28 Concept and Types of Conflict

Structure

1.    Objectives

2.    Introduction

3.    What is Conflict?

4.    Characteristics of  Conflict

5.    Levels and Types of Conflict

6.    Sources/Causes of Conflict

7.    Effect of Conflict in Organization

1.   Objectives

At the end of the session learners will be able to

• Explain the concept of conflict
• Explain the  Characteristics of  Conflict
• Explain the Levels and Types of Conflict
• List sources/causes  of Conflict
• Discuss Effect of Conflict in Organisation

2.   Introduction

The term conflict has been with us and has influenced our thinking from time immemorial. Conflict can have different forms and may exist everywhere. Conflict is inevitable among humans. When two or more social entities (i.e. individuals, groups, organizations, and nations) come in contact with one another in attaining their objectives, their relationships may become incompatible or inconsistent. Relationships among such entities may become inconsistent when two or more of them desire a similar resource that is in short supply; when they have partially exclusive behavioral preferences regarding their joint action; or when they have different attitudes, values, beliefs, and skills. Conflict is usually perceived as a negative reaction to an unwanted behavior or an unwarranted decision involving two parties. Conflict is inevitable when people interact in a restricted environment. Conflict arises from many causes, including organizational structure, unavoidable differences in goals, differences in perceptions and values of personnel and so on. Conflict arises when two parties come into collision or disagreement; be in opposition; when there is controversy; quarrel, clash of interests or principles.

3.   What is Conflict ?

Conflict simply denotes incompatibility of needs, desires, goals, values, interests principles, attitudes. When action of one person blocks or prevents desire of another person there is conflict.In general, conflict is a state of opposition, disagreement, disharmony, or incompatibility between two or more individuals or groups of people.

Conflict refers to some form of friction , when beliefs and actions of one or more members of the group are either resisted by or unacceptable by one or more members of another group. Conflict can arise between members of the same group or it can occur between members of two or more groups.

Conflict is the perception of differences of interests among people (Thomas, 1998).It is a process of social interaction involving a struggle over claims to resources, power and status, beliefs, and other preferences and desires. Organizations are vulnerable to conflict between workers for many reasons that include divergent perspectives, values, and goals (Rahim,1986; Thomas, 1976). It is the condition of objective incompatibility between values or goals. Kilmann and Thomas ,1978) Morgan (1997) stated that Conflict may be personal, interpersonal, or between rival groups . It may be built into organizational structure, roles, attitudes, and stereotypes or arise over a scarcity of resources. It may be explicit or covert. Whatever the reason, and whatever form it takes, its source rests in some perceived or real divergence of interests.

Scenario 1

Lets try to understand the conflict situation from the following case.

There is a school in which there are several bilingual staffs.There is group of teachers who are south Indian and they often converse in their native language at school.Kavita , a teacher who doesn’t speak their language , feels self conscious and sometimes wonder if they are talking about her.She frequently complains her friend at school about other staff not speaking in English. One day Kavita walks into a meeting room and several those teachers are already there speaking in telugu. Kavita walks in and say ‘’Hello’’. The other staff says , ’Hello’’ back and then resume their conversation, which Kavita does not understand . Kavita rolls her eyes and sits down on the other side of the room and wait for the meeting to start.

Why might be bilingual staff choose to speak in their native language? How could Kavita address her feeling in positive way?

How might her co-teachers react when Kavita complains her friend at school about other staff not speaking in English?

In the above situation there is conflict between Kavita and her Co-teachers.This is due to incompatible difference of interst between Kavita and her co- teachers.There is some form of friction between Kavita and her Co teachers. Here beliefs of kavita might not be accepted by her co teachers and actions of co teachers is not accepted by Kavita. When beliefs and actions of one or more members of the group are either resisted by or unacceptable by one or more members of another group there is situation of conflict. Conflict can arise between members of the same group or it can occur between members of two or more groups. Conflict is the perception of differences of interests among people.

