Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict (Print ISSN: 1544-0508; Online ISSN: 1939-4691 )

Short commentary: 2021 Vol: 25 Issue: 4S

Managing Conflict in the Workplace: Types and Phases of Conflict

Herron Schiro, Georgia Southern University

Citation Information: Schiro, H. (2021). Managing conflict in the workplace: types and phases of conflict. Journal of Organizational Culture Communications and Conflict, 25(S4), 1-2

The daily activities of workers in a company basically accept social communications. In associate atmosphere wherever communication is frank and well established and wherever data flows freely, conflict happens less often. Variations are also supported past experiences, on messages that are implicit however left unstated. Today, workers and managers are expected to show sensible social skills and a big degree of openness once confronted by troublesome things within the work. Conflict continues to be a supply of stress that shouldn’t be underestimated, further as a demotivating force. Managers are inevitably concerned in its resolution, whether or not closely or at arm’s length Tripp (1985). Conflict arises once colleagues disagree on basic problems or once friction is formed by relative issues between people or teams. Conflict management needs a capability to acknowledge things which will end in conflict and react in an exceedingly manner that's of profit to the organization and also the parties. The origins of conflict could cause the organization to redefine bound management and work organization ways Adomi and Anie (2005). Conflict management needs active listening skills.

Types of Conflict

Inherent conflict

An inherent conflict may be a basic disagreement with relevance the goals sought-after or the suggests that of achieving them. People that work along, day once day, sooner or later encounter variations. For instance, take into account a sales team vs. associate operations team. If daily conflicts aren't effectively resolved, they will degenerate into associate emotional conflict.

Emotional conflict

Emotional conflict results from relative issues that are manifested by numerous feelings like anger, mistrust, animosity, concern and spite. We frequently stumble upon the expression “personality conflict,” that additionally describes a style of emotional conflict. The energy spent as results of conflict of this sort very often distracts individuals from their skilled priorities Duke (1999). The structure atmosphere, i.e. an extremely competitive scenario with a lot of frequent restructuring, workers reductions, etc., sadly ends up in a lot of times within which the boss’s “firmness” could end in emotional conflicts.

A new conflict: Work-life balance

We will simply mention it en passant here, however work-life balance may be a hot topic. The expectations of workers inside the organization take issue from the expectations of them in their personal life. Workers should affect planning conflicts, role overlapping, issue adjusting, etc. Employers fairly typically use numerous things in their carpenter's kit (shorter work schedule, work, etc.) to “treat” this advanced drawback by assuaging it.

Phases of Conflict

It is vital to recollect that unresolved conflict builds up and ends up in different phases of conflict (Kumar et al., 1995).

Phase 1: Pre-conflict problems

The pre-conflict problems are the conditions seemingly to end in a brand new conflict. Obviously, in an exceedingly excellent world, the conflict would be treated once and for all. However, managers are typically unaware of the pre-conflict problems and not notice their symptoms (Ikeda et al., 2005). Moreover, once the symptoms are gift, managers typically arrange to deny their existence or quickly suppress them. Section two begins once preconflict problems result in associate inherent conflict or associate emotional one.

Phase 2: Perceived conflict

The conflict is also apparent solely to the one who perceives it, and to not each party concerned. So as for a conflict to be resolved, each parties should become responsive to its existence and feel compelled to act. Once you are concerned in conflict, you expertise unpleasant tension that pushes you to act so as to get relief. At this stage, few objective signs are apparent to the manager. The conflict continues to be perceived as a sense of tension between 2 people, as doubts regarding associate individual’s motivation, etc. the target signs of conflict become apparent within the next section.

Phase 3: Open conflict

The objective signs of conflict are currently apparent to the manager and even to the whole team. The stage at that the people concerned can and will resolve the conflict. The manager’s actions specialise in either eliminating the conflict or suppressing the apparent and objective signs. If we decide to suppress one thing that's obvious, the underlying conditions can stay. The conflict might worsen and result in issues of an equivalent sort. However, for managers, the temporary suppression of a conflict is commonly the most effective short-run answer whereas looking forward to a chance within which to deal with the underlying causes.

References

  1. Adomi, E.E., & Anie, S.O. (2005). Conflict Management in Nigerian University Libraries. Journal of Library Management, 27(8), 520-530.
  2. Duke, C. (1999). Organisational conflicts affecting technology commercialization from non-profit laboratories. Journal of Product Brand Management, 4(5), 5-15.
  3. Ikeda, A.A., Veludo-de-Oliveira, & Campomar, M.C. (2005). Organizational conflicts perceived by marketing executives. Electronic Journal of Business and Organization Studies, 10(1), 22-28.
  4. Kumar, N., Scheer, L., & Steenkamp, J. (1995). The effects of perceived interdependence on dealer attitudes. Journal of Marketing Research, 32(3), 348-56.
  5. Tripp, C. (1985). Intraorganizational conflict mediation: The effects of communication, complaints, compliance, and confidence. Mediation Quarterly, 7, 83-99.
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