...Organizational conflict can sometimes be a struggle on a day-to-day basis among employees and employers. Conflict takes on many forms. Miscommunication within an organization between parties can cause organizational conflict. Often times, individuals that have been promoted feel as though their title gives them additional power in regards to how they treat and speak to others. Sometimes, individuals can become jealous of others because of their growth with the company or recognition on performance. Many may argue that conflict is an innate quality in everyone and at any given time, a person can create a conflict among individuals within an organization. This form of negative conflict is the “traditional view” of conflict. Conflict can be viewed as a negative trait; however, I believe that some conflict is good for business. Conflict may give confidence to individuals to speak their minds in settings they wouldn’t ordinarily express themselves in. This form of conflict would be deemed the “interactionist view”. Conflict can also be categorized as a dysfunctional trait that causes irrational decision making as well as create bad relationships among co-workers. This form of conflict is deemed the “human relations view”. In order to resolve conflict, problems must be identified, analyzed, and those people or situations contributing to the conflict must work to fix the problems. Despite these three different views, organizational conflict can be an exhausting experience...
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...Causes of Organizational Conflict by George N. Root III, Demand Media Managerial Expectations It is the job of an employee to meet the expectations of his manager, but if those expectations are misunderstood, conflict can arise. Managers need to spend time clearly communicating their goals to employees and then confirming those goals in writing. A manager should also encourage her employees to ask questions about their goals, and hold regular meetings to discuss the goals and how best to reach them. Breakdown in Communication If a department requires information from another department in order to do its job, and the second department does not respond to the request for information, a conflict can arise. Some interdepartmental disagreements might trigger a nonresponsive attitude that can quickly become an internal conflict. Another way of creating this sort of conflict is by giving a circular response such as an issue being perpetually "under review." When people or departments are late in responding to information requests, or they are withholding information on purpose, it is best to address the situation immediately with a personal meeting with both sides to resolve the situation. Related Reading: Organizational Structure & Conflict of Interest Misunderstanding the Information According to mediation expert Robert D. Benjamin, writing on Mediate.com, internal conflict can sometimes arise as the result of a simple misunderstanding. One person may misunderstand information...
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... A conflict situation can be induced by supporting individualistic thinking or favoring individual competition. Individualistic thinking can be initiated in the group by including some group members who can freely express their views, which can encourage and prod others to do the same. Competition between individuals can be enhanced by acknowledging and rewarding the better performers. Conflict situations can also be introduced by making some organizational changes, such as transferring some group members, redefining roles, and helping the emergence of new leadership. In most organizations, conflicts increase as employees assert their demands for an increased share in organizational rewards, such as position, acknowledgment, appreciation, monetary benefits and independence. Even management faces conflicts with many forces from outside the organization, such as government, unions and other coercive groups. Conflicts arise because of one main reason and that is people disagree. (Young 2010). People disagree for a number of reasons: 1. They see things differently because of differences in understanding and viewpoint. Most of these differences are usually not important. Personality differences or clashes in emotional needs may cause conflicts 2. People have different styles, principles, values, beliefs and slogans which determine their choices and objectives. When choices contradict, people want different things and that can create conflict situations 3. Conflict situations...
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...Organization Conflicts within the Clayton County Board of Education Course Project Outline Professor GM 591 21 June 2011 * * I. Introduction The organization that will be focused on is the Clayton County Board of Education. The board consists of nine citizens who are elected by the community. The Clayton County Board of Education is responsible for the programs, finances, education, employment, and other policies within Clayton County Public Schools (CCPS). CCPS is a school district located in Jonesboro, Georgia. The system is the fifth largest school district in Georgia and is comprised of over 50,000 students. The district is considered a Title 1 school because of its high percentage of low-income families (SACS Report).. Although the district receives government grants and various allocations to improve school conditions, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) revoked accreditation for the district in 2008. The Clayton County Public School system was the third school district to lose accreditation in over forty years (SACS Report). As a resident of Georgia, it is important the school systems are effective and can adequately educate children. I have family and friends that live throughout the state of Georgia. The loss of accreditation hinders children and their education. Students attending CCPS faced difficulty being accepted into colleges and universities. They also faced dilemmas retaining various scholarships. Not only were students...
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...LEADERSHIP, MOTIVATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT MOST PRESSING TOPICS IN ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR Organization behavior is the study of behaviors and attitudes of people in an organization. After all human behaviors and attitudes determine effectiveness of any organization. The approach used in studying OB is the system approach. In other words, this approach interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole organization, and whole social system. Its purpose is to build better relationships by achieving human objectives, organizational objectives, and social objectives. In this paper we propose to study leadership, motivation and organizational conflict, as among the most pressing issues in organizational behavior. Further, we shall discuss how these issues can be addressed. 1. Critical role of motivation It is critical for managers to understand why and how employees are motivated if they are to make full use of a worker’s capacity to learn and perform. For a manager, motivating employees to learn and perform at their best is a complex and difficult challenge. No two individuals, that is, no two employees including the two who are doing the same job are alike. At any time two different individuals will have two distinct needs and desires. Moreover, what motivates an employee to perform well today may not motivate him the next year, or next week, or even next hour. However, a motivated set of employees represent tremendous...