4.   Characteristics of Conflict

•  Conflict is natural and inevitable.Conflict can have different forms and may exist everywhere. Conflict is inevitable among humans.
• Conflict is normal part of life. Individual , groups and organizations have unlimited needs and different values but limited resources . Thus this incompatibility is bound to lead conflict.
• Conflict occurs only when some kind of interaction takes place.It involves at least two person or parties. When two or more social entities (i.e. individuals, groups, organizations, and nations) come in contact with one another in attaining their objectives, their relationships may become incompatible or inconsistent.
• Until some action is taken conflict is latent.If the degree of conflict disrupts harmony among the members , then some serious intervention from different party will be needed for it to be settled. when interpersonal conflict gets too destructive , calling in a mediator would help conflict .
• The outcomes of conflict can be positive or negative.When conflict is handled skilfully it produces positive outcome (motivation, increase productivity, healthy competition).When conflict is not handled effectively it produces negative outcome (road rage, community fights, domestic violence etc.)
• Conflict does not always occur because of misunderstandings.Role conflict, value conflict can also be sources of conflict.Differences in Individual’s personality thoughts, values , principles and emotipns also leads to conflict.Within every individual there are usually a number of competing needs and roles which complicates the human adaptation process and often results in conflict
• Conflict inherently involves some sense of struggle or incompatibility or perceived difference among values, goals and desires.Relationships among entities may become inconsistent when two or more of them desire a similar resource that is in short supply; when they have partially exclusive behavioral preferences regarding their joint action; or when they have different attitudes, values, beliefs, and skills it may lead to conflict.
• Conflict is often expressed directly, through the verbal channel , or through spoken words .This route can lead to emotional escalation and increase the seriousness of the conflict, though it can lead to quicker resolution.
• It is also expressed through nonverbal channel, or through gestures and movements , such as door slamming, facial expression, such as eye rolling. Indirect expression of conflict can be considered passive, aggressive.
• Conflict is fueled by poor communication. Poor communication is one of the main cause of conflict between employees in the workplace.Foreg. A manager reassigned an employee’s task to the employee’s coworker but failed to communicate the reassignment to the employee.

5.   Levels and Types of Conflict

Interactive behavior can occur at individual, group and organizational level. It often results in conflict at all these levels.

• Inter Organizational Conflict

It is the conflict between members of two different organizations.Foreg. Conflict between teachers of two schools of the same premises,conflict between two schools of the same city.This type of conflict arise due to competition and survival.Conflict also occurs between organizations which are dependent on each other in some way. Such conflict could also be between government agencies that regulate certain organizations and that are affected by them. For example conflict between national regulatory apex body for teacher education like NCTE and teacher education colleges, or SCERT and various schools in the state regarding the implementation of guidelines put forth by these regulatory bodies.

• Intra Organizational Conflict

It is the conflict within an organization. Individuals in the organization have many conflicting organizational pressures operating on them. There may be conflict between various levels of the organization. The board of directors may be in conflict with top management, middle management may be in conflict with supervisory personnel or there may be general conflict between managers and the workers.For eg. a college or university may have policy of quality education so that only top quality students are admitted while some members of the organizational board may propose ‘’ópenadmission’’policy where all students are considered for admission. Such a situation can cause conflict among the members of governing board.Conflict between teaching and non teaching staff of the school, conflict between teachers of different subjects are some of the examples of Intra Organizational Conflict.

• Inter Group Conflict

It is the conflict between members of two different groups.This is also known as inter departmental conflict. It refers to conflict between two or more units or groups within an organization. It takes place when misunderstanding arises among different teams/groups within an organization.For example teaching staff of the school can come in conflict with non teaching staff of the school. This is due to varied sets of goals and interests of these different groups. In addition, competition also contribute for intergroup conflict to arise. There are other factors which fuels this type of conflict. Some of these factors include rivalaries in the groups or boundaries set by a group to others which establishes their own identity as a team.

There are several antecedent conditions responsible for intergroup conflict in the organization. These are as follows.

Competition for resources – Most organizations today have very limited resources. Groups within the organization vie for budget funds, space, supplies,support services.

Task interdependence – If two groups in the organization depends on one another in a mutual way or even in one way there is chance of conflict. The more diverse the objectives, priorities the more conflict tends to be.Foreg. Conflict between top management and staff members of the organization.The top managers may resent their dependence on staff members for information and staff member may resent their inability to implement directly their own decisions.This interdependence causes intergroup conflict.

Status struggle – When one group attempts to improve its status and another group views this as threat to its place in hierarchy. For eg human resource development department typically feels they are treated inequitably in relation to sales , finance or production department. In educational set up this type of conflict can be seen between teaching and non teaching staff regarding workload, management and Principal related to admission policy of the school.

Inter group conflict can also be caused by inconsistent rewards and differing performance criteria for different units and groups.

