Ethnographic Research: Conflict Management in a Business Setting

This project presents an ethnographic study on conflict management within the organization Prisma Infotech, focusing on understanding conflict types, resolution methods, and the role of leadership. The research includes a literature review on conflict management approaches, sampling methods, data collection, and ethical considerations. The study explores research questions concerning the causes of conflict, types of conflict, resolution strategies, and leadership's role in conflict management. The findings and discussion sections analyze the data collected from employees and managers, offering insights into the dynamics of workplace conflict. The study uses qualitative methods to address the research questions and test the hypotheses, with a focus on understanding conflict management from an ethnographic perspective. The project also includes initial steps of the ethnographic process, such as locating social situations, making ethnographic records, and descriptive and focused observations within the organization. The report also explores the impact of age differences in conflict management strategies. The report concludes with a detailed analysis of the findings, providing valuable insights into conflict management practices within the organization.

Running head: BUSINESS ETHNOGRAPHY – CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
Business Ethnography – Conflict Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
1.1. Background to the Research Topic –................................................................................3
1.2. Research Aims and Objectives.........................................................................................4
1.3. Research Question.............................................................................................................4
1.4. Research Hypothesis.........................................................................................................4
2. Review of Literature.................................................................................................................5
2.1. Understanding Radical Approaches to Conflict Management, Intra-Professional and
Inter-Professional Conflict Management and Workplace Conflict Management.......................5
2.2. Age and Conflict Management.........................................................................................7
2.3. Management of Conflict on Social Media........................................................................8
2.4. Gaps in the Literature Reviewed/ Rationale for the Research..........................................8
3. Research Methods....................................................................................................................9
3.1. Sampling Methods............................................................................................................9
3.2. Sample Size.......................................................................................................................9
3.3. Data Collection.................................................................................................................9
3.4. Data Analysis..................................................................................................................10
3.5. Limitations of the Research............................................................................................10
3.6. Ethical Considerations....................................................................................................10
4. Findings and Discussion.........................................................................................................11

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Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14

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1. Introduction
Conflict Management refers to the process by which the negative aspects associated with
the outbreak of a conflict are successfully mitigated or handled, with a view to preventing
conflict from taking place again. The primary aim of conflict management lies in enhancing
group and learning outcomes that includes performance or effectiveness in organizational
settings. There are different types of conflicts that can arise at the workplace and there are
different approaches or ways by which conflict can be successfully handled or resolved
(McKibben, 2017). This report undertakes ethnographic research on a small organization known
as Prisma Infotech to understand the types of conflict that occurs over here and the manner by
which this is resolved. For this purpose, the research report includes a brief literature review on
the subject of conflict management, outlines the research methods that have been utilized in
order to conduct the investigation, mentions the ethical standards that were adhered to in order to
do the research, after which the research findings are discussed and analyzed in detail.
1.1. Background to the Research Topic –
Conflict management refers to the problem solving techniques and methods that are put to
use in an organizational set up in order to resolve the issue of conflict. It is important to
remember that conflict can arise due to cultural differences that persist among the employees of
an organization, such as differences that arise along ethnic and religious lines, or differences over
language. There is a lot of tact and diplomacy that has to be deployed when engaging in the
process of conflict management. There is also no single or fixed approach that may be taken to
resolve the issue of conflict management (McKibben, 2017). Rather, conflict can be handled or
managed using multiple approaches, all of which require paying careful attention to why it is that

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the conflict has occurred and the nature of the outbreak, whether violent, intense or relatively
mild.
1.2. Research Aims and Objectives
Some of the key aims and objectives of this investigation are as follows –
 To determine why conflict can occur in an organization
 to determine the types of conflict that can occur in an organization
 To discover how workplace conflict can be resolved in an organization
 To find out the role that is played by organizational leadership in the management of
conflict
1.3. Research Question
Some of the specific research questions that this project looks to answer are as follows –
RQ 1 – Why does conflict arise in an organization?
RQ 2 – What are the types of conflict that can arise in an organization?
RQ 3 – How can conflict be resolved within an organizational setup?
RQ 4 – What is the role that is played by organizational leadership in the management of
conflict?
1.4. Research Hypothesis
Hypothesis 1 – Leadership has a positive role to play in conflict management
Hypothesis 2 – Leadership has a negative role to play in conflict management

