We live in a very complex and culturally diverse society. When we bring individu

Question

We live in a very complex and culturally diverse society. When we bring individuals together from diverse backgrounds in a work environment conflict can arise when expectations are not realized or met. Rather than hoping conflict will go away, this paper will explore and identify the reasons for conflict and how to successfully address them in a team environment. Write a four- to five-page paper (excluding title and reference pages) assessing the components of conflict. The following need to be addressed within your paper: Describe a conflict within an organization or team with which you are familiar. Identify and describe the source(s) and level of the conflict and support with evidence. Describe the steps taken to resolve the conflict or, if it is an ongoing conflict, propose steps to resolve the conflict. Describe a minimum of three conflict outcomes that could reasonably occur as a result of the conflict resolution. Support your reasoning for each possible outcome.

Explanation / Answer

(GFI, “About The Group”), Global Finance, Inc. (GFI) is well-known financial company that manages thousands of accounts across Canada, the United States, and Mexico. It’s a public company traded on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) and specializes in financial management, loan application approval or wholesale loan processing and investment of money management for their customers. Therefore, this is a financial services offering company where most of the time customers have directly interaction with many employees which includes; sales, marketing, accounting, finance and support departments; where all of the employees need to show humble behavior with customers even they may criticize but for the business purpose, it’s essential for organization to achieve their goals.

2. GFI Organizational Conflict:

Since few months, organization have been facing issues of organizational conflict by their individual employee, groups or due to organizational interpersonal factors where some people are blaming that higher management is not that much good and even not listen employees requests for which employees’ had gone for strike too and these issues are related to organizational behavior, employees personal aspects from organization, etc. which have created organizational conflict. Even now situation is in control but not that much effective which was expected and continuously losing their business (AFZALUR RAHIM, AND THOMAS V. BONOMA 1979). Hence, there is need to effectively handle the situation by applying conflict resolution theories and models of conflict control.

As we know, conflict is an essential force governing all the aspects of life. It has always existed between individuals, groups and organizations.

Therefore, understanding and managing conflict is a vital investment to improve organizational performance where effective conflict management can assist GFI to keep in touch with new developments and create suitable solutions for their threats where managing conflict, is a way to improve organizational decision-making system and resource allocation, ultimately can make organization more effective. Hence, goal is an attempt to explore the procedures in managing both individual as well as collective conflict in organizations with consideration to the advantages and disadvantages of different organizational procedural approach to managing their employee relationship.

3. GFI’s Perspectives on Conflicts:

Conflict in the organizational employment relationship has an important influence on theories of the industrial relations. It has been interpreted differently at different time i.e. unitary, pluralist, and interactionist perspectives (Blake, R. and Mouton 1984).

The traditional view of GFI’s conflict is that it is associated with negative features and situations which gave rise to inefficiency, ineffectiveness or dysfunctional consequences which has ultimately a bad thing for GFI where unitary perspective is the early interpretation of conflict which amounted in this organization as a process that is harmful and need to be avoid.

According to this organizational view conflict, which have been seeming as negative outcome due to poor communication, lack of openness between employees and senior management, i.e. the inability of superiors to respond to the needs and aspirations of subordinates which created issues. Hence, these conflict have been considered as harmful.

4. Theories and Models on GFI Organizational Conflict:

Modern theories of conflict emphasize as a process which involves the perceptions, thoughts, feelings and intentions of all participants. Conflict in organizations stems from organizations based and their interpersonal factors. Organizational based factors include competition over scarce resources, uncertainty over responsibility or jurisdiction, inter-dependence, reward system that pit people or against one another, and power differentials. Interpersonal factors include attribution errors, faulty communications and personal characteristics or traits.

A total absence of conflict can lead to apathy and lethargy. According to the pluralist perspective, conflict is a natural phenomenon which is inevitable, occasionally even desirable, because it supports evolutionary change. This outlook claims that conflict is stimulating and beneficial because it challenges the apathetic, where employees are not responding to change. In fact, pluralists argue that conflict often brings about necessary change, increase cohesiveness and improves GFI’s organizational effectiveness. Hence, it is the device which would bring change in individual and GFI’s organizational life.

According to the interactionist perspective, tranquility, harmony, peace and cooperation might create apathy and can produce, a tolerance of the status quo, with a lack of responsiveness to the need for change and innovation in GFI’s. Hence, the interactionist ideology is that conflict should not only be tolerated but encourages the adoption of a minimum level of conflict that is enough level of conflict to make sure the group is viable, self-critical, and creative.

