Conflict Resolution Strategies in Organizations

This assignment delves into the realm of conflict resolution within organizations. It examines different types of conflicts, their impact on organizational functioning, and a range of strategies employed to manage and resolve them effectively. The discussion encompasses theoretical frameworks like intergroup conflict theory and practical approaches such as negotiation, mediation, and conflict transformation.

EMPLOYEE RELATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1.1 The unitary and pluralistic frames of references............................................................1
P1.2 Trade unionism have affected employees relationships.................................................2
P1.3 Role of key main player in employee relation...............................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P2.1 Procedure of solving the conflict situation in the company...........................................4
P2.2 key feature of employee relation in Intergroup conflict situation .................................5
P2.3 Effectiveness of procedure in intergroup conflict situation ..........................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P3.1 Role of negotiation in collective bargaining..................................................................6
P3.2 Impact of negotiation strategy........................................................................................7
TASK 4 ...........................................................................................................................................8
P4.1 Influences of the EU on industrial democracy in the UK..............................................8
P4.2 Methods to be used to gain employee participation and involvement in decision making
process in the company..........................................................................................................9
P4.3 Impact of human resource management on employee relations .................................10
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

Illustration Index
Illustration 1: levels of conflicts in organization.............................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Employee relation is the vital role in the company. Good and efficient relation of the
employees will affect the firm’s performance. Apple Inc. is the fast-growing entity in the world.
This organization provides good quality product and services to the customers such as mobiles. It
develops the product based on the customer needs. This report includes different frames of
references, trade union, conflict situations of the company. There are different type of strategy
and approaches such as smoothing, compromising that is used by this firm. To maintain the
employee relation, they need to motivate the employee, give authorities, effective environment,
efficient resources to the employee.
TASK 1
P1.1 The unitary and pluralistic frames of references
Manager has the responsibilities to handle and manage the employees in the company
because by managing the employees in the organization then only the firm can achieve the
desired goal. Every manager needs to maintain the relationship with all the team member in the
firm. To maintain high productivity and increase the brand recognition of the appropriate product
then they need to manage the good and efficient relationship with the employee. These
responsibilities are taken by the HR manager they only recruit the employees in the firm. The
manager follows the efficient and appropriate relationship with the employee to achieve the
desired objective (Pruitt, 2013). The manager follows the frames to manage the employee in the
company.
Unitary frame
This frame is used by the Apple Inc. company this is the large level of marketing in the
world. This frame considers the attributes, values, assumptions and practices that is related to the
management and firm membership. In this frame employees has the power to take decisions in
the firm to increase the productivity of the products and the services. These approaches is used
by the Apple Inc. Because it is the fast growing entity in the world. This organization follows
this approaches to increase the efficiency and to reach the desired goal (Ting‐Toomey, 2015).
This strategy is only based on the employee attitude and behaviour that is conflicted by
the manager. Every employee has the power to take the decision in the firm to get the objective.
In the company there are many departments and each department has own teams to work
1

together to get the goal. Every team member gives the opinion and share the suggestion to make
an efficient solution for the appropriate problem.
Pluralistic frame
In this frame the company divides the fir into two different parts one is powerful and
another one is sub groups. Each and every group has their own loyalty about the work and also
has the respect to their objects and the head. There are two main sub groups one is management
and the another one is trade unions. These two groups are has different values and goals. These
has various strategies and approaches to solve the problem and this the better frame to manage
the employee relationship with the manger (Sood, 2012).
P1.2 Trade unionism have affected employee’s relationships
Trade union is the combination or workers who has the ability to take efficient decision
for the firm and also has the responsibilities to manage the employee opinion for the problem.
They have the capability to protect the integrity of the trade, improve the safety needs and
standards and get higher pay and benefits such as increment in number of employees and health
care etc. the employee has good and efficient ability to take decisions based on the customer
needs. Trade union is developed to support the management and the staff members (Adhau,
Mittal and Mittal, 2012).
The main objective of the trade union is that in which they provide the protection to the
company employees top take good and appropriate decision during the changes in the legally,
terotechnological and politically. These factors are affect the firm employees so that trade union
provides the security to the staff members in the organization. The main objective of the trade
union is that it provides the higher security to the workers, secure power to the influence
management and also secure power to the determinative government (Mircică, 2014).
This provides the protection to the employees in the organization. Apple Inc. has efficient
trade union to manage the employee relationship with employer. The trade union provides the
functions to the Apple Inc. as follows:
 To secure the wages to the employee’s
 To enlarge the opportunities for training, development and promotion.
 To provide effective working culture in the company.
 To promote effective and clustered welfare.
2

