Conflict in Organizations

Conflict in Organizations

Introduction

In every working environment, conflict is inevitable, and companies are taking different approaches to answer them. There are three well known views e.g. traditional, human relations and interactionist view, which define the nature of conflict. Till the 1940s traditional view remained dominant, and then human relation had presented. After the 1970s, the interactionist view had presented which is rational and is still dominant. In the following lines, there is a detailed description of three views along with functional and dysfunctional conflict which have supported from criminal justice agencies along with real life cases.

Traditional view

In an organization, traditional view of conflict has seen as the destructive, dysfunctional and irrational (Hislop, 2013). The continuity of conflict causes low productivity, and this is the reason; companies are trying to stamp it out at the earlier stage in order to run the business smoothly (Borg et al, 2013). The main reasons of this conflict are the lack of trust, poor communication, leg pulling, ambiguous role of worker and failure to perform job description. The intensity of some conflicts is low, and managers are imposing minor burden on the wrongdoer e.g. salary deduction. However, when intensity of the issue is high, managers are taking harsh decision e.g. fire the responsible workers without notice. This view remained dominant till 1940s, but today it lost momentum because of the emergence of other rational views. To avoid conflict in organizations, managers most of the times are using authoritative approach. In result, the unions and other protective agencies are getting birth which ultimately prove that conflict is bad must be avoided.

Managers have many ways and strategies to address the conflict. In the traditional view, managers believe that conflict is bad and take direct measures as stated above. The method of firing works mostly in lower class workers because they are raw labor and easily available in the market. The company has not to bear the training and other cost while appointing new employees. The problem at upper management level is easy to solve by just transferring and limiting the interaction.

Human Relation View

After traditional view, human relation view had presented and remained on the horizons till 1970s. Its other names are behavioral and contemporary view. The central theme of this opinion is that in organizations conflict is inevitable and natural. Conflict is always not destructive; it may have some positive effects in companies depending upon how it has addressed. At the initial level of conflict, there is efficiency in the performance; the conflicting groups are working hard in order to have a strong foothold in the business (Hislop, 2013).

On the contrary, when conflict remains unresolved, it causes poor performance and companies have no other option but to introduce changes. These changes might be amendments in rules, realign in working teams and redesign organizational model. It means conflict should be tolerated in starting period and after deducting its causes, should be suppressed through changes as soon as ...