Analysis of Workplace Conflicts: Causes, Impacts, and Solutions

This report examines the pervasive issue of workplace conflict, a common occurrence with both positive and negative ramifications. It defines workplace conflict as disharmony arising from differing requirements, interests, and principles among colleagues, encompassing personal, intragroup, and intergroup clashes. The report explores the diverse types of conflict, including those stemming from power dynamics, work styles, and personality clashes. It analyzes both the positive outcomes, such as organizational changes, increased competition, and enhanced creativity, and the negative consequences, like personal issues, sub-optimization, and wasted resources. Furthermore, the report emphasizes the critical role of effective leadership in conflict resolution, proposing strategies such as defining acceptable behavior, preventing conflicts, understanding individual gains, addressing issues with importance, and viewing conflict as an opportunity for growth. The conclusion underscores the inevitability of workplace conflict, advocating for proactive management to mitigate negative effects and capitalize on the opportunities for organizational improvement and employee development.

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Workplace Conflicts
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Introduction
Workplace conflict or organizational conflict is a very common issue in the business
world. Due to the conflicts, the sometimes the organizations get benefitted and sometimes they
get affected. Workplace conflict is a situation of disharmony, generated from the real or
supposed opposition of requirements, interests and principles among the people working together
(Sonnentag, Unger and Nägel 2013). The conflict takes many forms in different organizations.
Clash is always inevitable between the formal authority and management and the subordinate
employees. The subject for conflict also varies in different organizations. Differences in the
ideology, points of view and unhealthy competition can result in conflicts in the workplace (Katz
and Flynn 2013). The positive and negative impacts of the workplace conflict and the ways to
resolve them are explained in the following discussion.
Discussion
Workplace conflicts are classified in the following types, Personal, Intragroup and
Intergroup. Power, work style and personality clash results in personal conflicts. Intragroup
conflicts arise due to lack of freedom, resources and position. Some people prefer to work
independently and when confronts with interdependence within a group, conflicts occur. Lastly,
intergroup conflicts arise horizontally and vertically. Conflicts and competition between the
functions result in horizontal clash, and competition between hierarchical levels result in vertical
clash (Goetsch and Davis 2014). Same situations can result in both positive and negative
impacts, depending on the way of handling it and attitude of the people involved in it.

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Positive impacts
Conflicts often influence the change in the organizations, especially in the small
businesses. Due to workplace conflicts, organizations often are forced to modify the operation
procedures and policies and design and implement new ones. Extreme conflict within the
organization can lead to complete change of the leadership and management positions and new
people come with new ideas (Demsky, Ellis and Fritz 2014).
Competition is an outcome of workplace conflict. When employees try to outdo each
other to achieve the goals that benefit the organization, healthy competitions occur and it is a
positive effect of conflicts. For example, when two sales people compete to increase their sales
target to get more incentives, it also helps the company to earn more revenues. It also helps to
bring in motivation among the other employees (Meier et al. 2013).
Conflicts often bring in creativity in the organizational operations and objectives. When
people with good and creative ideas come together and argue to establish their points, in most
cases a creative solution comes up and that motivate the employees. When the motivation comes
through conflict, that pushes the productivity level of people to the maximum. Hence, healthy
conflict is always welcome by the organizations (Gilin Oore, Leiter and LeBlanc 2015).
Negative impacts
Personal issues and emotions often create negative conflict in the workplace. In many
cases, the higher authority often put forward their power and position for controlling the
subordinates and peers. When a person misuses his power for any personal conflict then it is a
negative impact of the workplace conflict (Moore 2014).

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Due to intragroup and intergroup conflicts, sometimes the optimum output is not
achieved. Organizational goals are compromised to achieve the goals of the groups. Thus, sub-
optimization arises. The clash of the groups to become superior often leads to unnecessary
conflicts and competition becomes unhealthy.
Conflicts often result in wastage of precious resources, time and reputation of the
company. Employees often waste their time and efforts by involving in the conflicts rather than
meeting the goals. Hence, time and resources both are wasted and it also creates a negative
image of the company in the business world (Meier et al. 2013).
Ways to resolve workplace conflicts
In simple terms, conflict is disagreement between people on various issues. Often the
leadership and workplace conflicts are related. An efficient leadership is necessary to resolve the
conflicts in the organization. Since, conflicts cannot be avoided, hence, it is rational and sensible
to accept the conflict and find out a solution by properly mitigating the negative impacts and
embracing the positive impacts. Hence, leaders play a very important role in resolving the
conflicts. Manipulative people exist in every organization, who create conflicts by using
emotions to cover up their lack of quality. A strong leader can only reduce such conflicts through
efficient leadership and motivational skills (Myatt 2012). The effective ways to handle conflicts
are as follows:
Defining acceptable behavior: An organization must define the acceptable behavior and
norms beforehand, and penalties for failing to comply with those. A well defined norm and
effective communication can help in resolving the conflicts.

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Conflict prevention: Finding out the areas for potential conflict can help the company to
prevent the possible conflicts. It needs efficient management and leadership to find out the
possible reasons of a potential conflict and resolving them beforehand. Still, if the conflict does
arise, the severity can be reduced quickly in this way (Goetsch and Davis 2014).
Understanding of the gains of the people: Conflicts often arise due to the issue on
personal gains. It is important to understand the motivational factors for the people and help
them achieving their goals. This way personal conflict can be handled.
Importance factor: The management must understand the importance of the issue of
conflict or potential conflict and should address it accordingly. It should not neglect any
important issue and must handle it with utmost priority.
Conflict as an opportunity: Every conflict has a scope of learning. Disagreements on
ideas often result in potential scope for growth and development. It opens up new ideas for
growing, diversifying and expanding the business opportunities. The divergent positions can lead
to innovations and creativity, leading personal and organizational growth (Myatt 2012).
Conclusion
Workplace conflict exists in almost every organization. This is a situation, which cannot
be avoided. However, the severity can be reduced if handled properly. Conflicts bring healthy
competition among the employees and that pushes to company towards further growth. On the
other hand, sometimes it results in wastage of time and resources and creates a bad image for the
company. Efficient leadership and management policies can help in resolving and preventing
conflicts in workplaces. Lastly, every organization should find out the learning scopes from the
conflicts and must utilize the opportunities that results from the conflicts.

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References
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from work mediate the relationship between workplace aggression and work-family
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Gilin Oore, D., Leiter, M.P. and LeBlanc, D.E., 2015. Individual and organizational factors
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Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Katz, N.H. and Flynn, L.T., 2013. Understanding conflict management systems and strategies in
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Meier, L.L., Gross, S., Spector, P.E. and Semmer, N.K., 2013. Relationship and task conflict at
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Myatt, M., 2012. 5 Keys of Dealing with Workplace Conflict. [online] Forbes.com. Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/02/22/5-keys-to-dealing-with-workplace-
conflict/#6c1f55d01e95 [Accessed 9 Oct. 2017].

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Sonnentag, S., Unger, D. and Nägel, I.J., 2013. Workplace conflict and employee well-being:
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