Four changes typically occur in groups experiencing intergroup conflict. These four changes are Increased cohesion,Increased emphasis on task accomplishment, Increased loyalty, acceptance of autocratic leadership.

• Intra Group Conflict

This is a type of conflict that happens among individuals within a group. Theincompabilities and misunderstandings among the individual . It refers to conflict among members of a group or between two or more sub groups within a group in connection with its goals, tasks, procedures, and so on. Such a conflict may also occur as a result of incompatibilities or disagreements between some or all the members of a group and its leader(s). This is also known as intra departmental conflict.

It arises from interpersonal disagreements, team members have different personalities which may lead to tension, or differences in views and ideas . For eg in a presentation members of the team might find the ideas, notions presented by one presiding to be erroneous due to their difference in opinion.Within a group, conflict can be helpful in coming up with decisions which will eventually allow them to reach their objectives as a team.

All formal groups and informal groups have certain norms of behavior and operational standards which all members are expected to adhere to. An individual member may want to remain within the group for social needs but may disagree with the group goals and methods to achieve such goals. For eg. In some schools if principal gives rewards to all the teachers irrespective of considering efforts put by the teachers in task accomplishment, some teachers who are more efficient in task completion may feel that they desrve more. Thus causing conflict within the group of teachers. Similarly if the group of teachers going on strike, some members of the group may not agree with the reasons or simply may not be economically able to afford to go on strike. Thus causing conflict within the group.

This conflict may also be between manager and the group of subordinates or between the leader and follower. A manager may take disciplinary action against the member of the group causing conflict with the group and this may result in reduced productivity.

However, if the degree of conflict disrupts harmony among the members, then some serious intervention from different party will be needed for it to be settled.

• Inter Personal Conflict

It refers to conflict between two individuals and is probably the most common and most recognized conflict. This occurs typically due to how people are different from one another. We have varied personalities which may result to incompatible choices and options. It refers to conflict between two or more organizational members of the same or different hierarchical levels or units. The studies on superior–subordinate conflict relate to this type of conflict.Foreg. conflict between teacher and principal, conflict between two friends.Apparantly, it is natural occurrence which can eventually help in personal growth or developing relationship with others. In addition adjustment is necessary for managing this type of conflict.

This may involve conflict between two managers who are competing for limited capital and manpower resources.This conflict can become further acute when the scarce resources can not be shared and must obtained. Similarly if there are two equally deserving professors and they are both up for promotion, but only one of them can be promoted because of budget and positional constraints then this could result in interpersonal conflict between two professors.

Another type of interpersonal conflict can relate to disagreement over goals and objectives of the organization. For eg. Some members of board of directors of the school may want to offer courses on sex education while others may find this proposal morally offensive. Thus causing interpersonal conflict among the members of the board. In addition to conflicts over the nature and and substance of goals and objectives, the conflict can also arise over the means of achieving these goals and objectives. For example two managers may argue as to which performance evaluation method for teachers will result in high quality in education. These conflicts become highlighted when they are based upon opinions rather than facts. Facts are generally indisputable, resulting in agreements. Opinions are highly personal and subjective and may provide for disagreement and criticism.

These interpersonal conflicts are often results of personality clashes. People with widely different charecteristics and attitudes are bound to have views and aims that are inconsistent with the views and aims of others. However when interpersonal conflict gets too destructive, calling in a mediator would help us to have it resolved.

• Intra personal Conflict

It is a conflict within a person. The conflict within the individual is usually value related, when role playing expected of the individual does not conform with the values and beliefs held by the individual. Foe eg. A secretary mayhave to lie on instruction that principal is not in the office to avoid an unwanted visitors or unwanted telephone calls.

It occurs within an individual. The experience takes place in person’s mind. Hence it is a type of conflict that is psychological involving the individuals thoughts, values, principles and emotipns. Within every individual there are usually a number of competing needs and roles which complicates the human adaptation process and often results in conflict. This may cause a conflict within the minds of secretary who may have developed an ethic of telling the truth. Similarly many Indians who are vegetarian and come to America and find it very hard to remain vegetarian may question the necessity of the vegetarian philosophy thus causing a conflict in their minds.

In addition to these values conflict, a person may faced with a role conflict. For example a telephone operator may be advised and required to be polite to the customers by her supervisor, who may also complain that she is spending too much time with her customers. This wouls cause a role conflict in her mind. A common source of conflict for an individual is frustration. Another common source of conflict for an individual is goal which has both positive and negative features, or two or more competing goals. Another source is role played by an individual.