This all are the function of the trade union that is provided to the firm. This unionism
affects the employees relationships and the performance of the entity in the market. This
organization has the unique and effective trade union in the company. Unionism affects the
company when there are changes in the three factors such as technological, legal and political
because they these factors affect the firm performance and the employee relationships (Dasgupta,
Suar and Singh, 2012).
Legal
This is the main factor that affect the employee relation because there are a little changes
in the legalization. Recently in Apple Inc. applies new rules, lows and regulations for the
employees (Fisher, 2016). So this condition conflict the relationship between the employee and
the employer.
Technological
This changing factor also create the conflict between the employee and the management.
Apple company launched new features in the phone in the market. So this is the difficulty to
understand the new techniques to developed the features.
P1.3 Role of key main player in employee relation
This firm has many key players that is maintained the employee relation in the company.
Each and every member of the firm has the responsibilities to maintain the relationship with the
employee. They have many key players to manage the employee relationship such as manager,
workers, leaders, Government agencies etc. these all have the responsibilities to create good an
efficient relationship with the company employees (Fisher, Kelman and Nan, 2013).
Leader
Leader is the main key player of the firm because they only satisfy the employee needs.
Based on the employee needs they give the appropriate services to the workers. Head of the
Apple Inc. firm provides the effective environment to the workers to produce the good quality of
the product.
Manager
The manager manages the employee working style. They provide the appropriate
facilities to work together in the company. The manager has the responsibilities to motivate the
employee in different way.
3

 To encourage the employee for work.
 To provide positive feedback about work.
 To give efficient environment to the employees.
Government agencies
The company provides the efficient and beneficial lows to maintain the relationship with
the employee. These agencies provide the appropriate lows such as low machinery rate, child
labour low etc. this firm applies different types of policies for the employee to achieve the
desired goal (van Wilgen and Richardson, 2012).
TASK 2
P2.1 Procedure of solving the conflict situation in the company
There are many types of conflicts that can be occur in the company. These are
interpersonal, intra personal, intergroup and intergroup conflicts. This all have different types of
characteristic to affect the employee relationships. The Apple Inc. has Intergroup conflict which
is the most affect the firm performance and as well as the employee relationship in the company.
This conflict is that in which there are misunderstanding between the teams within the firm.
Employees has the problems and issues with the other team members in the organization (Askari
and et.al., 2012). In this entity there is a conflict better the research and development and the
production departments. There are four levels of approaches that is organizational, intergroup,
interpersonal and intra individual. As per the scenario intergroup conflict has been chosen.
4

They have the problems of customer demands and how to produce a perfect product for
the client. Different customer has various demands that in the mobile such as new features, high
battery performance, low rate of the mobile, advanced features etc. these all are the demands of
the consumers. The production department has lack of direction of how to produce a good
quality product to the client and the research and development department has idea to invent the
product based on the client demand but that was not good enough to maintain the brand
recognition in the market (Halperin, 2014). The procedure for solve the conflict situation as
follows:
5
Illustration 1: levels of conflicts in organization
Source: intergroup conflict

1. Set the scene: First employees needs to separate the problem from personal issue. Give
attention to each employee and listen carefully the opinions that will help to get desired
method to produce the product according to the customers (Galtung and Fischer, 2013).
2. Collect information: All teams needs to collect the information regarding to the
customer needs. First identify the issue, listen carefully and find appropriate solutions.
3. Agree to the problem: Department need to create a good and efficient environment to
the employees and agree with actual problem and find the appropriate solution.
4. Possible and appropriate solutions: Company needs to find the solutions that they can
reduce the conflict problem. Be open at all the innovative ideas, move quickly, listing
every idea and expand the ideas that is generated by the other employees in the company.
These all are the tips for succeeding brainstorming.
P2.2 key feature of employee relation in Intergroup conflict situation
The conflicts in the firm can reduce the productivity and the performance of the company
in the market. The conflicts affect the employees relationships in the firm because they have the
problems with the groups in the organization. The company needs to maintain the employee
relationship by apply some efficient strategies. The intergroup conflict is occurred in the Apple
Inc. and the solution is to follow the structured steps that will give the advantage to the entity
(Galtung, and Fischer, 2013). There is some conflict between the production and the research
team. Based on the customer needs they are not able to find the appropriate solution to re
produce the item in the market. Some of the key features as follows:
Employee not satisfied with the team leader
This factor affects the employee relation because the team member is not satisfied with
the team leader of the particular department. The team leader is not efficient and not capable to
provide the appropriate facilities to the member. In Apple Inc. there is not open environment for
the members to give the suggestions, opinion for the particular problem. The employee is not
satisfied with the team leader because the team leader not provided the efficient resources, no
good working culture, not authority for giving the suggestions to the head. So they have lack of
confidence they feel like they are not the part of the company (Gupta and Kumar, 2012). The
team leader should be good enough for the employee then only they can maintain a healthy
relationship with other employee. The main objective of the leader should be give appropriate
services to the employees.
6

