Business Research: Managing Conflict in Woolworths Teams

This report examines the critical issue of conflict management within teams at Woolworths Limited. It begins by highlighting the detrimental effects of workplace conflict on teamwork and organizational productivity, emphasizing the need for effective conflict resolution strategies. The report identifies the problem statement, research objectives, and research questions that guide the investigation. It explores the causes of conflict, including personal aspects, poor relationships, inappropriate leadership, and lack of training. The study aims to determine the problems arising from conflict and identify effective management approaches. The methodology involves a literature review and survey questionnaires. The conceptual framework discusses the impact of workforce diversity and its relation to organizational conflict. The report also analyzes various conflict management styles and recommends strategies for conflict resolution. The findings of this research are designed to provide insights into the causes of conflict, and the strategies to manage the conflict effectively within Woolworths Company.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH 1
Managing Conflict in Teamwork within Woolworth Limited
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Problem Statement.....................................................................................................................4
Research Objectives...................................................................................................................5
Research Questions....................................................................................................................5
Justification of the Study............................................................................................................5
Conceptual Framework and Research Hypothesis.....................................................................6
Methodology............................................................................................................................11
Literature Review.....................................................................................................................11
Leadership in Management of Organisational Conflict.......................................................11
Table for Conflict leadership management styles and their elements..............................12
Conflict leadership management styles................................................................................13
Online survey questionnaires...............................................................................................14
Recommendations for Conflict Resolution Styles in place of Work.......................................15
The Organisation of the Research Proposal.............................................................................15
Gantt Chart...........................................................................................................................16
Project Budget......................................................................................................................17
References................................................................................................................................19

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Introduction
Conflict in the place of work can be extremely destructive to good teamwork. The
management of conflict in the wrong approach, as well as real differences amongst
individuals quickly runs out of control; leading to circumstances where collaboration split up,
hence threaten the team’s mission. Accordingly, this is precisely the case whereby wrong
approaches are used to resolve conflict (Singleton, Toombs, Taneja, Larkin, & Pryor, 2011).
Nonetheless, dues to the pervasive and ubiquity nature of the conflict, it has gained numerous
meanings as well as connotations. Similar to any other term, conflicts lead to considerable
ambivalence that has left many theorists, and administrators uncertain regarding the relevance
of conflict and the best way to cope with it. Research has shown that conflict circumstances
are inevitable in an individual’s life, in organisations and even between countries. Conflict is
a process through which one side suggests that the other party is opposing its interests. As a
standard, individuals can only see physical aspects of conflict, such as antagonist acts and
angry words. However, this is just a small part of the different process. According to Zia and
Syed (2013), conflict is an integral part of individuals’ lives, which can be termed as an
everlasting gift even though its different views of it can be held. For instance, some people
look at conflict as an unproductive situation that ought to be shunned at all costs. On the other
hand, other people view conflict as a phenomenon that necessitates management. At the same
time, some people see conflict as an exciting chance for growth; hence, they used it to their
best advantage.
Management researchers have realised that the effects of organisational
conflict as well as its management on the performance of organisations have become a key
area of concern. In this regard, scholars in this field of study have published a number of
models for conflict resolution for organisations. In this sense, a significant part of these
studies has represented the effect of conflict in the place of work and how it influences

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organisational productivity. Folger, Poole, and Stutman, (2015) claim conflict management is
an important tool to the performance of any organisation that creates gaps, which results in
constructive momentum regarding the necessary change in the corporate structure,
personalities, attitude, existed behavioral factors that lead to a rise in productivity.
Organizational conflict is a reality that needs to be considered as a natural process, which
occurs on a daily basis. Naturally, conflict in organisations destroys or supports the vision
and performance of any organisation. Workplace conflict results from human interactions,
which manifests when a person's values and goals are not consistent in connection with the
performance of the organisation in relation to other people within the organisation.
Brett (2018) defines conflict as a struggle for power, scares resources, and gaining of
value where the target of the opponent is to eliminate, neutralise, or harm the competitor. For
instance, in the case of Woolworths Company, the core cause of conflict is a poor
relationship among employees, inappropriate leadership styles, lack of proper training
facilities and trouble when handling changes within the business. The objective of
undertaking this study is to explore different causes of the workplace conflict, and the
strategies used to solve these conflicts within organisations.
Problem Statement
A number of studies have shown that personal aspects are amongst the primary
sources of conflicts in the place of work. Currie, Gormley, Roche, and Teague, (2017) found
that lack of cooperation, variation in expectations, lack of resources, competition,
communication issues, and interdependence as elements that have resulted in many
organisations with Woolworths not exempted. It has been found that because of the increase
in conflicts within the teams, it has negatively affected Woolworths productivity by
approximately 2% in the past two years. Since these conflicts are affecting the organisation’s
revenue generation and its operations as a whole, it is necessary to explore strategies that will

