Conflict management is implementing strategies to do away with contradictory conditions of conflict. Conflict resolution aims to increase positive views and enable organizational performance and competency. Instead of eliminating or shunning disagreements, conflict management aims to educate groups on conflict resolution skills, for example, effective communication with members, managing conflict, and finding self-awareness. The skills help teams build a positive result out of conflict. Effective communication is involved in dealing with conflict management in a business environment. The main goal of effective communication as a skill of conflict resolution is the restoration of focus to the company’s goal through good negotiation skills and problem-solving abilities. Generally, conflicts arise because of differences in religious views, cultural backgrounds, communication styles, and political ideologies.
Disagreements, competition, and rivalry are the main causes of conflict among group members. Whatever the size of the business, industries are subjected to organizational and interpersonal conflicts. Organizational conflict may be observed when competitive changes are made, and employee diversity increases. Conflicts also arise when resources are limited (Alrowwad et al., 2020). Due to these vacillations managing conflict is crucial in many ways. If not managed, the conflict has high-priced legal outcomes when the affected people seek judicial proceedings for dispute resolution. Production is reduced when negative conflicts occur because the employees become dissatisfied and expensive turnovers are expected. Conflict well managed becomes a catalyst for creativity, organizational learning, and innovations hence high production. In companies with no conflict, the employees enjoy the freedom of expression as they learn from each other and express their opinions and suggestions to foster improvement without fear.
The manager should identify a possible course of action when faced with conflict. There are three possible ways in which the conflict may be seen. For example, one may decide to use and manage force or accept the status quo. That is to say; one may decide to live with the problem. One may decide to reach an agreement and negotiate to solve the conflict. Each of the approaches has a result, and the results are Win-Lose, Lose-Lose, or Win-Win. Primarily, conflict management research focuses on the conflict situation and the person-situation interaction. All the same, conflict behavior determination is both situational and influenced by disposition. Conflict resolution success is not only doing away with frustration but also contributing to higher effectiveness, fostering trust and openness. When preparing to conduct conflict management, there are items to remember—first, understanding the type of conflict, i.e., conflict of opinion, differing resources, incompatible roles, or goals. Secondly, awareness of the importance of conflict enables the manager to choose an appropriate strategy. Third, the manager must acknowledge the complexity of the conflict since there are wide variations. Finally, the manager must review the energy and resources suitable for conflict management.
Management of an organization requires people with different personalities, knowledge, and skills and those who possess cultures and enormous scales of influence according to the conflict mode. The availability of personal and emotional tension conflict results in a dimension of organizational practice. Their regard for power is to influence their strategies in conflict and exalt people to work together effectively. Logically, the relationship between the leaders has a positive correlation with believing the employees and a negative with conflict (Asad & Sadler-Smith, 2020). Environmental changes demand managers’ skills and abilities to manage conflict and to ensure constructive results are produced. Conflict grows massively like today’s industries. Its litigious increase, competitiveness, complexity, and alienation in the postmodern society are integral. Little conflict creates organizational stasis, and too much conflict reduces effectiveness and causes employees’ immobility.
Referring to strategy, the text states that individuals or organizations use many strategies while others focus on the elaboration of a single strategy to solve the conflict. Researchers have described several strategies, but no one claims that their list includes a suitable strategy for conflict resolution. Any set of options that a particular player can take to solve the conflict in an organization is the best strategy. Three steps are recognized while noting that conflict analysis enables the participant to make better decisions. First, modeling considers the conflict as a whole; second, determining all possible resolutions; and finally, involves particular strategies. People’s behaviors are defined in terms of where it lies between the independent side;-assertiveness, and cooperativeness when found in conflict. The degree to which one tries to satisfy own concern is known as assertiveness (Yokoyama & Birchley, 2020).
Finding ways to satisfy other people is known as cooperation which is the opposite of competing. Using an accommodating strategy means giving the opposing side what it wants. An accommodation strategy is used when one is keeping the peace or perceiving the matter as minor—using an accommodative strategy as the primary conflict resolution means keeping track and developing resentment (Qiu & Freel, 2020). Sidestepping or postponing the conflict does not satisfy any person. In the avoidance strategy, one tries to put off conflict indefinitely by ignoring or avoiding the conflict. In avoidance, you hope the problem will solve itself, yet it does not. Many people who avoid the problems hold a low position of power or have low esteem. Since avoiding is unassertive and uncooperative, the strategy is not recommended to solve the conflict.
