HighnessParrotMaster649
The manager of a fast-food restaurant sees that conflict among the…
The manager of a fast-food restaurant sees that conflict among the staff is damaging service. How might she implement a superordinate goal to reduce this conflict?
Course Concepts:
Conflict is a process that occurs when one person, group, or organizational subunit frustrates the goal attainment of another. Thus, the curator of a museum might be in conflict with the director over the purchase of a particular work of art. Likewise, the entire curatorial staff might be in conflict with the financial staff over cutbacks in acquisition funds.
Conflict- The process that occurs when one person, group, or organizational subunit frustrates the goal attainment of another.
In its classic form, conflict involves antagonistic attitudes and behaviours, as noted at Amazon. As for attitudes, the conflicting parties might develop a dislike for each other, see each other as unreasonable, and develop negative stereotypes of their opposites (“Those scientists should get out of the laboratory once in a while”). Antagonistic behaviours might include name-calling, sabotage, or even physical aggression. In some organizations, the conflict process is managed in a collaborative way that keeps antagonism at a minimum. In others, conflict is hidden or suppressed and not nearly so obvious (e.g., some gender conflict).
Causes of Organizational Conflict
It is possible to isolate a number of factors that contribute to organizational conflict.
Group Identification and Intergroup Bias:
An especially fascinating line of research has shown how identification with a particular group or class of people can set the stage for organizational conflict. In this work, researchers have typically assigned people to groups randomly or on the basis of some trivial characteristic, such as eye colour. Even without interaction or cohesion, people have a tendency to develop a more positive view of their own “in-group” and a less positive view of the “out-group,” of which they are not a member.4 The ease with which this unwarranted intergroup bias develops is disturbing.
Why does intergroup bias occur? Self-esteem is a critical factor. Identifying with the successes of one’s own group and disassociating oneself from out-group failures boosts self-esteem and provides comforting feelings of social solidarity. Research by one of your authors, for example, found that people felt that their work group’s attendance record was superior to that of their occupation in general (and, by extension, other work groups).5 Attributing positive behaviour to your own work group should contribute to your self-esteem.
In organizations, there are a number of groups or classes with which people might identify. These might be based on personal characteristics (e.g., race or gender), job function (e.g., sales or production), or job level (e.g., manager or non-manager). Furthermore, far from being random or trivial, differences between groups might be accentuated by real differences in power, opportunity, clients serviced, and so on. The best prognosis is that people who identify with some groups will tend to be leery of out-group members. The likelihood of conflict increases as the factors we cover in the next sections enter into the relationship between groups.
Interdependence:
When individuals or subunits are mutually dependent on each other to accomplish their own goals, the potential for conflict exists. For example, the sales staff is dependent on the marketing department for sales leads and for infrastructure such as research, advertising, promotions, and brochures. On the other hand, marketing depends on the sales staff meeting revenue targets that signal that marketing is operating effectively. If problems occur, stereotyping and name-calling can happen, with marketers seeing sales personnel as “glorified order takers” and sales viewing marketing as ivory tower occupants out of touch with the gritty realities of the marketplace.6 In contrast, the sales staff and the office maintenance staff are not highly interdependent. Salespeople are on the road a lot and should not make great demands on maintenance. Conversely, a dirty office probably won’t lose a sale.
Interdependence does not always lead to conflict. In fact, it often provides a good basis for collaboration through mutual assistance. Whether interdependence prompts conflict depends on the presence of other conditions, which we will now consider.
Power:
If dependence is not mutual but one way, the potential for conflict increases. If party A needs the collaboration of party B to accomplish its goals but B does not need A’s assistance, antagonism may develop. B has power over A, and A has nothing with which to bargain. A good example is the quality control system in many factories. Production workers might be highly dependent on inspectors to approve their work, but this dependence is not reciprocated. The inspectors might have a separate boss, their own office, and their own circle of friends (other inspectors). In this case, production workers might begin to treat inspectors with hostility, one of the symptoms of conflict.
Status:
Status differences provide little impetus for conflict when people of lower status are dependent on those of higher status. This is the way organizations often work, and most members are socialized to expect it. However, because of the design of the work, there are occasions when employees who technically have lower status find themselves giving orders to, or controlling the tasks of, higher-status people. In many restaurants, lower-status servers give orders and initiate queries to higher-status chefs. The latter might resent this reversal of usual lines of influence.7 In some organizations, junior staff are more adept with information technology than senior staff. Some executives are defensive about this reversal of roles.
Culture:
When two or more very different cultures develop in an organization, the clash in beliefs and values can result in overt conflict. Hospital administrators who develop a strong culture centred on efficiency and cost-effectiveness might find themselves in conflict with physicians who share a strong culture based on providing excellent patient care at any cost. A telling case of cultural conflict occurred when Apple expanded and hired professionals away from several companies with their own strong cultures.
Ambiguity:
Ambiguous goals, jurisdictions, or performance criteria can lead to conflict. Under such ambiguity, the formal and informal rules that govern interaction break down. In addition, it might be difficult to accurately assign praise for good outcomes or blame for bad outcomes when it is hard to see who was responsible for what. For example, if sales drop following the introduction of a “new and improved” product, the design group might blame the marketing department for a poor advertising campaign. In response, the marketers might claim that the “improved” product is actually inferior to the old product. At the New York Times, the print and digital units engaged in a turf war over the debatable issue of who should control the pricing and distribution of iPad content.
Ambiguous performance criteria are a frequent cause of conflict between managers and employees. The basic scientist who is charged by a chemical company to “discover new knowledge” might react negatively when her boss informs her that her work is inadequate. This rather open-ended assignment is susceptible to a variety of interpretations. Conflict is not uncommon in the film and entertainment industry, in part because a great deal of ambiguity surrounds just what is needed to produce a hit movie or show.
Types of Conflict:
It is helpful to distinguish between relationship, task, and process conflict.12 Relationship conflict concerns tensions among individuals that have to do with their relationship per se, not the task at hand. So-called personality clashes are examples of relationship conflicts. Task conflict concerns disagreements about the nature of the work to be done. Differences of opinion about goals or technical matters are examples of task conflict. Finally, process conflict involves disagreements about how work should be organized and accomplished. Disagreements about responsibility, authority, resource allocation, and who should do what constitute process conflict.
Relationship conflict- Interpersonal tensions among individuals that have to do with their relationship per se, not the task at hand.
Task conflict- Disagreements about the nature of the work to be done.
Process conflict- Disagreements about how work should be organized and accomplished.
In the context of work groups and teams, relationship and process conflict tend to be detrimental to member satisfaction and team performance. Such conflict prevents the development of cohesiveness (Chapter 7). Occasionally, some degree of task conflict is actually beneficial for team performance, especially when the task is non-routine and requires a variety of perspectives to be considered and when it does not degenerate into relationship conflict.13 Thus, not all conflict is detrimental, and we shall return to some benefits of conflict later in the chapter. At Amazon, the company tried to stimulate task and process conflict to ultimately improve organizational decisions.
