Conflict Management at Workplace

Conflict Management at Workplace : Conflict Management at Workplace Dr. H. Kwame Afaglo (PhD, BSc) 2009

Conflict Management at workplace : Conflict Management at workplace Scenario A A new Managing Director is just taken charge of ABC Ltd and tasked with profitability targets from the every first year. Prior to her appointment, ABC Ltd did record deficit in the last two years. She starts changing titles of mangers and appointing new personnel as departmental heads from her previous firms to the anger of existing employees. Scenario B Besides Mr X who is nicknamed ‘Lion man’ at work for his competitive, aggressive and abusive personality,

Conflict Management at workplace : Conflict Management at workplace he secretly undermines his colleagues to the boss, in return for promotion. Scenario C She is overloaded with work, knowing very well she just returned from maternity leave. Back at home, she nurses three children and husband. Her baby’s nocturnal crying and eating habit allows her only four hours of good sleep, which is on the hind side of work. She is not able to meet up with job deadlines as before, hence her job is on the line.

Conflict Management at workplace : Conflict Management at workplace The following attributes can be derived from scenario as; Scenario A Anger - from existing employees towards new colleagues which may be manifested directly or indirectly. Frustration – fresh employees are frustrated. Anxiety – Some employees may not be able to cope with the ‘poisoned’ environment, so opt out of the firm. Change – policies to bring about change could be thwarted. Productivity – If the bottled anger, frustration, anxiety and change process are not addressed, production would be underachieved. Profitability – The consequence of low production goes from dip in returns, share holders dissatisfaction to denying consumers of desired product or service.

Conflict Management at workplace : Conflict Management at workplace Scenario B Bully – An inappropriate abuse of colleagues based on stereotyping, gender bias etc. Anger - Unacceptable direction of anxiety. Self esteem – Low self esteem is mostly associated with latent undermining of colleagues, ‘grass up’ of colleagues, etc. Trust – There is obvious distrust among colleagues. Job lose – A number of employees who disagree with the ‘Lion man’ type loose their jobs from undermining, before the perpetrator him or herself falls out of favour and out of work in shame. Productivity – Lose of key staff could have some regressive effect on production and profitability.

Conflict Management at workplace : Conflict Management at workplace Scenario C Anxiety – Pressures of both domestic and work roles does account for an appreciable level of anxiety. Corporate insensitivity – Maternity and paternity leave must not only be the legislated ninety days, but go beyond that. Line managers inability to tailor work on individual circumstances (especially returning mothers’) may result in lose of hitherto a key staff. Competing dual roles – Parenting and work is a noted struggle for most people,

Conflict Management at workplace : Conflict Management at workplace with especially women dropping out of work to concentrate on parenting. Worsening the situation for working mothers’ is corporate intolerance for female executives because of anticipated maternity leave. Female executives – Some corporations do not enjoy positioning women in an executive position for reasons of high levels of production from long working hours. Self esteem – Besides the adverse effect on production levels due to lose of a hitherto key staff, it does affect the self esteem of affected mother.

Conflict : Conflict The most common attribute are: Conflict Anger Anxiety Self esteem Productivity (production levels) It is worth using theoretical understanding to divert anger, anxiety and low self esteem into high production and possibly profitability at workplace. What then is conflict and its interplay with the afore-mentioned characteristics?

Conflict : Conflict Conflict is an inevitable human phenomenon. Implying we can not live without it, much as it is said to be undesirable, hence it is prudent to derive the progressive components and ameliorate the unpleasant roles for increased productivity. Psychologist Sigmund Freud brought to focus the basic human struggle between instinct for life (self preservation) and that for death (self destruction) also known as ‘Thanatos’. However, the sense of self preservation is to be upheld in every circumstances.

Conflict : Conflict The instinctual struggle between life and death (thanatos) implies conflict is an innate phenomenon, hence it can not be eliminated. Nevertheless, conflict can be ameliorated and energies channelled for useful purposes. So there is always going to be conflict within the individual, within groups, between groups and communities. Much as the adverse effects of conflict is been earlier discussed, its causes and then advantages must equally be highlighted.

Causes of conflict : Causes of conflict Inasmuch as there are various causes of conflict at workplace, this presentation would feature few of them to serve the scenario mentioned earlier. Self esteem – self regard is very significant to an individual’s level of satisfaction or otherwise. A staff with low self esteem exhibits characteristics as: Indecision – the concerned individual tinkers when faced with choice. Pushing blame – the individual is quick to push the blame onto colleague(s) and exonerate him or herself.

Causes of conflict : Causes of conflict Team contribution – Individuals with low self esteem feel inferior within, that inhibits him or her from contributing to group discussions. During group think, you would hear them say, ‘Whatever the boss says is right’ or agree to every suggestion (‘yes man’) or ‘let me ask my boss?’ etc. Leadership – Low self esteem individuals also avoid leadership roles, and mostly suffer in silence in the presence of unpleasant experience. Performance – Low self esteem is partly responsible for under performance. The converse side of low self esteem personality is over ambitious individual(s).