Finding solutions that completely satisfy both one’s concerns is known as collaboration or cooperation. Assertive leaders collect the ideas of people and use them to make decisions. The motive is to find a solution acceptable to everyone. Collaboration is useful and most recommended, yet it calls for much time and more commitment, and therefore it is not appropriate for all conflicts. Compromising is both assertive and cooperative. It can be defined as looking for agreeable fixtures satisfying both parties. To establish acceptance, the compromising strategy invites both sides to give their opinion and position on the matter if there is no agreement between the parties. The strategy overcomes most of the conflicts where parties hold the same powers. It is the most appropriate strategy in an organization to solve the conflict between the employees (Kretschmer et al., 2022).
Organizational citizenship character is about employees coming to see their course advancement as being twisted together with the success of their employer. Thus, it is about employees who cheerfully help each other, permit day-to-day workplace scuffle, support, and, where required, defend the mission of the organization, internalize rules of the organization and procedures, ‘go above and beyond the call of duty’ to advance the organizational performance, and strive to develop their attributes and abilities (De Waal, 2020). The kind of employee finds it easy to cooperate when conflict is depicted. They are free to share when their opinion is wanted, and the decision is made unanimously. Reasoning and the employees create a conducive environment for talks and wholesome decision-making.
The strategy is cultivating a positive attachment between employees and the organization so that conflict is considered outside everyday organizational life. The organizational environment in non-union firms is more conducive to socializing conflict outside of the workplace. More formidable institutional obstacles stand in the way of such a strategy in unionized firms. It is, therefore, necessary for the legal option to make the strategies work out. In different regions and countries, the laws are made and interpreted differently. The awesome and main theme is to ensure that the orders are followed when conflict arises, and the management is keen on using strategies to give a solution. Most procedures for handling grievances and disputes are traditionally in non-union firms (Amsler et al., 2020)
As a first impression, a general discussion made in the industrial relations literature is that workplace conflict can be fixed satisfactorily without resorting to formal procedures through informal, behind-the-scenes debates between trade unions representatives and managers (Ionescu & Eliantonio, 2022). In the watch of the decline of trade union fortune almost everywhere, an argument often made in this research is that a ‘representation gap’ has emerged in many organizations, making them more vulnerable to higher incidences of conflict following long procedures has proved to be a waste of time. Listening to one another has been the order to solve conflicts in organizations. The unions take the responsibility of standing in for both the employees and the employers in times when conflict occurs. The consequences of the conflict are shared, and peace reigns as production increases because the problem is solved at a cheaper cost.
To conclude, to manage workplace conflict, there are strategies. Many strategies do not work out perfectly. Some strategies take a lot of time to implement. Some are very expensive to use. It is advisable to choose the right strategy that works out. Several managers view workplace conflict as a symptom of management failure.
On the other hand, workplace conflicts are fundamentally competing for the interest of employees. Consideration of such conflict positively aids in promoting the growth of the organization. Do not Punic when conflict arises. Stand up and face the giant, and at the end of the turn, it shall be well counting the blessings of development catalyzed by the conflicts in the organization.
References
Alrowwad, A. A., Abualoush, S. H., & Masa’deh, R. E. (2020). Innovation and intellectual capital as intermediary variables among transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and organizational performance. Journal of Management Development, 39(2), 196-222.
Amsler, L. B., Martinez, J., & Smith, S. E. (2020). Dispute system design: Preventing, managing, and resolving conflict. Stanford University Press.
Asad, S., & Sadler-Smith, E. (2020). Differentiating leader hubris and narcissism based on power. Leadership, 16(1), 39-61.
De Waal, A. A. (2020). High-Performance Managerial Leadership: Best Ideas from Around the World. ABC-CLIO.
Ionescu, D. P., & Eliantonio, M. (2022). Soft Law Behind the Scenes: Transparency, Participation and the European Union’s Soft Law Making Process in the Field of Climate Change. European Journal of Risk Regulation, 1-21.
Kretschmer, T., Leiponen, A., Schilling, M., & Vasudeva, G. (2022). Platform ecosystems as meta‐organizations: Implications for platform strategies. Strategic Management Journal, 43(3), 405-424.
Qiu, H., & Freel, M. (2020). Managing family-related conflicts in family businesses: a review and research agenda. Family Business Review, 33(1), 90-113.
Yokoyama, K., & Birchley, S. L. (2020). Transnational entrepreneurship in South East Asia: Japanese self-initiated expatriate entrepreneurs (p. 220). Springer Nature.
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