Dissatisfied with the company
The employees are not satisfied with the internal environment of the firm. The manager
has the responsibilities to provide facilities and efficient facilities to the members. The employee
are not able to give suggestion and views to the team leader for the problem. Some employees of
the company is not satisfied with the services that is provided to them. The firm manager should
give the authority to give suggestion, opinions for the appropriate problem. They can also feel
they are important for achieve the objective of the company. The behaviour and the attitude of
the manager must be good to the employee.
P2.3 Effectiveness of procedure in intergroup conflict situation
The conflict can affect the company performance in the market. In the Apple Inc. entity
there is an intergroup conflict situation between the production and the research and
development department. For this situation the firm follows the resolution steps to reduce the
problem of conflict. The organization provides the efficient environment to the employees in
both the departments. Team leader takes the suggestions from the team members and then re
produce the particular item in the market.
The steps for solving the conflict is the efficient and effective I the organization. This will
give more advantage to the firm to get the desired goal. The way of solving the conflict in this
company is very efficient. By apply these steps and strategies they get the good relationship of
the employees in the company (Williams and Horodnic, 2015). 2 month are given to the HRM to
solve the conflict. The HRM manages the employees' relationship in the firm and also
responsible to solve these kinds of problems. This intergroup conflict between the team members
of other department such as not satisfied with the team leader, no effective environment,
differences between the employees etc.
Through this conflict the Apple Inc. take the decisions to reduce the conflict between the
employees. This company applies the strategies such as smoothing and compromising to
improve the efficiency of the organization. Conflict affects the overall performance. To maintain
the employee relation company needs to follow the structure of the conflict resolution process
that will give the advantages to the organization. This involves the employees in decision making
system to improve the employee relation.
7

TASK 3
P3.1 Role of negotiation in collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is the process of negotiation in between the management and the
workers of the company. This provides the efficient way to take good and appropriate decision of
the firm. The negotiation is the process of discussing something with someone for the terms,
conditions and agreement which is beneficial for the firm growth. The role of the negotiation in
the company is more important because the firm needs to discuss the agreement and then only
they can decide the agreement of the organization. The role of negotiation in collective
bargaining is as follows:
Negotiation help to the leader to take decisions
The leader of the enterprise has the two main responsibilities one is to coordination the
actions of the team and the other one is to provide the main face of the actions of the negotiate
teams. The leader has the authority to take decisions in the company. They take the good and
efficient decision for the firm (Zheng and et.al., 2015).
Negotiations help to improve the efficiency of the collective bargaining
The negotiation is the process in which it provides an efficient an effective way to take
decision for the agreement. This process provides the way in which can easily solve the problem
of the confit. Company has intergroup conflict that affect the overall company performance.
They have the intergroup conflict between the departments. Negotiation is the process in
which this provides the way of solving the conflict in the firm. This will help to maintain the
employee relation in the organization. This will also help to the increase the performance in the
industry. Collective bargaining is the agreement that is to be derived by the employee and the
employer. The way of creating and managing the agreement in the company is effective.
Collective bargaining is the agreement which includes terms and condition for the particular
conflict as well the terms and conditions for the employment (Schoemmel and S. Jønsson, 2014).
P3.2 Impact of negotiation strategy
Impact of the negotiation is effective on the employee because it provides the way to
solve the conflicts in the firm. This will provide the effective and efficient solution to the
appropriate problem. In Apple Inc. company there is one conflict that is intergroup conflict in
which one department of the entity has the conflict with the other departments of the firm. To
8