Causes of conflict : Causes of conflict Strain - An overly ambitious staff causes anxiety to him or herself and a strain between themselves and colleagues. Production target – Unrealisable individual targets are set by overly ambitious persons, of which makes them work oriented (workaholic). Competitive – In an attempt to achieve high targets, overly ambitious individuals become very competitive. Health – Over ambition, extreme competitiveness, running around to achieve targets, talk a lot and less listening, more work and less leisure oriented are characteristics of a Type A personality. Type A personalities are highly prone to cardio-vascular heart diseases.

Causes of conflict : Causes of conflict Besides the individual causes of conflict mentioned in early slides (pages), inter-group and intra-group differences are another contributing factors. The ‘We’ vs. ‘Them’ or ‘They’ vs. ‘Us’ are clichés associated with inter-group conflicts. Competition – Rivalry among firms rendering the same or similar products and or services could be intense, but generates new products , innovation resulting into lower and affordable pricing. E.g. price war between Wal-Mart and Tesco in U.K. Aggression – Aggression is instinctual and is needed for business survival.

Causes of conflict : Causes of conflict Expansionism – Share holders ever increasing demand for higher dividends is driving firms to expand into the global marketplace. Firms seeking global clientele must be prepared to meet stiff competition, more trouble shooting and increasing meetings at varying levels, etc. Cultural differences – Ethnic differences of staff in new operating geographical locations other than home country of firm compared with organisation culture does breed conflicts.

Causes of conflict : Causes of conflict Rewards and punishment - serve as bases for individuals to learn to be aggressive or otherwise. The media (newspaper and television) indirectly reward less competitive firms per advertisements and strengthens the customer base of market leaders with the repeatedly showing of their images. Another powerful tool is the internet. It is used for aggressive marketing, which mostly is intrusive and unacceptably evades individuals privacy through social networking and emails.

Causes of conflict : Causes of conflict Intra-group conflict is imminent in large societies where the saying that ‘all men are equal but some are more equal’ or ‘inner members’ , ‘priority members’ , ‘ordinary members’ etc. Power – The lust for authority be it legitimate or otherwise drives dividing lines within a group. Aggression – Lust for authority and dividing lines is likely to breed aggression.

Causes of conflict : Causes of conflict Propaganda – The ever growing trend of mass media being used for classification of firms based on product value, price, customer feedbacks and other features, to the disgust of non-performing firms is another cause. It creates animosity between top firms and mediocre ones, although it is in favour of consumers and leads to product or service improvements and expands choice. Further, propaganda is used to create price wars between firms. E.g. price comparison website.

Positive sides of conflict : Positive sides of conflict Inasmuch as workplace politics is associated with acrimony between individuals, groups, xenophobia among others, causing under-productivity, it is a manger’s responsibility to harness the positive energy inherent in conflicts for positive use. Opportunity – Conflict gives the subordinate the chance to air out his or her pent-up feelings and reservations about superior(s). Aggression – some amount of aggression is needed for industrial survival and market leadership. Also in activities as take-overs, price wars, competitiveness and profitability, market penetration, expansion and globalisation.

Positives of conflicts : Positives of conflicts iii. Communication – conflict resolution pulls down the barrier between competing departments per improved communication. Sublimation –Distress among staff could be reversed into increased productivity with the help of consultants. Staff retention- overtly expressing grievance at workplace through dialogue improves the health of affected staff and prevents dissatisfied staff from resigning. Invariable, keeping staff has a corresponding upshot to production and profits.

Management of conflict : Management of conflict Against the backdrop that conflict is inevitable hence channelling its energises into productive use is equally important and can be achieved through managerial approaches. Some of the techniques are; dialogue, win-win, subordinate goals, coping mechanism, trouble shooting, among others. Dialogue – Arbitrating between feuding groups with an external go-between is preferably recommended to litigation. This saves cost on all sides (firm, groups or individual).

Management of conflict : Management of conflict Catharsis - Giving the aggrieved parties the chance to speak out is therapeutic in itself, it relieves them of their anxiety and pent-up feelings. Win-win agreement – As much as possible all parties involved in the conflict must count some win(s) based on negotiations. Superordinate goals – Tasking feuding groups on the same activity from time-to-time would force them to share thoughts and cooperate for success. Eventually, the stereotypical (‘We vs. Them’) attitudes would be minimised and leading to increased production.

Management of conflict : Management of conflict Coping mechanism – Organisations must engage psychologist(s) to take staff through psychotherapy to harness the positive energies in conflict. Besides sublimation mentioned earlier, repression is another technique that is useful. Exercise – In-house gyms to be used by staff for exercising is useful in coping with anxiety from conflict(s). Meditation – Meditative practices as yoga and religious activities are also helpful in releasing pent-up feelings from conflicts and depressing activities.

Conflict management at workplace : Conflict management at workplace Thank you.