Individual has to play many social and professional roles which create conflict within an individual. Interpersonal conflict come in different scales, from the simple mundane ones like deciding whether or not to go out for lunch to ones that can affect major decisions like such as choosing a career path. Furthermore this kind of conflict can be difficult to handle if one finds it hard to decipher ones inner struggles. It creates physical and psychological distress, threat to person’s feelings. It affects work efficiency and relationships. It leads to frustration and uneasiness, or can even cause depression. In such occasions it would be best to seek a way to let go of the anxiety through communicating with other people. Eventually, when one find oneself out of the situation, one can become more empowered as a person. Thus the experience evoked a positive change which will help one in his / her personal growth.

6.   Sources/ Causes of Conflict

One of the skills a manager needs to possess is conflict management. While it is helpful to know how to deal with a confrontation when it arises, it can be more efficient to manage conflict when you understand its major causes. If you are able to identify the causes of conflict, you can use pre-emptive measures to try to prevent it from happening.

The major sources of conflict include the need for shared scarce resources, differences in goals, interdependence of work activities, and differences in values, perceptions among people. These are applicable to organization, group as well as individuals.There are some other sources of conflict which are as follows.

• Individual and cultural differences

Employee come from different background and experiences, which play a role in shaping their personality. When employees fail to understand or accept the differences in each other’s differences, problems arise in the workplace. A person holds behavioural preferences like attitude, values, skills, goals and perceptions as per the cultural differences. Due to cultural differences there can be incompatibility with other person’s implementation of his her preferences.

• Scarcity of resources

scarcity of resources can cause conflict among employees,and between employees and management. If employees feel there is a lack of resource needed to do their job, competition will arise among employees for the available resources. The employees who are unable to obtain what they want to perform their duties will begin to blame management for the lack of necessary resources. When individuals and units must share such scarce resources as capital, facilities, staff assistance and so on, and these resources are scarce and there is high competition for them then conflict can become quite tense.

• Lack of information

Conflict can arise when one party feels it lacks important information. when employess are continually experiencing changes that they were not informed about, or if there are decisions being made that the staff feels they should be involved in, this can bring out conflict between employees and managers.

• Differences in beliefs, values and principles, opinions, attitudes

Most conflict results from varying ways different people view world. These incongruent views are due to differences in upbringing, culture, race , experience, education, occupation, socio economic status and other environmental factors. The values of employee differ within the workplace. A difference in values is seen clearly when generational gap is present. Young wworkers will posses different workplace values than older worrkers. The failure to accept differences leads to conflict.When employees fail to accept the differences ,co workers may insult each other’s character and experiences. When insult occur , the conflict intensifies until the righr solution is offered and accepted.Incompatibility

• Unclear Roles and Role ambiguity

A role reflects a set of activities associated with certain position in the organization. If these work activities are ill defined, then the person who is carrying out these activities will not perform as others expect him to.because his role is not clearly defined. This will create conflict specially this individual and those people who depends upon his activities.Such conflict can be reduced by redefining and clarifying roles and their interdependencies.

• Competition and Ambition

Unhealthy workplace competition is a cause of employee conflict. Some institutes foster competitive environment more than others. When salary is linked to employee production , a workplace may experience strong competition between the employees. Competition that is not properly managed can result in employees jealousy with one another or insulting one another , which creates hostile work environment.Unhealthy workplace competition discourages teamwork and promotes individualism which creates conflict in the workplace. Over ambition leads towards competition and it leads to conflict.

• Poor communication

It is one of the main cause of conflict between employees in the workplace. This can result in difference in communication style or failure to communicate. For eg. A manager reassigned an employee’s task to the employee’s coworker but failed to communicate the reassignment to the employee. This may cause the employee to feel slighted, which can transform into animosity among the two employees and the manager. Failing to communicate in the workplace may cause employee to make incorrect assumptions and believe workplace gossip. Poor communication at workplace not only causes conflict but also decreases productivity and employee morale.

• Unfulfilled Expectations

Many of the causes listed above contribute to one person not fulfilling the expectation of another. Unfulfilled expectations cause frings, friction, and other forms of relational breakdown. The major reason that expectations go unfulfilled is that they are unreasonable, inappropriate, too numerous or unstated.

