system and the personality characteristics that account
for individual idiosyncrasies and differences)

Distorted Perception and Behavioral

Predisposition: Behavioral predisposition is
influenced by one’s motives, abilities and personality.
Once there is difference between two parties regarding to
motive, interest and personality. It may lead to conflict.
Size of the group affects the Occurrence of
Conflict: The size of the group has significant impact
on group functioning. In large groups, the patterns of
interactions are vastly more complex. Cliques are likely
to be formed, both because of communication barriers
and difference of option. Researches were conducted on
groups ranging in size from two to seven members.
• Technological Mediation Introduces
Conflicts: The use of technology to support group
interactions seems to affect the behavior of the group. The
impact of computer mediation communication technology
has been studied from a social psychological viewpoint. It
has been widely reported that the anonymity afforded by
electronic communication leads to, among other thing, a
reduction of normal restraints on behavior. This effect is
believed to be result of de-individuation.
 3.4 Sources of organizational Conflict

The sources of organizational conflict can be of

many types. Some of the factors that are
discussed here are communication failure,
structural issues, staff heterogeneity, level of
participation, differentiation, task
interdependence, task ambiguity etc..
 Causes of Communication Failure
Communication is overall coordinating
mechanism that links the total organization.
Communication flow can be downward,
upward, horizontal, diagonal and outward.
When communication fail, it result is in a
series of confusion.
 Communication may fail for number of
reason:
i. Inadequate information: when there is no sufficient
basis for further or necessary action.
ii. Lack of precision or clarity: the receiver is uncertain
about what to do and what is expected to him.
iii. Lack of legitimacy: Communication that makes
demand on individual beyond the formal normative
standard, conventional rights, are regarded as
illegitimate and a stress factor in organizational life
iv. Lack of authenticity: This happens in situation
where communication is not sufficiently
supported by logic, facts and figures and
orderliness.
v. Timeliness: If the communication has not
reached to the person concerned in time, this
also create confusion and leads to conflicts.
vi. Contradictory Massage: conflict is experienced
when there are statements of either explicit or
implicit incongruence within a massage or
text.
vii. Distortion of information: In organization,
more the number of levels to pass through,
greater is the dissertation of facts of
information.
viii.Information overload: It refers to having
more information to deal with than what one
can normally handle. Executive who keep
most of the decision making to themselves
and delegate to little to their subordinate.
 Structural Factors :

• The size of the organization can be a

contributing factor for a conflict to occur. An
increase in the size of the organization is
associated with less goal clarity, greater
formality, increased specialization, more
supervisory levels and increased opportunities
for information to become distorted as it
passes through more levels.
 Staff Heterogeneity :

• Differences among staff members in terms of

authority, longevity, values and beliefs,
decision -making styles and understanding of
the situation may be a source of conflict in an
organization.
 Bureaucratic Factors :

• As explained earlier, a classic type of

bureaucratic conflicts occurs between staff
and line functions. In many organizations,
people in staff functions are tasted as
secondary players. Acting on this belief, the
production constantly uses its supposedly
lofty status as the producer of goods and
services justify putting its interests ahead of
the functions ' interests.The result is conflict.
 Level of participation

• Research shows that when subordinate

participation is greater, levels of conflict tend
to be higher. The reason being increased
participation leads to greater awareness of
individual differences. On the other hand, an
individuals participation in decision does not
ensure that an individuals point of view will
prevail.
 Task Interference

• The nature of task interdependence among

departments can help us to understand the
sources of conflict. It is based on degree to
which decision making and cooperation
between two or more employees is necessary
for them to perform their jobs.
 Incompatible Performance Criteria :

• Conflict arises between subunits because of

the system relating to monitoring, evaluating
and rewarding that is implemented in the
organization. Production and sales can more
into conflict when the sales department asks
manufacturing to respond quickly to customer
orders- an action that raises manufacturing
cost.
Competition for Limited Resources
Most of the organizations today have very limited
resources. groups within the organizations vie for
budget funds,space,suppliers,personnel and
support services physical facilities, etc.These
variables can cause organizational conflict by
limiting expected performance of individuals,
depdepartments,and perhaps even the
organization as a whole.
 Hybrid Channel Conflict
• Firms use multiple channels of distribution as a
strategy to handle rapidly expanding product
market.It allows them to adapt to changing customer
needs and shopping patterns.
• Hybrid channel conflict occurs when one channel
coalition perceivess that another is engaged in
behavior that preventss or impedes the first fron
achieving its goals.
• Multiple channels place conflicting demands on
internal company resources such as capital,
• personnel,products and technology.
• Since each channel requires its own diverse
set of resources to succeed.
• A coalition even does not intend to work at
cross-purposes with another; conflict will
occur if it is perceived to be doing so.