Organizational conflicts: how to manage?

With the advent of mankind, conflicts also appeared - situations where people have opposing views on the solution of the same problem. Clash of interests occurs in any area of ​​human life: at work, at home, in transport, on the street, at school and other social places. Therefore, we must be able to really assess the conflict situation, see what it brings - negative or positive, and resolve it in a timely manner.

The beginning of a conflict

Recently, much attention has been paid to resolving organizational conflicts, since overly strained relations between employees can interfere with the normal development of the enterprise.

The conflict erupts gradually, and in order to repay it in time, you need to know the signs of its occurrence.

There are such signs of conflict:

• a situation appears that is perceived by the participants as conflicting;
• the impossibility of sharing the subject of conflict between the participants;
• desire to continue and develop a conflict situation.

There are several types of conflicts, among them - organizational conflicts that appear in the labor process between employees.

Types of Conflict

Controversial situations are manifested in different ways. To better resolve them, there is a classification of ongoing conflicts.

There are such types of organizational conflicts:

1. Vertical - when a conflict occurs between levels of government. Most often this is the distribution of power, influence.
2. Horizontal - at the level of people with the same status. Most often caused by a mismatch in the goals, objectives and methods of solving them.
3. Linear-functional - a conflict between a manager and specialists.
4. Role - playing - performing roles does not coincide with the expectations of the person. The number of tasks (roles) may be greater than the employee is able to physically perform.

Conflict structure

The structure of the organizational conflict consists of several elements combined into one integral system. It contains the subject and object of the conflict.

A subject is a real or imagined problem that causes disagreement between the parties to the conflict. That is, this is what provokes the conflict itself. To get out of a conflict situation, you need to clearly see the subject.

An object is what you want to get as a result of conflict resolution. It can be any object of the material, social or spiritual world.

Material values ​​can be, for example, money, things, real estate, capital. Social - power, new status, increased authority, responsibility. The spiritual include ideas, principles, norms.

In any organization, there are conflicts, without them the creative process is impossible. If a team exists in conflict-free situations, this may mean that nothing new is happening here: new ideas are not generated, there is no initiative, and in a competitive environment this can be fatal.

What causes a conflict?

The appearance of a controversial situation is preceded by the occurrence of the subject of the dispute.

The causes of organizational conflicts can be divided into two groups:

• interpersonal relationships in the organization;
• dissatisfaction with the structure, functionality, structure of the organization.

When a person gets a job, he enters into a relationship with people new to him. Being at the workplace and performing his duties, the employee may feel dissatisfaction with the circumstances surrounding him, which will result in an organizational conflict.

Conflict situations cause such problems:

• lack of resources to carry out their duties;
• dissatisfaction with the internal structure of the organization;
• the profit of workers depends on the volume of work performed, while there is competition between them;
• role conflict;
• changes in the organization: technical, organizational and others;
• the employee’s duties do not clearly state for what and what he is responsible for.

Conflict situations

Let us consider in more detail the causes of organizational conflicts.

• Lack of resources to carry out their duties. Performing duties at his workplace, a person wants to receive the full amount of resources he needs for this. Moreover, usually the distribution of resources comes from the maximum needs of the employee, so everyone tries to show that they are more important to him now, that his work is more significant for the enterprise and will bring more benefits. In this regard, organizational conflicts flare up.

• Dissatisfaction with the internal structure of the organization. Each organization has a structure. Performing their functions, departments form a relationship. At the same time, everyone is trying to get the maximum benefit for his unit. For example, you need to take a new employee, and the finance department reduces the budget. This will result in a contentious situation between the personnel department and the financial department.

• Profit of workers depends on the volume of work performed, while there is competition between them. This problem is relevant for organizations in which the employee's salary depends on the implementation of the plan (for example, an insurance, sales plan). In such cases, each employee tries to “pull” customers onto himself in order to make a big profit. Relations in the organization become strained, as a result of a conflict.

• Conflict of roles. Each employee fulfills his role in the enterprise, and expects the fulfillment of duties from other employees. However, their views on the roles played by each other may not coincide.

• Changes in the organization: technical, organizational and others. A person is wary of any changes, especially if they occur at the workplace. An employee who has a long experience will be in disbelief to perceive new products at work, it is more familiar and easier to work according to the old rules. Therefore, if the management wants to change the old way, improve the material and technical base, this may result in a protest of workers.

• The employee’s duties do not clearly state for what and what he is responsible for. If inside the organization people do not clearly know how responsibility is distributed, then in the event of unpleasant situations, the fault will be transferred by them to each other. Therefore, a good manager should clearly draw up a list of responsibilities of each employee and assign them responsibility for specific situations.

