Conflict Management

Conflicts are commonly occurring phenomenon in organizations. They are impossible to avoid but it is possible to manage them if they are duly recognized. In spite of negative consequences of conflict, it can be an excellent ground for accomplishment of better business results. Throughout the years, conflict has been viewed differently by people. Traditional view of conflict believes that conflict should be avoided as well as people who make the conflict so that the work performance can be satisfactory. Human relations view is one in which conflict is accepted because of the belief that it will eventually lead to better performance. Interactionist view is one which is still represented today is based on the premise that conflicts should be encouraged because it has positive effects on creativity and innovation by the employees. Some of the reasons why conflicts occur in organization include the following: disparate personalities, improper communication, unclear working duties and unrealistic expectations from employees. After identifying the reasons for conflict, organization must understand how conflicts develop in the first place. The process of conflict shows us development of relationships between the sides involved in conflict. The process of conflict consists of four stages. The first stage is called latent stage in which certain characteristics like communication, structure and personal variables can create conflict. For example, lack of communication can produce conflict as a consequence. The cognition and personalization is the second stage in which first phase factor impacts the perception of the participants and encourage them to enter into a conflict. In the third stage known as conflict manifestation, there is open disagreement between participants. The last stage is the conflict outcome which shows us the further relationship development of the participants in conflict and consequences of conflict.

Thorough understanding of the conflict process helps organization in forming and improving conflict management strategies. Managers, therefore play a key role as they are responsible for developing new tactics and strategies for conflict resolution. Various approaches of conflict management used by managers are: Dominance (by this strategy conflict is resolved in a way to satisfy the needs of one party and damaging the other party involved in the conflict), Integration (in this strategy we try to solve conflict without causing any damage to any party), Compromise (conflict is resolved with each party giving up the part of the value), Avoiding (conflict is resolved by withdrawal or repression of conflict) , Cooperativeness (the conflict is resolved by putting the other party's interests before its own). When we study the relationship between the level of conflict and the level of organizational performance, we find that conflict in varying degrees can have varying effects on the organization. Low level of conflict results in