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help in managing the conflict among the teams. The focus of this paper is to analyse the cause
of conflict within Woolworths Company and the strategy that should be embraced to manage
the conflict.
Research Objectives
This research paper intends to investigate the causes of conflict within Woolworths
Company and its effect on the organisation’s productivity. Similarly, it also explores the
suitable approaches that should be used to resolve the conflict. In this essence, the following
research objectives are used in conducting the research.
 To find out the causes of conflict within teams in organizations
 To determine the problems that occur due to the occurrence of conflict within the
project team
 To identify ways for managing conflict in the project team
Research Questions
The research paper will use the following research questions to address the issues
under investigation:
1. What are the causes of conflict within teams in organisations?
2. What type of problems occurs due to the occurrence of conflict within a project team?
3. Which approaches are used to manage conflict among project teams?
These research questions will be of great help in answering the research aim, which will
provide the best option for not only Woolworths Company human resource departments but
also other organisation facing similar problems within their operations.

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Justification of the Study
Conflict among employees has become a common occurrence in the recent past due to
their different values and personalities. In this sense, dealing with this conflict in time is
significant for the purpose of maintaining a healthy work setting. It should be noted that
irrespective of extent of a conflict within an organisation, it should not be assumed that it
would only disappear. Simple conflicts have been found that they can grow into big problems
if not dealt with on time. This proposal will be carried out with the aid of extensive literature
review and responses from employees and managers from different departments within
Woolworths using questionnaires. The provided feedback will offer specifics regarding the
approach to be adopted by Woolworths management to reduce conflict among its employees.
The benefits associated with undertaking this research proposal include the following:
 The proposal will help organisations managers to understand different strategies on
how to resolve conflicts.
 This research proposal will provide an extensive understanding of the causes of
conflict within organisations.
 The results obtained from this research proposal will be of considerable significance
to company management, individual business owners, and researchers.
Conceptual Framework and Research Hypothesis
With the advent of globalisation, it has made workforces more diversified across the
globe, which has made organisational conflict a significant problem of concern. In this sense,
the role of managers and company executives to understand the challenges comes with
workplace diversity to avert conflict. Sidaway (2013) asserts that the failure or success of
handling workplace diversity is closed related to the company’s setting and culture. The
organisational structure, as well as corporate policies, can be adjusted to aid avert negatives

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effects of conflict. For instance, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) source a significant
percentage of its workforces outside its borders, like China, South Africa, Thailand, India,
Pakistan, and the Philippines as well as many countries from the West. Indeed, this situation
creates a potential for internal conflict as well as international communication barriers. Even
though challenges arise from workplace diversity, in the case of the UAE, it has managed to
resolve its conflict in the best way possible.
Theorists like Folger, Poole, and Stutman, (2015) claim that workforce diversity is a
significant aspect underlying various conflicting circumstances, which occur in organisations.
According to Saeed, Almas, Anis-ul-Haq, and Niazi, (2014) conflict that arise from diversity
based on cultural view is due to the differences in attitude toward the success of work-related
goals and difference in needs that are not realized in the same manner. Diversity place
individuals into contact that have different beliefs, attitudes, and values; hence, it affects their
behavior. Workers perceive and interpret the same situations differently because of
dissimilarity in personality types; hence, employees find it challenging to interact with each
other. In this regard, there are specific demographics components that play a part in
organizational conflicts such as the difference in culture, gender, and age difference.
According to Archer and Cameron (2013), organisations are not strictly following the
pattern of their changing cultures and societies. Instead, organisations have to stick on
independent units with their culture and structure, that they support and urge employees to
stick to. As a result of this, it has led to many types of conflict. The most common examples
of conflict, according to Giltinane (2013) include cognitive conflict and affective conflict.
The cognitive conflict is task driven, and it arises from dissimilarities in perspective and
judgment. On the other hand, effective conflict is an emotional conflict that happens out of
personal differences and disputes (Schlaerth, Ensari, & Christian, 2013). In this regard, for
the cognitive type of conflict, it arises due to situations such as one employee using harsh

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language to another. In this context, the employees cannot be able to withstand their
“personal issues different” from organisational issues. When the expectations of the
employee are not realised, it results in frustrations leading to corporate conflict. In addition,
cognitive conflict happens when roles and tasks are not allocated or defined equitably. In case
of dispute are not managed, it may result in a disaster, which could significantly affect the
organization’s productiveness. Importantly to note is that effective and efficiently managed
conflict has found to result in effective results. Nonetheless, poorly managed conflict turn out
disastrous.
Causes of conflict among organisations: Jones, G., & George, J. (2019). Organizational
Conflict. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/jobitonio/organizational-conflict-
9833123