Interpersonal Causes of Conflict

The team of any organization consists of people with different temperaments, outlooks on life, habits. Therefore, being in close and constant contact with each other, employees enter into interpersonal conflicts.

Causes of organizational conflicts:

• Biased attitude. There are situations when two people are unjustly treating each other because of personal antipathy, although this has nothing to do with the labor process. If one of them has more power (the boss), then he can unfairly reduce wages or apply penalties to a subordinate. In this case, the relationship between them will constantly be in a state of conflict.

• Violation of the territory. When working, a person gets used to his workplace, environment, department. And situations when they decide to transfer an employee to another department can cause irritation on the part of the employee, reluctance to change the situation and the usual staff.

• There is a person in the organization who simply provokes conflicts . There are people who seem to specifically attract conflicts to their relationships with others. The reason may lie in their high self-esteem and desire to show that they are the most worthy.

Four common conflict groups

Organizational and managerial causes of conflicts are associated with the functionality of the organization. There are four general groups for the development of conflict situations:

1. Structural and organizational.
2. Functional and organizational.
3. Personally-functional.
4. Situational management.

The first type of reason arises when the structure of the organization does not correspond to the tasks being performed. Ideally, it should be designed for the tasks that the institution will be engaged in. If the structure is designed incorrectly and does not correspond to the tasks being performed, then a structural-organizational conflict develops in the team.

It is necessary to approach the creation of the organization structure carefully, especially if the sphere of activity is constantly changing at the enterprise. This should be considered.

Functional and organizational reasons appear in case of violation of the organization’s relations with the external environment, disagreements between departments, employees.

If the qualification of the employee does not meet the requirements of his position or the performance of work duties does not meet his moral standards, personal qualities, then this will cause a conflict with personal and functional reasons.

Situational and managerial causes of conflicts appear when managers or subordinates make mistakes when completing work tasks. If the management decision was initially made with an error, then it will not work out correctly. This will provoke a conflict between the employees who performed it. Organizational and managerial conflict may occur when setting unrealistic tasks.

Types of Conflict Resolution

Methods for resolving organizational conflicts can be grouped into three groups:

1. One - sided - one side suppresses the second.
2. Compromise - each of the parties makes concessions, and they stop at the moment when the decision satisfies both.
3. Integrative - the problem is solved by a new developed option. Moreover, each side considers this invention to be its own.

However, only the third method is able to completely resolve the controversial situation. In the first two groups, the conflict will remain anyway, just to a lesser extent.

Ways to Get Out of Conflict

Organizational conflict management can be carried out by creating such situations:

• Transfer of conflict to the interpersonal level. This practice makes it easier to resolve the conflict. In practice, it looks like this: small groups are formed, with approximately the same number of participants in the conflict. Psychologists begin to collaborate with them. Using various techniques, psychologists suggest that participants consider what more the conflict will bring to the development of the enterprise: positive or negative. Is the subject of dispute so important in order to arrange a conflict? Specialists also conduct various exercises from social trainings, for example, such as role exchange; learn to self-reflect. This allows you to calm and relax employees, forcing them to reconsider their views on the conflict situation.

However, the complexity of this method is that when groups return to their jobs, they can succumb to the majority and become embroiled in conflict again.

• Addressing the periphery of the conflict. This appeal to less involved in a conflict situation participants. Under the influence of the majority of employees who are not involved in the dispute, the conflict will begin to fade itself, since it will not receive new “outbreaks”.

• Legal decision mechanisms. Conflicts are resolved using legal mechanisms: official orders, orders, decrees.

• Organizational methods. These include: change of leader, identification of informal leaders.

Conversation with employees

To prevent organizational conflicts of the organization, it is necessary to periodically interview employees to find out what they lack to fulfill their responsibilities, what new things they can offer to improve the functionality of the enterprise. Especially relevant will be polls for upcoming innovations.

If the organization has an extreme situation, there is no time to resolve the conflict and an urgent decision must be made, then you can use the power method - introduce a management decision that the manager considers necessary. However, do not abuse it, because disputes arise between employees and the manager.

Conclusion

As conflicts arose along with humanity, they became an integral part of social life. Organizational conflicts can both improve the organization’s activities, for example, by introducing new ideas, improving the work process, and stop its development due to the high degree of conflict in the team: employees will be busy only solving their problems and will ignore production issues.

Therefore, company management must be able to timely and correctly resolve organizational conflicts. The correctly found way to resolve the controversial situation will bring new ways of development for the organization, ideas and at the same time maintain a friendly team.