Conflict Management Strategies and Action Plan Report - OB Assignment

This report analyzes an organizational behaviour assignment focusing on conflict management. It begins with an overview of the organization, Global Relay Communications, and the role of the manager within the Human Resource Management team. The report highlights two types of conflicts: a relationship conflict stemming from personality clashes and a task conflict caused by disagreements between departments. It identifies causes such as rivalry, communication gaps, and clashing personalities. The report details conflict resolution strategies employed, including a third-party committee and active listening, and proposes an action plan for managers. This plan emphasizes categorizing conflicts, identifying causes, setting ground rules, and utilizing moderators or HR managers for intervention, restructuring organizational culture, and preventing the root causes of conflicts. The assignment aims to provide insights into effective conflict resolution and management within an organizational context.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Overview of the organization and role of the manager in the organization
“Global Relay Communications specializes in governing information and in offering cloud
solutions. The organization operates with the help of 425 plus employees for 24x7 support
and dedicated service delivery with the help of private green data centre. The teams of the
organization involve eDiscovery, auditing team, in-house legal team, R&D team, cyber-
security centre and User Experience team”.
“I am part of the Human Resource Management team, which specializes in directing
collaborative efforts of employees towards the ultimate goal of the organization. We as a
team are also accountable for eliminating any identified gap or obstacle arising in the teams
for smooth flow of service delivery”.
Encountering conflict and instances of conflicts
“The most concerning gap in my tenure was the emergence of conflicts between the key
stakeholders. All conflicts needed an effective response. I will provide you with the general
idea of the two conflicting situations without including names. One of the conflicting
situations was relationship conflict, which resulted in a personality clash between two
employees. The relationship conflict was caused due to the fundamental incompatibility of
personalities when a junior but qualified employee was promoted for managing employees
over his age group. The over-enthusiastic promoted leader portrayed an aggressive or
generally perceived arrogant leadership style. Another conflict, which was task conflict, was
caused due to the disagreement in supplier selection between the finance team and the R&D
team”.
Causes of the conflicts

2ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
“The conflicts can be the by-product of various reasons, roles, status, priorities and
personalities. A sense of competition between the departments, misunderstanding of
responsibilities, communication gap and lack of understanding for the common goal are some
of the causes of organizational conflicts. The causes identified for the two different forms of
conflicts were rivalry among departments, lack of communication, lack of mutual respect,
and misunderstanding of the aligned goals. Another set of causes anticipated for the
relationship conflicts in our organization were the clashing personalities, improper leadership
intervention and misunderstanding with respect of collaborative approach”.
Conflict resolution strategies
“Each conflict requires different response, priority and urgency for effective response. The
conflict resolution strategies depend on the cycle time of its effect. I strategized a proper third
party committee for responding to the conflicting situation through several steps. Secondly, I
decided to keep the resolution process under secrecy for avoiding the negative reactions of
the team members in both cases. I practised my active listening skills for understanding the
real causes behind the conflicts”.
Action Plan for manager
Through these methods, it can be deduced that the significance of implementing strategic
action with customization. Conflicts in a workplace should be categorized primarily for a
better view of urgency, priority and intervention plan for the manager. The understanding of
the form of conflict projects the transparency and enables engagement of the associated
parties for working towards the resolution method. The first step should be dedicated towards
the identification of recognizable and hidden causes for the conflicting situations. After
identifying the causes behind the conflicts, the approach should focus on setting ground rules
and policies for planning effective intervention in the situation without maintaining secrecy.
Rather than waiting for the third party committee, the conflict resolution can involve

3ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
moderators or HR managers to intervene with the skills of active listening and open
communication. The resolutions can be sealed with restructured organizational culture and
policies of employee engagement. These steps can be added for effectiveness and promptness
in the conflict resolution method in organizations. HRM surely needs up-gradation with the
changing situations and complexities, leading to conflicts. Moreover, the conflict resolution
function should focus more on preventing the common causes of conflicts rather than on
curing the complexities.