remove this conflict they need to create some efficient agreement and solutions for the conflict.
There are many strategies to solve the conflict problem in the firm. Compromising, forcing and
smoothing is the negotiation strategies that companies follows.
All strategies of the negotiation has the different characteristics to manage the conflict.
Each have various techniques to solve the appropriate problem in the company. This
management is managed by the HR because they only are responsible for the solutions. Apple
Inc. company follows the smoothing strategies because this strategy only give the appropriate
solution to the company. The main objective of this approaches is that every member can give
their own view to the team leader. This firm has the conflict between the production and the
research and development department. There is a problem between the team members because
they do not have the idea to produce the item in the market based on the customer needs. So that
this strategy is the best and suitable for the conflict (Pruitt, 2013). In this negotiate strategy all
the team members have the right to give the appropriate opinion and the suggestions to the team
leader for the particular problem. This firm applies this approach to solve this type of conflict
condition. By apply this strategy in the company this will give the efficient results to the
enterprise. Because in this strategy every team member can give the opinion and every member
can communicate to the other teams of the other departments. So the production team member
can directly communicate with the production team member without any restriction. They also
can give the ideas to the leader. In this firm they have the problem with the group of other
department so this is the suitable strategy for the particular conflict.
TASK 4
P4.1 Influences of the EU on industrial democracy in the UK
Industrial democracy is the type of an agreement in which it involves the employee
decision making, share the opinions and has the authority and the capability in the workplace. In
some of the Europe countries the structure of the industrial democracy is good enough but the
idea behind this democracy do not fit well with the aggressive relationship that are existed
between the managers and the employers. In Europe countries they do not have the good
employee relationship in the company. The European legislation motivates the employee for
their roles and responsibilities in the firm. They also have the power of the decisions making
process (Ting‐Toomey, 2015). I British industry there is a EU influence so they invent the
9

efficient relationship that is partner based relationship. In this type of relationship the unions and
the management works together to achieve the desired goal.
As a result employee involvement in the decision making system, they feel like they also
have the responsibilities to contribute in the work to get the goal. The role of the work is to be
discuss the long term goal for the business objectives and apply the efficient and effective
strategies in the company. These strategies give the higher performance of the firm and also
increase the productivity of the product and the services in the market. These schemes and the
approaches gives the efficient benefit in UK companies, they take the decisions from the
employee suggestions and opinions (Lumineau and Henderson, 2012).
For maintain the relationship between the employee and the employer the most and good
strategy is to communicate with the member and take the ideas from them. In UK there is a lot of
companies they take the decisions according to their customer needs and provide the services
based on the client needs. Involvement of the employee in the decision making this is most
beneficial for the company growth because they feel like they are also the part of the
organization and they are also the authority to take decisions in the firm. The main objective of
Apple Inc. is that in which they involve the employees in decision making system to maintain the
employee relation (Mircică, 2014). To maintain the relation with the employee then company
needs to motivate the employee, give high security, involve in decision making system and
provide open environment for work.
P4.2 Methods to be used to gain employee participation and involvement in decision making
process in the company
There are many strategies to involve the employee in the decision making system. Apple
Inc. use the strategies such as attitude survey. In this approach they take the views from the
interviews and questionnaire.
Quality circle is the another strategies to involve the employee in the decision making
system. In this strategy, they collect the information through the management and then they
consider the problem based on the information that is provides by the top-level management.
This is the best way to remove the problem in the organization. This approach gives the chances
for those employees that have the good knowledge of the problems' solution skills.
Another one is the suggestion strategy, in this strategy employee can give their
suggestion to the management (Fisher, 2016). How they can run the company in different way.
10

How they can produce the product in another way like that opinions they can give directly to the
management. This technique is very efficient for improve the performance of the firm. Apple
Inc. follows this strategy to involve the employee in the decision-making system.
The last technique is that in which the employee can directly involve in the decision
making system process and give their own opinion and the suggestions for the entity. These all
are the strategies to involve the employee in decision making system. All have the different
methods to maintain the relationship between the employees and the employer efficiently.
P4.3 Impact of human resource management on employee relations
Decision making system has vital role in the firm because it directly affects the
organization overall performance. If they want to increase the productivity and the performance
of the firm in the market then entity needs to take decisions fast according to the customer needs.
HRM is the main key of the firm. This manages all the employees in the firm they only provide
the training and development to the employee.
HRM is the base of the firm they provide the policies for work, salary, environment for
work etc. if they are not providing the good and efficient policies and rules for work then the
employee cannot survive in the enterprises. HR responsibilities are recruit new employees,
selection, training and development etc. these all are the functions of the HR in the company.
HR provides the policies for the employee in the entity (Askari and et.al., 2012). For
maintaining the relationship between the employees firm needs to give appropriate and efficient
environment to the employees. If sometime employee needs for particular problem they provides
efficient training to the employees. On the other hand HR manger can more potential to
encourage and motivates the employee in the company. The internal environment is more
important for employees to maintain the relationship with the other employees. Apple Inc. has
the conflict with other department that is called intergroup conflict. That conflict affects the
overall firm performance. Efficient and effective environment is very important to maintain the
relationship with employees. Involvement of the employees in the decision-making system that
gives more advantages to the entity to achieve the desired goal.
The HR manages the employees in terms of providing efficient services and provide good
internal environment in the company. To maintain the employee relations in the firm,
organization needs to give advanced environment, give open and efficient environment, efficient
facilities, resources etc. In apple Inc. there is a good employee relationship with other employees
11