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...the professor’s notes. Working through this week I learned about the organization culture and conflict resolution. There are many ways to handle the conflict, and the ways mentioned in the lecture were Yielding, Compromising, Forcing, Problem – Solving and Avoiding. The “What is your primary conflict – handling style?” exercise in the textbook provides an opportunity to see one’s conflict – handling style by asking one’s decision in the given scenario. This exercise helped me to understand how to handle the conflict. I’ve scored the highest in the Forcing style. This result means that imposing my wills on the other party is my primary conflict – handling style and trying to reach an agreement that would satisfy both parties would be my fallback intention. This exercise provided me an opportunity to know my personal conflict – handling style and with the research I’ve done, I now know the strengths and weaknesses in the conflict resolving style and may still be able to find a new style of handling conflict. As a manager in the future, to solve the conflict is a key to success, therefore, I will use my conflict resolution style to handle any other conflicts which exist in the organization. However, I need to get more skills to solve the conflicts and to make everyone satisfied with the final decision. As the scenarios in the exercise also provided examples of what kind of conflict – handling style one uses. In the future, I may use these examples as a reference to hypothesize...
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...19, 2013 PREMIER BANK INC. CASE ANALYSIS INTRODUCTION Organizational conflict is a state of discord caused by the actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests between people working together. Conflict takes many forms in organizations. There is the inevitable clash between formal authority and power and those individuals and groups affected. There are disputes over how revenues should be divided, how the work should be done and how long and hard people should work. There are jurisdictional disagreements among individuals, departments, and between unions and management. There are subtler forms of conflict involving rivalries, jealousies, personality clashes, role definitions, and struggles for power and favor. There is also conflict within individuals — between competing needs and demands — to which individuals respond in different ways. Conflict styles are typically seen as a response to particular situations. By contrast, we argue that individual conflict styles may shape an employee's social environment, affecting the level of ongoing conflict and thus his or her experience of stress. Using data from a hospital-affiliated clinical department, we find that those who use a more integrative style experience lower levels of task conflict, reducing relationship conflict, which reduces stress. Those who use a more dominating or avoiding style experience higher levels of task conflict,...
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...II.C.5 What’s My Preferred Conflict-Handling Style? Instrument When you differ with someone, how do you respond? Use the following rating scale to record your answers : 1= Practically never 2= Once in a great while 3= Sometimes 4= Fairly often 5= Very often 1. I work to come out victorious, no matter what. 1 2 3 4 5 2. I try to put the needs of other before myself. 1 2 3 4 5 3. I look for a mutually satisfactory solution. 1 2 3 4 5 4. I try not to get involved in conflicts. 1 2 3 4 5 5. I strive to investigate issues thoroughly and jointly. 1 2 3 4 5 6. I never back away from a good argument. 1 2 3 4 5 7. I strive to foster harmony. 1 2 3 4 5 8. I negotiate to get a portion of what I propose. 1 2 3 4 5 9. I avoid open discussions of controversial subjects. 1 2 3 4 5 10. I openly share information with others in resolving 1 2 3 4 5 disagreements. 11. I would rather win than end up compromising. 1 2 3 4 5 12. I got along with suggestions of others. 1 2 3 4 5 13. I look for middle...
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...Communicating During Organizational Conflict KP Haueter kphaueter@hotmail.com BUS3050 Spring 2013 Shayne Narjes 9 Jun 13 * Introduction Communicating effectively during periods of organizational conflict is an important part of organizational success. This paper will discuss the challenge of effective communication as illustrated by a recent change of direction at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies (Marshall Center). First it will identify the situation of change and conflict at the Marshall Center. This will be done by identifying the knowledge, skills, sensitivity, and values that come into play as they have been taught throughout this term. Second, this paper will discuss the possible alternatives to address the situation and test the possible solutions. Lastly, the paper will propose solutions and recommend implementation plans. * Overview of the Organization and Case Study The Marshall Center is a highly respected German and American partnership based in Garmisch, Germany. It has 175 employees and has recently undergone a transformation. The fiscal and political realities of decreased defense budgets in the United States and Germany have led to a need for consolidation of responsibilities and decrease in the number of employees. The dean of the College of International and Security Studies (the College) was recently tasked with the responsibility of combining resident and outreach programs within the College. Previously...
