Conflict Management in the Workplace
Conflicts have become increasingly inevitable in the contemporary working environment because of the diverse nature of the workforce. Actually, the modern workplace is a hub of diverse cultures largely because of globalization. Globalization has contributed to workplace diversity through facilitating increased migration of people who are looking for better market opportunities, personal development, and new challenges (Prause & Mujtaba, 2015, p.13). These changes have generated numerous conflict situations, which has resulted in dramatic changes to the perception of conflict. Since conflict has increased in today's working environment, conflict management has emerged as one of the most important issues for managers and other organizational stakeholders. Managers are increasingly faced with the need to identify and established effective conflict management techniques.
Conflict in the Workplace
In the past 20 years, the perception of conflict in the working environment has changed significantly because of the numerous changes in the workplace. Prause & Mujtaba (2013) contend that globalization is the major factor that has generated changes in the workplace, which have in turned increased conflicts (p.13). These conflicts emerge from the fact that globalization has resulted in higher migration of individuals who are pursuing career development and new challenges and opportunities.
The other factor contributing to increased conflicts in the workplace is the new millennium, which has offered several challenges and opportunities for businesses. Today's world is increasingly complex given the increase in diversity that has made nearly four generations to work side by side (Deyoe & Fox, n.d.). Since each of these generations are characterized by unique characteristics, several conflicts emerge as they interact with each other in the working environment.
According to Singleton et al. (2011), conflicts in the workplace are brought by the fact that people must communicate and interact with each other (p.149). Similar to every other environment, conflict is bound to happen in the workplace as people interact and communicate. This implies that conflict is inevitable in personal and professional lives of individuals. Based on this factor, workplace conflicts are brought by personality clashes and egos between employees. Conflict is primarily a natural by-product of interactions and communication between people as they seek to accomplish their personal and organizational goals.
In some cases, conflict in the workplace is a consequence of the nature of the working environment. Based on the findings of a survey, workplace conflict is sometimes brought by stress and heavy workloads (Singleton et al., 2011, p.149). In this case, conflicts are viewed as measures through which individuals express their frustrations and concerns regarding their working environment.
The other aspect of the nature of the workplace that is considered as a contributor to conflict is teams. Teams are famous means that are used by organizations across the globe to achieve organizational goals. Teams are considered advantageous in the working environment for various reasons including enhancing quality, lessening costs, and developing new products (Alper, Tjosvold & Law, 2000, p.625). As teams work towards achievement of organizational goals, they deal with several issues and challenges that in turn generate conflicts. When working in teams, conflicts emerge when people's behavior or actions infringe the organization's social norms or the rules and regulations of the organization. In most cases, such conflicts arise from differences in personalities, opinions, experience, knowledge, and education.
Singleton et al. (2011) contend that there are two types of workplace conflicts i.e. functional conflict and dysfunctional conflict. These two types of conflicts do not exist different from each other because organizations tend to have varying degrees of each of them. Functional conflict comes from differences in opinions, natural diversity, differences in project or process, rapid change, and work teams. Dysfunctional conflict arise from dysfunctional work teams, system problems, heavy workloads, favoritism, unfavorable work culture, warring egos, ineffective bureaucracy, and obnoxious people (Singleton et al., 2011, p.151).
Conflict Management Techniques in the Workplace
While conflicts are bound to happen in the workplace, they can have devastating impacts on organizational performance and productivity. Conflict in the workplace is endemic because of the nature of the working environment and interactions taking place among employees. Given the inevitability of conflict and its potential impact, managers and leaders in the working environment are faced with the need to identify suitable conflict management techniques.
Conflict management in the workplace involves developing effective measures to lessen the impact of conflict and enhance organizational productivity. Conflict management strategies are also used to improve the constructive functions so that the organization can optimize learning and effectiveness. Through designing strategies, an organization does not avoid the conflict but find effective ways of dealing with it. Therefore, conflict management in the workplace is a means through which...
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