Report on Organizational Conflict: Variables, Strategies, and Outcomes

This report delves into the multifaceted nature of organizational conflict, examining the variables that instigate conflicts within institutions, such as differences in goals, opinions, and communication styles. It identifies various factors, including resource scarcity, personal biases, and communication disparities, as contributors to conflict. The report outlines strategies for mitigating conflicts, emphasizing effective communication, understanding non-verbal cues, and the potential role of third-party intervention. It further analyzes the impact of conflict on relationship building, particularly in group settings and through different media, and assesses the positive and negative effects of conflict on organizational performance, including impacts on productivity and power dynamics. Finally, it explores the outcomes of conflict resolution and negotiation, highlighting the importance of finding resolutions that benefit the organization, and concludes by emphasizing the significance of conflict management for organizational effectiveness.

Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT
Organizational Conflicts
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author notes

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Variables instigating conflicts in an institution..........................................................................2
Factors instigating conflicts in an institution.............................................................................2
Strategies to mitigate conflicts...................................................................................................3
Explanation of conflict negotiation............................................................................................3
Analyzing the impact of conflict on relationship building in different media...........................4
Impact of the conflict on an organization..................................................................................4
Outcomes of conflict resolution and negotiation.......................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
The paper aims at elucidating the factors of conflict that is prevalent in any working scenario.
It is inevitable that in a collective of people, differences in perspectives or viewpoints are
bound to emerge and involve everyone around it. Therefore, it has become important for
individuals and groups to indulge in developing a competence to the conflicts and furnish
measures to mitigate them and ensure effective communication. Despite of its multiple
connotations, general perspective looks at conflicts from the outlook of perpetrating
negativity in the scenario concerned and as such the institutions involved in such conflicts
runs out to the risk of facing certain detrimental effects as a result. Therefore, in order to
make the organizational communication effective it is crucial to understand different
dimensions of conflicts and furnish strategies in order to mitigate them.
Variables instigating conflicts in an institution
Organizational or institution based conflicts are regular in any almost all situation what so
ever. In case of ensuring, the productivity of the organizations concerned, the re-occurrence
of the conflict is looked upon as a variable that determines the productivity of the
organizations as well as its efficiency in functioning. Most of the time it is not the
stakeholders of the organizations that involve into the conflict, but the culture of the
organization can come in conflict with the views of the organization. The difference in goals,
outlook of the organization can come in opposition with the stakeholders to give in rise to the
conflict (Esman & Telhami, 2019).
Factors instigating conflicts in an institution
The factors, which contribute to the conflict, are multifarious in nature. According to Putnam,
the reason behind the conflict can be the resources involved and the lack of coordination

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present in the organization. One of the basic factor that instigate the conflict within an
organization is the differences in personal opinion. This can be joined by any kind of
misconduct between the stakeholders of the organizations. Differences in one’s cultural,
ethical, racial background along with the differences in age, sex can contribute to the
conflicts. As such the issues are closely linked with one another. Bias in an intuitional
scenario can be considered as an outcome of the conflict. Communication can be considered
as an effective way in mitigating the drawbacks of communication. However, disparities in
any kind of communication can lead to the conflict. Either the behavior involved instigates
conflicts or it reflects conflict. As such, the role of communication can either be constructive
or destructive in the cases of mitigating conflicts (Longe, 2015).
Strategies to mitigate conflicts
Certain strategies can be considered effective in case of mitigating the conflict present in an
institution. The strategies can be enumerated as follows.
 The stakeholders need to develop skills those would be effective in understanding the
non-verbal cues.
 Carry out the communication in an effective manner
 Involve a third part in order to resolve the conflicts (Lumineau, Eckerd & Handley,
2015)
Explanation of conflict negotiation
In most of the cases, the cues about the conflicts are not expressed verbally in a pronounced
manner. Such situations demand effective intervention of the stakeholders, preferably the
ones in power hierarchy in order to mitigate the crisis. Utilizing the power hierarchy in an
organization scenario is capable of giving rise to the conflict between those who nurture
power and those who do not. Communication needs to be carried out in most effective way in

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order to ensure that the positive impact of the communication on mitigating the disparities of
its negative connotations. The strategies suggest that the process of making a resolution about
the conflicts is more crucial than bringing about a connotation of winning or losing in the
conflict (Nifadkar & Bauer, 2016).
Analyzing the impact of conflict on relationship building in different media
Conflict in communication, mostly in the case of a group-based communication gets
thoroughly affected in cases of conflicts. In a group the conflicts arise from the differences in
personal opinion and in turn results in interpersonal conflicts. Conflicts can also affect the
responses of the individuals involved in a collaborative response. In such cases issues not
pertaining to the institution can affect the organization in a negative way. This might include
rude behaviors on the part of the mangers perpetrated against the subordinates. As such the
relationship between different stakeholders gets disrupted. The communication over the cyber
media is a common occurrence in the current globalized business scenario. Such a
communication can get affected by the differences in perspective and the difficulties in
understanding the same (Rahim, 2017).
Impact of the conflict on an organization
Conflict within an organization can create different kinds of impacts on the organization
concerned. In case the conflict is mitigated and catered in a proper way it can enhance the
effectiveness of the company. Such positive impact is noted in the cases of criticism those are
positive in nature and the conflicts that are capable of enhancing the productivity of certain
tasks by the involvement of productive perspective, thereby, enhancing the efficiency.
Conflicts can also arise from procedural conflicts inflicted by the authorities as they tend to
use their power hierarchy in order to impose their opinions on their subordinates. Such usage
of power hierarchy gives rise to frequent conflicts among the members of the organization. It

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also hampers the productivity of those present in the organization and prevent them from
being productive (Rudolph & Zacher, 2015).
Outcomes of conflict resolution and negotiation
The negotiation of the conflict is as important as its resolution. In an organizational scenario,
conflict enters with its multifarious effects. It can be utilized both in the positive as well as in
the negative way. In a positive way the resolution of the conflict can enhance the productivity
of the group, encouraging the participation of those involved. In case of negative conflict, the
resolution is necessary to prevent the organization from turning in effective. The diverse
nature of the conflicts that are capable of arising in an organization scenario demands diverse
strategies exclusive to the situations concerned. The negative conflicts are of threats to the
organization, whereas the positive conflicts are capable of enhancing it.
Conclusion
The conflict can happen between two different entities, not necessarily human beings but the
values and ethics present within the organizations as well. It is important to mitigate the
conflicts, as in both the cases of positive and negative conflicts resolution as well as
negotiation is crucial for ensuring an effective organization.

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References
Esman, M. J., & Telhami, S. Z. (Eds.). (2019). International organizations and ethnic conflict.
Cornell University Press.
Longe, O. (2015). Impact of workplace conflict management on organizational performance:
A case of Nigerian manufacturing firm. Journal of Management and Strategy, 6(2),
83-92.
Lumineau, F., Eckerd, S., & Handley, S. (2015). Inter-organizational conflicts: Research
overview, challenges, and opportunities. Journal of Strategic Contracting and
Negotiation, 1(1), 42-64.
Nifadkar, S. S., & Bauer, T. N. (2016). Breach of belongingness: Newcomer relationship
conflict, information, and task-related outcomes during organizational
socialization. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(1), 1.
Rahim, M. A. (2017). Managing conflict in organizations. Routledge.
Rudolph, C. W., & Zacher, H. (2015). Intergenerational perceptions and conflicts in multi-
age and multigenerational work environments.