According to the radical view, organization is one of the theatres of war. This view emphasizes the disparity of power between the owners of the means of production (managers) and the workers. Conflict is about professional values, limited resources, career progress, and special privileges and so on. Therefore, Radical frame of reference on conflict views organizational conflict as an inevitable consequence of exploitative employment relations in a capitalist's economy (Costantino, C. A., and Merchant 1996).

Interactionists described GFI conflicts as functional or constructive and said to facilitate the attainment of company’s goal and to improve performance. Therefore, GFI organizational conflict can be considered as legitimate and unavoidable which is a positive indicator of effective organizational management and conflict within certain limits is essential to productivity.

The interactionist believes that just as the level of conflict may be too high and require a reduction and it is also often too low and in need of increased intensity because this organization that do not stimulate conflict increase the probability of stagnant thinking, poor decisions, and at the extreme, organizational failure.

4.1. Pondy's model support to GFI’s organizational conflict:

In 1967, Louis Pondy developed one of the most widely accepted models of organizational conflict. According to his view conflict is a dynamic process that consists of five sequential stages. It is not a matter how or why conflict arises in an organization, where manager can use Pondy's model to analyze a conflict and guide their attempts to manage it (Costantino, C. A., and Merchant 1996), the stage of perceived conflict begins when one party-individual (employees) or group becomes aware that its goals are being thwarted by the actions of another party. This is the point at which members become aware of problem. At this point, however, no one feels that anything they care about is actually being overtly threatened. During the stage of felt conflict, the parties in conflict develop negative feelings about each other. Here the parties become emotionally involved and begin to focus on differences of opinion and opposing interests, sharpening perceived conflict and stages as mentioned below:

4.1.1 Relative Stages for GFI conflict:

There are only two stages which have been required according to GFI’s organizational conflict as discussed below:

It is found from the above mentioned organizational conflict, GFI has many faces and it is a constant challenge for seniors who are responsible for achieving organizational goal. Given the potentially disruptive effects of conflict, seniors need to be sensitive to how it can be managed without affecting employees and organizational culture. When a potentially harmful conflict situation exists, a manager needs to engage in conflict resolution. Attention of this paper now turns resolution strategies of the organizational conflict.

5. Recommended Conflict Resolution Strategies for GFI:

There are many conflict resolution strategies which are available in theories but here I would consider those, which will be more efficient to this organization where it’s facing issues to their internal level with their employees’ and higher management. So, the few recommended resolution strategies as below (Lipsky, D. B., and Seeber, R. L. 1997):

ACCEPTANCE: Organization should accept their currently arisen issues then they can easily identify the problems that is often easier and less time taken i.e. in the short run, there would be more engaging strategies with issues identification.

DETACHMENT: One detaches from organizational conflict situation which may often lead to inner peace and a sense of freedom from being controlled organizational environment by other employees or external events.

SOCRATIC APPROACH: This approach can be used as questioning style to learn more about conflicts with the interpersonal relationship among employees where it’s a non-threaten way to gather the information which can help organization gain insight and understanding.

META-COMMUNICATION: There should be a focus on communication and/or relationship process rather than other stuffs of the organization that can stimulate discussion of underlying communication and/or relationship dynamics.

BLAMING/DEFENDING: Individual employee should understand the conflict issues, not only to defend themselves and/or blame others for the current conflicts that would allow everyone to express their point of view without having to take any responsibility for the conflict situation.

MAKING AMENDS: There should be environment or guidelines where individuals take their responsibility for their part in conflict situation and do something to make amends such as apologize the worst situations. Basically, it creates an increased sense of good will between or among participants in the conflict situation and often will open-up a path for dialogue and subsequent conflict resolution suggestions.

DIALOGUE: This process of give and take, will allow each side to raise and validate of points to be collaboratively examined within a context of trust and mutual desire for conflict resolution which will promote mutual understanding, intimacy and conflict resolution.

NEGOTIATION: There should be negotiation to employees for giving up the some of, what they want in order to reach a compromise acceptable to all.

CONFRONTATION: Expression of one point of view with little or no regard for those of others i.e. one point of view must be clearly expressed which usually provides cathartic release.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse W
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.