• Role Pressure

If there is role ambiguity it leads to role pressure. A person in a team may seem to be struggling with unmanageable workload, but they may be resentful of another employee who appears to have less to do. Role pressure may also be result of organizational changes, restructuring or promotion given to other staff.

• Differences in Personality

Employee come from different background and experiences, which play a role in shaping their personality. When employees fail to understand or accept the differences in each other’s personalities, problems arise in the workplace. For eg. An employee may possess a straightforward personality that results in him speaking whatever is on his mind, even if the time is inappropriate. The employee with straightforward personality may offend a co-worker that does not posses the same type of personality. The co-worker may feel as if the employee is rude or lacks the authority to deal with her in such a straightforward mannaer. This is one perso differing with another based on how he or she feels about that person. Like this there are different personalities which may lead to conflict in the organization.

• Frustration strss and burnout

when people become frustrated or stressed they are more irritable and more likely to create conflicts than other times. Poor organizational structure, lack of team work, inadequate resources, non cooperationfro others leads to stress and tension among workers in the organization. It becomes worse when personal differences begin to develop between employees.

• Weak leadership and Incompetent manager

conflict is bound to result if someone of less stature leads a more qualified and experienced worker. Incompetent manager can create conflict in the workplace. A manager who does not understand the job task of his subordinates or is uninformed about the job duties that each employee is supposed to perform, can be responsible for tension and conflict in the workplace. Employees who lose confidence in managers due to inconsistent decisions or bad planning can also become source of conflict.

7.   Effect of Conflict in Organisation

Conflict is the disagreement between employees, departments, managers or groups of people within the business entity. Disagreements may arise due to differences in points of view, ideology or unhealthy competition that may yield either positive or negative consequences. Regardless of the type or level of conflict, a number of major functional and dysfunctional consequences can arise from conflict. Dysfunctional effect can be negative imact on the organization.

• Absenteeism

Organization members who are increasingly frustrated with the level of conflict within an organization may decide to end their membership or remain absent to avoid conflicting situation. This is especially detrimental when members are a part of the executive board or heads of committees.

• Stress

Conflict within an organization can cause members to become frustrated if they feel as if there’s no solution in sight, or if they feel that their opinions go unrecognized by other group members. As a result, members become stressed, which adversely affects their professional and personal lives. When the person is under stress he can not concentrate on work. Which will have negative impact on productivity.Which leads to conflict within the person.

• Low Self Esteem

When the parsoncontineouslyremain is under conflict situation, it will lower down his morale and it will also have effect on his confidence. The person may lose his confidence and it will have effect on productivity.

• De-motivation

Feelings of being defeated and demeaned, which lowers individuals’ morale. A climate of mistrust, may hinder the teamwork and cooperation necessary to get work done. The person may think of avoiding the situation.

• Decrease in Productivity

When an organization spends much of its time dealing with conflict, members take time away from focusing on the core goals they are tasked with achieving. Conflict causes members to focus less on the project at hand and more on gossiping about conflict or venting about frustrations. As a result, organizations can lose money, donors and access to essential resources.

• Waste of Time and Resources

The business may lose precious time and resources at times of conflict. Instead of concentrating on meeting their objectives, employees waste time on divisive issues.

When conflict is handled skilfully it produces positive outcome (motivation, increase productivity, healthy competition). When conflict is not handled effectively it produces negative outcome (road rage, community fights, domestic violence etc.)

Conflict is constructive when It helps to build new insights and establishes new patterns in a relationship, It prevents all new conflicts, both people get what they want.

• Staff Turn over

If one can not deal with conflict situation one may think of leaving the job. Organization may remove the person from job if any person creates conflict in the organization. Inthis way the staff will keep on changing and there will be new staff recruitment in the organization.

References

• Deshmukh, A ( 2010) Educational management, First Edition, Himalaya Publishing House, Mumbai.
•  Luthans, F (2005) Organizational Behaviour, Sixth Edition, New McGrew Hills, New York
• Pandya, S.R ( 2004) Administration and Management of Education, Second Edition, Himalaya Publishing House, Mumbai.
• Rahim, M.A. (2001). Managing conflict in organizations (3rd ed.). Westport, CT:Quorum Books.
• Stoner, J ( 1987) Management, Third Edition, Prentice Hall of India Pvt Ltd. New Delhi.
• Thomas, K.W. (1976) Conflict and conflict management., Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 889-935). New york:wiley & sons.