because they provide efficient environment to the employee. Manager and the leader has the
good relationship with the employees. The HR management is very efficient in this company
they provide good facilities to the worker (Harris and Ogbonna, 2012). They provide good
environment culture, efficient workplace, effective services and resources. Every employee has
the good relation with the other employee.
CONCLUSION
The employee relation is very important to achieve the desired goal. The company needs
the effective and efficient environment to manage the employee relations in the organization.
They should involve the employees in decision making system that will be helpful to maintain
the employee relation. In this firm, there is intergroup conflict in which there are some issues
with the member of other teams. So, Apple Inc. applies some negotiate strategies to solve the
problem of conflict. The company has huge growth in the world by maintaining the brand
recognition in the market. This firm provides efficient products and the services to the customers.
This organization introduces a lot of efficient products in the market to enhance the productivity
and expand the business in the word.
12

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Adhau, S., Mittal, M. L. and Mittal, A., 2012. A multi-agent system for distributed multi-project
scheduling: An auction-based negotiation approach. Engineering Applications of
Artificial Intelligence. 25(8). pp.1738-1751.
Askari, M. and et.al., 2012. Comparison the effects of communication and conflict resolution
skills training on marital satisfaction. International Journal of Psychological Studies.
4(1). p.182.
Dasgupta, S. A., Suar, D. and Singh, S., 2012. Impact of managerial communication styles on
employees’ attitudes and behaviours. Employee Relations. 35(2). pp.173-199.
Fisher, R. J., 2016. Third party consultation: A method for the study and resolution of conflict. In
Ronald J. Fisher: A North American Pioneer in Interactive Conflict Resolution (pp. 37-
71). Springer International Publishing.
Fisher, R. J., Kelman, H. C. and Nan, S. A., 2013. Conflict analysis and resolution.
Galtung, J. and Fischer, D., 2013. Peace studies and conflict resolution: The need for
transdisciplinarity. In Johan Galtung (pp. 139-149). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Gupta, V. and Kumar, S., 2012. Impact of performance appraisal justice on employee
engagement: a study of Indian professionals. Employee Relations. 35(1). pp.61-78.
Halperin, E., 2014. Emotion, emotion regulation, and conflict resolution. Emotion Review. 6(1).
pp.68-76.
Harris, L. C. and Ogbonna, E., 2012. Forms of employee negative word-of-mouth: a study of
front-line workers. Employee Relations. 35(1). pp.39-60.
Lumineau, F. and Henderson, J. E., 2012. The influence of relational experience and contractual
governance on the negotiation strategy in buyer–supplier disputes. Journal of Operations
Management. 30(5). pp.382-395.
Mircică, N., 2014. Constructive communication in effective negotiation. Analysis and
Metaphysics. 13. pp.64-72.
Pruitt, D. G., 2013. Negotiation behavior. Academic Press.
Schoemmel, K. and S. Jønsson, T., 2014. Multiple affective commitments: quitting intentions
and job performance. Employee Relations. 36(5). pp.516-534.
Sood, K., Intel Corporation, 2012. Quality of service resource negotiation. U.S. Patent
8,331,293.
13

Ting‐Toomey, S., 2015. Identity negotiation theory. The International Encyclopedia of
Interpersonal Communication.
van Wilgen, B. W. and Richardson, D. M., 2012. Three centuries of managing introduced
conifers in South Africa: benefits, impacts, changing perceptions and conflict resolution.
Journal of Environmental Management. 106. pp.56-68.
Williams, C. C. and Horodnic, I. A., 2015. Rethinking the marginalisation thesis: an evaluation
of the socio-spatial variations in undeclared work in the European Union. Employee
Relations. 37(1). pp.48-65.
Zheng, C. and et.al., 2015. Developing individual and organisational work-life balance strategies
to improve employee health and wellbeing. Employee Relations. 37(3). pp.354-379.
Online
Intergroup conflict. 2017 [Online]. Available through:
<https://psychologydictionary.org/intergroup-conflict/>. [Accesses on 9 October].
5 Conflict Management Strategies 2017. [online]. Available through:
<http://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-conflict-management-strategies-16131.html>.
[Accessed on 7 October 2017].
14

15