Conflicts: Meaning and Causes in Organizations

Workplace conflict is described as a state of disagreement or misunderstanding resulting from a communication gap or dissent of needs, beliefs, resources, and relationships between the members of the organization.

Being humans, conflicts occur when there is no balance between the opinions of both parties. Organizational conflicts occur when there is human interaction. It starts when one member of the organization discusses his/her goal towards the organization and plans to execute it. The disbalance of opinion can come into being within a member, between two members, or also a group of members working in the same organization.

Sources and Causes of Conflicts in an Organization

There are a number of factors that influence organizational conflicts under certain circumstances. These are as follows:

1. Task Interdependencies: It is referred to as when accomplishing an organizational goal, a team sums up and works together for that goal to achieve. This results in the interdependence of tasks allotted and often creates confusion in the workplace as people collaborate to accomplish a goal. High interdependence heightens the intensity of relationships and often small disagreements lead to major issues further on.

2. Status Inconsistencies: This is the second most factor involved as say, for instance, managers get the time off for other errands to take place. This is not allowed to nonmanagers of the organization. It leads to the unfairness of the organizational policies which non-managers usually perceive.

3. Communication Problem: Various communication problems in an organization among people facilitate conflicts. This communication problem occurs when tasks are being shifted from one person to another.

4. Roles and Expectations: Each employee in the organization plays one or more roles in the organization. These roles are defined through a combination of job titles, descriptions of duties. Manager-subordinate conflict arises when the role of a subordinate is not clearly defined by the manager.

5. Authority Relationships: There is always an underlying conflict among seniors and subordinates. It is because most people do not like being told about the tasks and what to do next. This problem is faced by the managers who are overly strict towards their subordinates and eventually they fail to create a harmonious relationship. 

6. Specialization: Employees tend to become experts at a particular task or obtain general knowledge about the work they are performing. When the majority of people get specialization, they tend to implement their ideas and in turn, result in conflicts among people. Conflicts also arise when workers have little knowledge of each other’s job responsibilities.

The above are various sources of organizational conflicts within an organization where disputes occur between members. This is not only about any organization. Conflicts occur in businesses too. Various factors or sources of conflicts in business take place with the communication gap among employees.

There are also subtler conflicts that involve conflicts, jealousy, personality clash, role definitions, power, and favor. The conflict between individuals between competing needs and demands to which individuals respond differently.

Consequences of Organizational Conflicts

The major cause of unresolved conflict is the communication gap among individuals. This results in confusion, or refusal to cooperate, missed deadlines or delays, and increased stress among employees, disruption in the workflow, decreased customer satisfaction, and gossip.

The conflict in the organization may have some of the following negative effects. The pointers are discussed below:

1. Diversion of time and energy from the main issue

2. Creates deadlocks

3. Delays decision

4. Interferes listening

5. Hinders exploration of more and more alternatives

6. Destroys sensitivity

7. Disruption in a meeting and arouses anger

8. Provoke personal abuse

9. Causes defensiveness

Stress

Interpersonal conflict among people at work is the most common and noted stressors for the environment. It further relates other stressors that may co-occur such as role conflict, an overload of work, ambiguity. It also creates strain such as anxiety, depression, and low levels of job satisfaction.

Positive Outcome

Group conflicts are not always categorized as negative. This may sometimes lead to a positive outcome as well. Conflicts lead to subgroups among the group and promote a creative solution to the problem. This is because there is more human resource to solve the existing problem. The group must know how to deal with the problems arising. These conflicts are sometimes necessary as it promotes creative tensions and effective contributions to the organizational goal. It is destructive when the conflict is of win-lose nature. This win-lose conflict leads to compromises and a less than sufficient outcome.

Importance of the Meaning and Causes of Conflicts – Causes, Consequences and Positive Outcome 

Studying the Meaning and Causes of Conflicts – Causes, Consequences and Positive Outcome are important for all management students. This concept tells about the different problems that arise within an organization and how they affect the operations of a business. It also tells you the causes of such conflicts and their impact on personal relationships. Every student who wants to work in an organization must have a clear understanding of the Meaning and Causes of Conflicts – Causes, Consequences and Positive Outcomes. It will help you prevent these conflicts in your organization and also solve the problems between two or more employees.

With the Meaning and Causes of Conflicts – Causes, Consequences and Positive Outcome, you will also get to learn how to resolve interpersonal issues and improve communication between your team. Conflict brings positive change in the organization as well. So, you can understand how conflict impacts an organization positively.

Whenever a conflict arises in your team, you will get an opportunity to turn it into a team-building activity. You can bring all your teammates together and let them brainstorm ideas to solve the common problem. It will also improve communication between employees, leading to increased efficiency and better results. Besides this, while resolving a conflict with your team members, you will get to interact with the silent employees of your team who do not contribute much during such interactions. 

How to learn the Meaning and Causes of Conflicts – Causes, Consequences and Positive Outcome?   

Learning the Meaning and Causes of Conflicts – Causes, Consequences and Positive Outcome will not be difficult, especially when you are studying with Vedantu. Here are some tips to start learning this concept: 

• Make your notes while studying the Meaning and Causes of Conflicts– Causes, Consequences and Positive Outcome and create a summary of the topic. This summary will prove to be a significant help during your exam preparations. 

• When you go through the Meaning and Causes of Conflicts– Causes, Consequences and Positive Outcome, give an ample amount of time to every topic to gain a better understanding. 

• After you are done with the Meaning and Causes of Conflicts– Causes, Consequences and Positive Outcome, go through different questions based on real situations to understand the concept of conflict more deeply. 

• Use different reference books to study the Meaning and Causes of Conflicts– Causes, Consequences and Positive Outcome and collect more information on the topic to understand it better. 

• You can visit Vedantu’s online learning platform to learn the Meaning and Causes of Conflicts– Causes, Consequences and Positive Outcomes. Our platform will make the learning process a lot easier by providing you with explanations of conflict and its causes in simple and understandable language.

• Try to solve the exercise questions in your textbook once you have thoroughly studied the Meaning and Causes of Conflicts – Causes, Consequences and Positive Outcome.