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2. Review of Literature
2.1. Understanding Radical Approaches to Conflict Management, Intra-
Professional and Inter-Professional Conflict Management and Workplace
Conflict Management
Helms and Oliver (2015) have undertaken an investigation on how radical approaches can be
deployed in order to manage conflict at the workplace. Over and above entering into a discussion
on such techniques and approaches, Helms and Oliver (2015) also argue about the various types
of implications that the use of radical approaches to conflict management can have for
institutional change. The researchers make use of the term “radical settlement” in order to
describe truces to conflict that are reached between the field constituents and which are capable
of significantly influencing the relationship that is shared between the constituents and the
institutional context in which the constituents are seen to operate. A theory is developed by
Helms and Oliver (2015), on the notion of radical settlement of workplace conflicts and this is
done through the introduction of conflict management strategies that are capable of predicting
variance in possibilities of radical settlements in institutional fields. New insights are provided
by Helms and Oliver (2015), on the process of institutional change and conflict management as it
occurs in the workplace. Counter-intuitive phenomenon as it is associated with the process of
conflict management is something that has been well highlighted by the researchers while also
pointing out how cessation is something that is capable of acting as a catalyst for institutional
change in not one but in a wide range of institutional fields.
Broukhim et al. (2018), have studied how conflict can be managed in an inter-professional
setting. It is argued by the researchers that when professionals in the field of healthcare are seen

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to engage in team work of some sort, it leads to the outbreak of conflict. It is further argued by
Broukhim et al. (2018), that such conflict can have a highly negative impact on job satisfaction,
patient care, professional productivity and personal wellness among other things. The aim of this
particular study, as undertaken by Broukhim et al. (2018), has been to arrive at an understanding
of how inter-professional conflicts that take place in a hospital setting occur or unfold, with such
a narrative or description of 3 groups comprised of students of medical science. The methods that
have been made use of by the researchers in order to carry out the investigation are the online
questionnaire survey method using which data was collected from as many as 225 students of
health science such as students of nursing, medicine as well as social work in the state of
Northern California in America. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis was carried out and
this led to as many as seven central themes of conflict having been established. It was discovered
by the researchers that differences persisted among the healthcare professionals as to how
conflict ought to be perceived and managed. Medical students and students of nursing it was seen
tend to play the role of victims when they narrate their conflict with such conflicts likely to be
intra-professional in their nature. Causes of conflicts were found to be commonly related to
issues surrounding power and hierarchy with most respondents not being satisfied with the way
by which the conflicts had been resolved. It is argued by Broukhim et al. (2018) that the findings
of this investigation can be utilized well enough to improve conflict outcomes while improving
job satisfaction, job wellbeing and reducing patient turnover and the same given time.
Currie et al. (2016), have also undertaken an investigation on how conflict is managed at the
workplace and it is their argument that workplace conflict is perceived more often than not an
outcome that is associated with failure of management. Currie et al. (2016) believe that conflict
as it occurs in the workplace is something that could be intrinsic to the nature of the work that is

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being performed largely because of the fact that managers and employees find it quite difficult to
reconcile the difference in interests that arise. A number of pathways have been identified by the
researchers as to how best conflict can be managed at the workplace with each pathway having
been examined by the researchers on how workplace conflict should be handled in an effective
manner.
2.2. Age and Conflict Management
Beitler et al. (2016), have studied the co-relationship between age and conflict management
at the workplace. Age differences have been examined by the researchers in the use of conflict
management strategies. Mediation analysis and moderate regression methods have been used in
order to carry out the study with the sample size of the research population being comprised of
444 German employees engaged in various types of professions, situated across different service
branches and also having frequent contact with customers. The findings of the research reveal
that employees who are older in age experience fewer customer stressors in comparison to
employees who are younger in age. When it came to avoiding employees in particular, it was
seen that employees who were older in age were characterized by a greater amount of efficacy
compared to employees who are young in age. Younger employees on the other hand have
benefitted a lot less from the use of strategies and have reported greater levels of employee
burnout in comparison to the older employees. What the results thus seem to suggest is that older
employees are able to handle conflict in a far more effective manner compared to employees
who are younger, and they are able to handle stress and avoid burnout more easily. This is
primarily due to the fact that older employees approach customer stressors more positively than
younger employees are seen to do.