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...Conflict is a recurring theme amongst humanity. It can be argued that humanity in some ways breeds most conflict from itself. Although some conflict humanity faces are self-created, some conflict is pre-ordained in nature. Author of the short story “The Shawl” set in a concentration camp during the Holocaust, Cynthia Ozick, uses both types of conflict in her story, Both natural and self-created. The second, being the self-created conflict of the holocaust, that our main characters have to endure, and the other conflict being natural. The natural conflict of nurturing your baby and keeping her safe. Self-created conflict can have its roots sprung from various settings, people and actions. Cynthia Ozick roots her story’s conflict right in the...
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...Interpersonal communication, as defined in our textbook, is “a unique type of communication that involved two individuals interacting via face-to-face or mediated channels.” It seems that where there is communication, inevitably there will be conflict. Television dramas tend to add conflict in their storylines in an effort to make the viewers relate to the characters. In the television series Scandal, interpersonal communication conflicts are numerous. Oddly enough, the characters in this program are all in roles where communication is of immense importance and yet, none of them communicate very well at all. This may, indeed, be one of the main reasons for the success of this show. Watching television characters intertwined in personal conflict somehow make them more real to the audience. As a longtime fan of the show, choosing one single instance of interpersonal conflict was most difficult. However, I chose a conflict that has been ongoing since the show’s inception. The communication issues between Olivia Pope and Abby Whelan has developed, much in the way that their relationship has evolved. Both characters are strong and powerful women and, as it is with such personas, their communication tends to lack finesse. In episode 4 of the 5th season, aptly entitled “Dog-Whistle Politics,” Olivia and Abby finally have an epiphany with regards to their communication issues. Olivia opts to go public about an extramarital affair she has been having with the President. Abby...
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...As you are aware, Barbara Norris has recently been promoted as nurse manager in the General Surgery Unit (GSU) here at Eastern Massachusetts University Hospital (EMU). She has inherited a unit with the lowest employee satisfaction scores and highest employee turnover rate among all the departments at the hospital. GSU is known for its culture of confrontation, blaming, and favoritism. Additionally, the staff that has remained is dissatisfied, unmotivated and does not function as a team to deliver care. As a result of the lack of unity, GSU’s patient satisfaction scores, although average, have been declining steadily over the past few years. One of Barbara’s main objectives for accepting the position was the challenge to try to turn the unit around. While Barbara has a tough job ahead of her, she is off to a good start in showing the staff that she is genuinely interested in hearing their problems and concerns. The purpose of this memo is to analyze the main issues in the unit and offer recommendations to solve them. The Off-site In an off-site workshop that Barbara conducted earlier this week, the GSU staff revealed to her several problems in the unit. Megan Mahoney, who had only been on the unit for one year, expressed her disappointment with some of the senior nurses. She said, “You make me feel like I am doing everything wrong but won’t address me directly or in a straightforward manner” and “you said you were tired of me and all of my questions and called me a pest...
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...Conflict in the Coordinators Group Conflict occurs when two people cannot agree on a particular issue. Anyone can come into conflict with someone else, because no two people are exactly alike. Such as, the substantive conflict that the Coordinators Group recently encountered. Moreover, one group member thought that purchasing an already made game would be better than making the game from scratch. However, another group member thought the pre-built game was over-priced and flimsy. Since the disagreement was over a specific issue, the Coordinators Group had a substantive conflict. Thus, to overcome this issue, the group used the A-E-I-O-U Model to resolve the conflict. The A-E-I-O-U Model is, “A conflict resolution model with five steps: Assume...
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...Conflict Inevitably, every person will encounter conflict. How a person responds to conflict can determine their success or failure. In addition, A person’s response to conflict will have either a positive or negative impact on the person and the people around them. There are several types of conflict; a few of them are: man versus man, man versus self, and man versus society. One of the several types of conflict is man versus man, which is an external conflict. Man versus man is a conflict that involves two characters or people that have opposing viewpoints, desires, and interests. The two most common character archetypes that are involved in man versus man conflicts are the protagonist and the antagonist. A good example of man versus man conflict can be found in the novel Things Fall Apart, which was written by Chinua Achebe. At the beginning of the novel, it is shown that the protagonist, Okonkwo, defeated a man known as the cat. By reacting to the man versus man conflict and defeating the cat, Okonkwo was able to gain respect and influence within his tribe which was a positive impact on Okonkwo and his future family....
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...Part I: Personal Conflict Style for Self-Development (Primary, Backup, & Limiting) In my opinion, the Life Styles Inventory illustrated scores on how I recognize my conflicts. Below conflict styles represent my strengths and weakest styles. • My primary conflict style was Conciliator, which I scored the highest on and (95th percentile). • My backup conflict style was Pragmatist, which I scored the second highest score(93rd percentile) • My limiting conflict style was Dominator, which I scored the (10th percentile) |Position |Style |Score |Percentile | |1 |Conciliator |39 |95 | |2 |Relationship Builder |34 |70 | |3 |Accommodator |9 |25 | |4 |Regulator |16 |63 | |5 |Insulator |14 |44 | |6 |Avoider |6 |55 | |7 |Escalator |7 |50 ...
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