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In healthy discussions, where individuals are tolerant of each other and are able to
listen to each other’s views without getting angry, have been found to bear favorable fruits. It
is significant for individuals to listen to each other's opinions since it allows persons to learn
from their mistakes (Rahim, 2017). In the process, they end up knowing how to deal with
different matters when acting with each other. Moreover, employees who exercise patience
end up discovering constructive solutions on how to resolve conflicts. According to Nyberg
and Sveningsson (2014), employees should be trained to differentiate between healthy
augments and provocative thoughts. Basically, this entails fitting organisational objectives to
those of personal goals to regulate the conflict.
Studies based in the UAE have shown that issues of workplace diversity are common
in Dubai and other metropolitan cities in UAE such as Ras Al-Khaimah and Abu-Dhabi. It
was found that when diverse groups travel to the UAE in search of better job opportunities, at
the time that they find, it becomes challenging for them to adjust to each other. In reality, the
critical disadvantages of diversity include dysfunctional employee behavior and lack of
coordination. Research shows that on the outside employees from different backgrounds
appear to be peaceful and brag the sense of different cultural differences. However, below the
surface, these employees are reserved for their cultures and beliefs and regarding the
successful execution of intercultural diversity to support a pleasant working environment.
Scientifically, organisational conflict among employees has been connected to a lack of
established intercultural corporate practices and poor regulatory policies about conflict.
Prause, & Mujtaba, (2015) argue that employees view workforce diversity as the primary
cause of underlying conflict caused by cultural differences, ethical, gender, religious, and
racial considerations. Figure 1 below shows an illustration of a conceptual framework for
different styles used to handle conflict in relation to independent variables such as gender,
income, and nationality, among others.

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Figure 1: Conceptual Framework: Shariq, A. (2015). Workplace Conflict Management
Styles [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Conceptual-Framework-
of-the-Study_fig1_281444553
With regard to the problem statement as well as the research objectives, the following
research hypothesis will be tested during this study:
H1: The major cause of conflict within Woolworths Company is cognitive conflict.
H2: Conflict has a direct impact on the organisation’s productivity.

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Methodology
The methodology that will be embraced in this study to ensure that the research
proposal attains its aim is through extensive literature review from other authors about the
topic under investigation and the use of online surveys questionnaires.
The literature review will involve extensive research and analysis of relevant
information available from scholarly sources, including journal article, annual reports of
Woolworths, and Google Scholar by different scholars and researchers. A thematic content
analysis of the various articles will be performed to determine the extent to which it relates to
the topic under investigation.
Online surveys questionnaires will be distributed within Woolworth Company, which
is the organisation under investigation. This will provide the researcher with the opportunity
to relate the information attained from the literature review and first-hand information
provided by different stakeholders within Woolworth Company.
Literature Review
Leadership in Management of Organisational Conflict
Research has shown that a good leader is the one who recognises the sustaining
presence of conflict underlying the course of all human interaction, communication, and
decision-making. The role a good leader is not only to bring an end to all form of conflict
within an organisation, but it recognises the essence of using process and skills that help to
move interaction through the different dynamic to arrive at a useful and valuable results for
all the involved parties. Through this process, it is possible to manage conflicts effectively. In
order to realise this, a good manager has to understand the components and normative
procedures related to conflict interaction, acknowledge the signs of conflicting opportunities
in the most natural way possible and take action to remove individuals through any conflict to

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a higher level of resolution. By accepting an idea that conflict is a basic element among all
human interactions, it becomes easy to develop fundamental skills to deal with conflict. In
this essence, it becomes easier for an organisation’s management to reduce the occurrence of
resolvable conflicts in the place of work. The challenge of a leader is not the existence of
conflict, but it is the ability to recognize it in the process of communication and deal with it to
provide a solution. Individuals in an organisation that is able to handle conflict adequately are
perceived as competent and great leaders. Certainly, leaders that are not able to manage
conflict effectively always have trouble realizing organisational objectives, upholding mutual
relationships among employees, and managers and resolving problems. According to Goetsch
and Davis (2014), persons who are unable to handle challenging conflicts have a higher
chance of getting dissatisfied with their jobs. Therefore, it is essential for scholars to identify
ways in which different leadership styles of how to manage conflict within organisations.
These leadership styles are associated with a range of organisational variables like position,
job satisfaction, education, gender, job burnout, and organisation climate.
Table for Conflict leadership management styles and their elements
Style Elements Related Behavior Organisational
variable
Avoiding Low concern for self
and others
Evasive Job burnout
Dominating Great concern for
self and low concern
for others
Confrontational Corporate position
Integrating Highly concern for
both self and others
Collaborative Level of education,
gender, and
organisational