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2.3. Management of Conflict on Social Media
Dineva et al. (2016), have attempted to understand how corporate conflict management
strategies are executed on the platform of social media. It is the argument of Dineva et al. (2016)
that while people have studied in great detail as to how and why conflicts take place on online
platforms, there has been little discussion as to how such conflicts can be resolved in the best
possible way. The subject has been researched on and analysis in the context of Facebook. The
findings of the research reveal that there are five management conflict management strategies
that can be seen to be in existence on social media such as informing, pacifying, bolstering,
censoring, and the process of non-engagement. A number of managerial implications have been
highlighted by the researchers and avenues have been suggested for conducting future research.
2.4. Gaps in the Literature Reviewed/ Rationale for the Research
The literature that has been reviewed above talks about conflict management varies
according to age, how the management of corporate conflict is something that takes place quite
effectively on social media, how intra-professional and inter-professional conflict is managed
and controlled and how certain approaches to conflict management can be quite radical in nature.
The research does not pin point specifically the role that is played by leadership alone in the
management of workplace conflict, or whether leadership can impact conflict management in a
positive or negative way, which is something that this particular research project looks to
uncover.

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3. Research Methods
` This research has made use of both primary and secondary methods for studying the
chosen problem, namely, the role of leadership in conflict management at the workplace. The
research has focused only on the use of qualitative methods to arrive at the answers to the
research questions and to test the research hypothesis.
3.1. Sampling Methods
Due to limitations in terms of time as well as resources it is a convenient and probabilistic
sampling method that has been made use of for this study.
3.2. Sample Size
The sample size for this research was fifty in number. Out of this sample size, twenty five
was comprised of people who are working as employees at the chosen organization which is
Prisma Infotech and twenty five are comprised of people who work as managers and supervisors
at the designated organization.
3.3. Data Collection
The data for this research has been collected by studying secondary sources of information
such as books and peer reviewed journal articles on the subject of conflict management and by
conducting qualitative research in the form of in-depth personal interviews and focus group
discussions at an organization that is known as Prisma Infotech. The chosen organization is a
small company that engages in the production and distribution of electronic goods and services.
The interviews and focus group discussions conducted with employees and managers at the
chosen organization were aimed at discovering the types of conflict that do occur in the
organization and the ways by which the conflict is resolved. Over and above the interviews and

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the focus group discussions, data for testing the research hypothesis was also derived by
engaging in participant observation at the chosen organization (Spradley, 2016).
3.4. Data Analysis
The data that was retrieved upon reading the secondary sources of information and by
conducting the interviews and the focus group discussions was put through the process of
analysis using the method of content analysis, whereby the content of the interviews were
analyzed, textual analysis whereby specifically what the respondents had to say for the questions
that were being asked of them was analyzed in detail, narrative analysis where detailed
descriptions given by the respondents of the workplace and the conflicts that arise was analyzed
and finally, participant observation analysis whereby the behavior and mannerisms of the
respondents and the workplace environment in general was taken note of (Silverman, 2016).
3.5. Limitations of the Research
This research project is one that has been greatly limited by the fact that there was not
enough time to carry out the investigation and the fact that there were limited resources to
conduct this with. With more time and more resources at hand, it would have been possible to
engage in both quantitative and qualitative methods of research rather than just qualitative
research and that too at just one small business organization.
3.6. Ethical Considerations
` A number of ethical considerations were adhered to at the time of doing the research.
 Respondents were informed of the purpose and outcome of the research.

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 The consent of respondents is something that was taken at the time of scheduling
interviews and every effort was made to keep the respondents as comfortable as
possible when the interviews were taking place.
 All questions that were posed during the interview were kept impersonal in nature
(Silverman, 2016).
4. Findings and Discussion
It was revealed in the course of the research that employees get quite perturbed when
conflicts arise in the workplace and that some of the common causes of conflict as seen to
occur at the chosen organization are conflicts over religious differences and cultural
differences (Hofstede, 1984). It was mentioned by the employees in the course of the
interviews and the focus group discussions that were conducted with them that differences
have been seen to occur between and among employees at the organization because of food
related matters, where one employee had been eating beef and another has been eating pork
and that too within proximity of each other, and when this was discovered by the employees,
it lead to a difference of opinion arising between them. The person who was eating beef was
a Muslim while the person consuming pork was a Hindu. The former was asked to go and
have his meal in a different room which was not taken well by him at all and which he
refused to do so, leading to a clash taking place and the Hindu employee threatening to resign
over the matter. This is a conflict that has occurred between the two employees not only
because of religious differences but difference in their food cultures as well, with one
community endorsing the consumption of beef while the other community endorses the
consumption of pork but forbids the consumption of beef. The matter was resolved when the