Conflict Management Assignment.doc 433e60

IDENTIFY A CONFLICT AREA IN YOUR COMPANY AND PROFFER (GIVE) PRACTICAL CONFLICT RESOLUTION IDEAS. Conflict at some levels has been deemed undesirable and detrimental to the organization’s performance while some level of conflict on the other hand has been discovered to be a positive factor to the organization. It is against such a background that this discussion seeks to identify a conflict area in my organization (ZPC) and give practical solutions to it. This discussion will focus on departmental conflicts which usually arise because of the shared nature of our work and the shared resources. The discussion will examine the causes of departmental conflict and its impacts to the organization and recommend possible solutions to addressing it. Several examples will be cited as the essay progresses. Conflict is natural, and it can be simply referred to as a situation in which two parties want different things from the same situation. Conflict is defined in Webster’s dictionary (1983) as sharp disagreements or opposition of interests or ideas. It can reduce morale, lower productivity and increase absenteeism. Conflict can enhance or hinder performance but this all depends on how it is handled by both management and other employees. Conflict between departments is common in parastatals such as the Zimbabwe Power Company. The fact that these organizations have various departments that share scarce resources is one particular area that has potential for causing conflicts among departments. Departmental Conflict is not only a threat to individual employee’s performance but has the potential to threaten the whole organization’s performance. In today’s business it is paramount that organizations channel their resources towards market domination rather than internal strife exhibited through departmental conflicts which usually often come with a heavy financial cost to the organization. According to McComick(2002), many organizations that have a stable and balanced workforce which work as a team are better able to withstand competitors’ onslaught than those that are characterized by conflict. This is ed by Davis 1993 who through his studies managed to establish that there is indeed a relationship between conflict and employee work performance. Davis 1993 also concurs with the above views when saying workplace conflict is certainly a cost proposition for organisations all over the world.

In ZPC Conflict between departments exists in various forms for example, departments at times blame each other for various issues such as the delay in provision of spares, delay in starting the first levels of the job or lack of provision of manpower in time. The issue of departmental conflict at ZPC Kariba is causing high levels of employee frustrations; decrease in productivity, and in west cases leading to violence and some leaving the organisation. According to Hart(2002), there are many causes of departmental conflicts which can affect employee performance in an organization. The causes are needs, personality clashes, power, values, communication, perception and feeling of emotions. Needs for example are essential to our well-being, conflicts arise in ZPC and other organizations when we ignore others employees’ needs, our own needs or the group’s needs. The conflicts are often fueled by emotions and perceptions about somebody else’s motives and character, for example, we have experienced cases where supervisors are quick to act on employees who for example report for work late because he/she views the team member as being lazy or ineffective and disrespect full. On the other hand the team member sees the supervisor as out to get him/her because he/she is not one of the ‘favored” ones Employees in different departments usually hold different values with their colleagues from other departments. Hart (2002) highlights that, values are beliefs or principles employees/people consider being very important. Serious conflicts arise when people hold incompatible values or when values are not clear. Conflicts also arise when one party refuses to accept the fact that the other party holds something of value. It is common in ZPC for employees from different departments to value a certain mode of transport which might be different from that being used by other departments. In most cases attempts to change the mode of transport has resulted in conflicts among departments. Conflict may stem from poor communication in which one party misinterprets the words or action of the other party. Communication problems in ZPC departments are manufactured when departments are competing for resources or when they are having unique subcultures. For example Perception which is regarded as viewing of one department as more valuable to the organization than others has often in many cases resulted in the building of resentment and

conflict. It should also be noted that ZPC as a workplace consists of individuals who all have their own perspective of the world. Some employees have strong beliefs, which they are not willing to compromise. These beliefs can conflict with coworkers’, creating conflict. For example, if one individual strongly opposes workplace diversity, he may have trouble accepting other workers different from him whether in the same or different departments. Despite the organization having the same goal,it often a common scenario that individuals within those departments might prioritize different interests. When an employee decides to pursue his /her own career goals, without regard for the organizational goals and its well-being, it results in strife among the coworkers. This occurs when the employee becomes so focused on achieving their own objectives, disregards how it affects others within the company and the company itself. For instance, one may “forget” that one is a part of a team, in which the goal is to work together on a specific assignment. No two people are exactly alike. Therefore, personality clashes in the workplace are unavoidable. One employee may have a reserved personality while another may be more outgoing and forward. Problems arise when the two do not understand or respect each others' inner nature. For instance, the more extroverted employee may feel slighted if the more introverted worker doesn’t talk to him much. He may perceive it as a slight, rather than it simply being the employee’s personality. Furthermore, his approach to handling projects may be analytical while hers is intuitive. When the two do not understand and respect each others' approach, conflict occurs. Poor communication leads to misunderstanding and strife among departments and employees. Due t o the nature of our work we have employees from various backgrounds and different training. For instance, misunderstandings can occur if the manager asks one employee to relay important instructions to the other employees, but the employee fails to do so appropriately. Conveying wrong information can lead to projects being incorrectly done and to employees blaming each other for the end result. Competition over limited resources is another notable cause of departmental conflicts. For example the issue of sharing vehicles between departments and individuals is a common cause of conflicts between departments in ZPC..Furthermore bad supervision in departments leaves staff

