conflict in the workplace
Understanding Conflict Management in the Workplace
Identify causes of conflict at work
“Interpersonal conflict occurs between two or more persons when attitudes, motives, values, expectations or activities are incompatible and if those people perceive themselves to be in disagreement.” – Hunt 1982
It is safe to assume that in every workplace you are always going to get some kind of conflict from within. Conflict in the workplace can be caused by issues from groups, individuals or the organisation itself. It’s in everyone’s best interests to stop conflict as early as possible before a situation escalates.
Some potential causes of conflict are:
1. Power and Ego
2. Clashes of personality
3. When people have contrasting values and beliefs
4. Miscommunication
5. Underlying stress and tension
6. Unresolved disagreements
7. A breach of faith or trust between individuals Let’s look at a couple of the above examples.
Power and ego can cause major conflicts in the workplace due to people having different leadership styles e.g. authoritarian or democratic. Not all employees respond well to an authoritarian approach where they are told what to do as opposed to being able to have an input into how their jobs are done. This can cause them to feel demoralised and not appreciated meaning they no longer enjoy their jobs and the organisation do not get the best work out of them. Recent conflict at my workplace occurred when the door handle of one of our fork trucks kept getting broken and needed to be replaced hence causing unnecessary expense to the organisation. It was decided by myself that in order to stop this happening the door would be removed for a short period of time. This caused conflict because some members of the team felt that they were being punished for other peoples actions and couldn’t understand why it was not discussed with themselves first.
Contrasting values and belief can also cause conflict in our place of work when members of
Identify causes of conflict at work
“Interpersonal conflict occurs between two or more persons when attitudes, motives, values, expectations or activities are incompatible and if those people perceive themselves to be in disagreement.” – Hunt 1982
It is safe to assume that in every workplace you are always going to get some kind of conflict from within. Conflict in the workplace can be caused by issues from groups, individuals or the organisation itself. It’s in everyone’s best interests to stop conflict as early as possible before a situation escalates.
Some potential causes of conflict are:
1. Power and Ego
2. Clashes of personality
3. When people have contrasting values and beliefs
4. Miscommunication
5. Underlying stress and tension
6. Unresolved disagreements
7. A breach of faith or trust between individuals Let’s look at a couple of the above examples.
Power and ego can cause major conflicts in the workplace due to people having different leadership styles e.g. authoritarian or democratic. Not all employees respond well to an authoritarian approach where they are told what to do as opposed to being able to have an input into how their jobs are done. This can cause them to feel demoralised and not appreciated meaning they no longer enjoy their jobs and the organisation do not get the best work out of them. Recent conflict at my workplace occurred when the door handle of one of our fork trucks kept getting broken and needed to be replaced hence causing unnecessary expense to the organisation. It was decided by myself that in order to stop this happening the door would be removed for a short period of time. This caused conflict because some members of the team felt that they were being punished for other peoples actions and couldn’t understand why it was not discussed with themselves first.
Contrasting values and belief can also cause conflict in our place of work when members of