to do as they wish to the detriment of other department. The Lack of role clarity when some individuals’ think they can do every task in the organization, they cannot keep to their roles also create conflict. Ingram (2004) argues that conflict is inevitable in businesses. Conflict can arise from a variety of sources, and between supervisors and subordinates, between co-workers, and between employees and customers. Managers and organizations can choose to see conflict as inherently negative, acting to suppress it at every opportunity, or as inherently positive, leveraging conflict to affect positive change. There are various methods that can be used to address departmental conflicts in organizations an these include; Positive Perspective; Grievance Procedure; Get to the Cause; Equal Voices and Resolution Participation. The positive perspective approach involves organizations accepting conflict as a natural growth process and influence the company culture to view constructive conflict positively. Conflict can be an asset to business if it is handled properly. It can help the organization to learn from its mistakes and identify areas of needed improvement. Innovation can be inspired from creative solutions to internal or external conflicts, and new ways of thinking can emerge. The organization should create a formal grievance procedure for all employees. It should be mandatory for employees at all levels of the organization to know that their voices will always be heard, and respond promptly and reasonably to employees issues. This can prevent bad feelings from festering and growing into resentment and bitterness. Through this conflict is best handled quickly and openly. If the company culture is sufficiently friendly toward constructive conflict, the staff should see the value of letting their complaints, ideas and issues be heard. The get to the cause approach entails organisations focusing on deep-rooted causes rather than superficial effects when assessing conflicts. Parties to a conflict often claim to have issues with the behavior of co-workers or the outcome of company policies and work procedures, but these issues are likely being caused by something deeper. Attempting to resolve the conflict by addressing surface issues will rarely create meaningful change or lasting solutions.

The

company should look deeper to address the reasons that incidents occur. As an example, if a supervisor finds himself constantly in conflict with a loyal employee due to falling productivity

levels, the supervisor may naturally want to address the employee’s behavior head-on. Upon closer analysis, however, the supervisor may realize that the employee has been increasingly dissatisfied with his job ever since last year’s disappointing performance review. Revisiting the review with the employee may be much more effective than creating incremental performance goals for him. The equal voices approach gives all parties to a conflict an equal voice, regardless of their position, length of service or political influence. Conflict participants can become defensive if they feel they are being marginalized or are going through a process leading to a predetermined outcome. It can be tempting to take the word of managers over front-line employees, or to take the word of a loyal employee over a new employee, but that the most trusted associates are not necessarily infallible. The organization should go beyond simply giving everyone an equal chance to speak; give their arguments an equal weight in people mind when mediating a conflict. Under resolution participation,there should be involvement of all parties, if possible, when drafting conflict resolutions. The theory of Management By Objectives (MBO) states that employees are generally more committed to goals that they have helped to create. The same holds true for conflict resolutions. There is more than one side to every conflict, and all sides should benefit from conflict resolution. The organization should seek resolutions that will prevent the conflict from occurring again, rather than simply delaying a repeat occurrence.

Conflicts are part of life human nature and it is extremely important to study if it not only for theoretical purposes but also for organizational practice according to Journal of Business and Organisation studies 10(1):22-28. According to Henry, O (2009) though conflict is often viewed as negative, it is capable of increasing organizational innovativeness and productivity, thereby improving organizational performance. If conflicts are managed properly by applying the best course of action, the organisation would increase performance in of utilizing the scarce resources and achieving the organisational objectives.Conflict improves decision making outcomes, especially on task-related conflict and

group productivity by increasing the quality through constructive criticism and individuals adopting a devils advocate role. Research has also found that task related conflict is beneficial to the organisation since it allows the exchange of ideas and assist better performance amongst the group . Other benefits include improved group learning and accuracy in situation assessment promoted the development of new ideas and approaches and achieve high quality decisions since individuals confront problems As such managers must possess an understanding of human behavior to deal with conflict in department. Most managers have very little knowledge of the conflict that exists between the departments in their organization and the effect that such conflict has to individual performance. Rather these managers focus more on the overall organization performance. In conclusion, the Zimbabwe Power Company is a unique national entity in that it is the sole producer of electricity for the nation. It is vital for such an entity to continuously channel its efforts towards the producing of electricity as a unified entity with all departments pulling in the same direction. Conflict though undesirable it should be known that it is impossible to completely do away with it hence the need to manage it effectively.