NAME:- ANKIT LAD

SUB:- ORGANISATION & BEHAVIOUR

”THERE IN NO GOOD OR BAD CONFLICT” EXPLAIN?

Conflict may be defined as a struggle or contest between people with opposing needs,
ideas, beliefs, values, or goals. Conflict on teams is inevitable; however, the results of
conflict are not predetermined. Conflict might escalate and lead to nonproductive
results, or conflict can be beneficially resolved and lead to quality final products.
Therefore, learning to manage conflict is integral to a high-performance team.
Although very few people go looking for conflict, more often than not, conflict results
because of miscommunication between people with regard to their needs, ideas,
beliefs, goals, or values.

Two Views: The Good, The Bad

There are two ways of looking at organizational conflict. Each of these ways is linked
to a different set of assumptions about the purpose and function of organizations.

The Bad

The dysfunctional view of organizational conflict is imbedded in the notion that

organizations are created to achieve goals by creating structures that perfectly define
job responsibilities, authorities, and other job functions. Like a clockwork
watch, each "cog" knows where it fits, knows what it must do and knows how it
relates to other parts. This traditional view of organizations values orderliness,
stability and the repression of any conflict that occurs. Using the timepiece analogy
we can see the sense in this. What would happen to time-telling if the gears in our
traditional watches decided to become less traditional, and re-define their roles in the
system?
To the "traditional" organizational thinker, conflict implies that the organization is not
designed or structured correctly or adequately. Common remedies would be to
further elaborate job descriptions, authorities and responsibilities, increase the use of
central power (discipline), separate conflicting members, etc.
This view of organizations and conflict causes problems. Unfortunately, most of us,
consciously or unconsciously, value some of the characteristics of this "orderly"
environment. Problems arise when we do not realize that this way of looking at
organizations and conflict only fits organizations that work in routine ways where
innovation and change are virtually eliminated. Virtually all government
organizations work within a very disorderly context -- one characterized by constant
change and a need for constant adaptation. Trying to "structure away" conflict and
disagreement in a dynamic environment requires tremendous amounts of energy, and
will also suppress any positive outcomes that may come from disagreement, such as
improved decision-making and innovation.

The Good

The functional view of organizational conflict sees conflict as a productive force, one
that can stimulate members of the organization to increase their knowledge and skills,
and their contribution to organizational innovation and productivity. Unlike the
position mentioned above, this more modern approach considers that the keys to
organization success lie not in structure, clarity and orderliness, but in creativity,
responsiveness and adaptability. The successful organization, then, NEEDS conflict
so that diverging views can be put on the table, and new ways of doing things can be
created.
The functional view of conflict also suggests that conflict provides people with
feedback about how things are going. Even "personality conflicts" carry information
to the manager about what is not working in an organization, affording the
opportunity to improve.
If you subscribe to a flexible vision of effective organizations, and recognize that each
conflict situation provides opportunity to improve, you then shift your view of
conflict. Rather than trying to eliminate conflict, or suppress its symptoms, your task
becomes managing conflict so that it enhances people and organizations, rather than
destroying people and organizations. So, the task is to manage conflict, and avoid
what we call "the ugly"....where conflict is allowed to eat away at team cohesiveness
and prouctivity.

Typical Patterns in Team Conflict

Nature of Conflict Potential Outcomes

Task Conflict on a Complex Problem: Positive Outcome:

 Thrashing out issues of strategic  Good business solutions and good

consequence, divergent viewpoints, decisions can emerge
disagreements on the right course of  High potential for team. The company
action can reap the benefits in the short-term as
well as over the long-term

Routine Task Conflict: Unfavourable Outcome:

 Conflicts that crop up between one or  Disruption in the work, hinders team
more team member during the course of performance
carrying out an everyday routine task  Temporary setback

Relationship Conflict: Negative Outcome:

 Interpersonal conflict and personality
clashes
 Animosity and open hostilities  Strained relationships, tense
atmosphere in the team, commitment to the
team gets eroded
 Long-term fall-out and decline in team
performance possible

As we know conflict may occur between two individuals, as in the case of superior vs.
subordinate, between two HODs, etc. Groups may be drawn into conflict with each
other on the basis of performance, importance to a particular group and in general the
union- management rivalries. Conflict can also occur within an individual as in
situations of dilemma of choice, vividly characterized by phrases such as between the
devil and the deep blue sea or caught on the horns of a dilemma. For example, a
personnel manager may be quite undecided about how to deal with the conflict (with
workers, union) that is likely to result in work stoppage &loss in productivity.

While analyzing the impact of conflicts in any organization we will deal separately
the two types of conflicts i.e. interpersonal conflicts and inter-group conflicts. First
we will discuss interpersonal conflicts. The general assumption is that conflict tends
to have negative consequences for both the individual and the organization. For
example, imagine yourself in an intense conflict situation. Examine your state of
mind. You are tense, uneasy, extremely anxious & probably unable to concentrate on
your work. Naturally in such situations, your performance is adversely affected.
Decisions made may not be appropriate. Occasionally, they might even be unrealistic
or irrational. Thus, conflicts tend to impair one’s efficiency.

Sometimes, conflict is also observed to give rise to certain maladjusted behaviours in

individuals trying to cope with it. These include alcoholism, drug abuse, excessive
smoking, under eating or overeating and extremely aggressive or submissive
behaviour.

Can conflicts be positive? It can also be argued that conflicts are not necessarily bad.
The progress we have made so far in our civilization is due to the conflict between
nature & man. Conflict releases energy at every level of human activity- energy that
can produce positive, constructive results.To resolve a conflict one might explore
different avenues or alternatives of action, which make him/her more knowledgeable.
Conflicts also provide opportunities to test one’s own abilities. While successful
resolution of a conflict adds to one’s self-confidence, unsuccessful attempts make one
more realistic & resourceful to seek better alternatives & thereby improve one’s skills.
It is perhaps so in everyone’s experience. For example, think of any of the personal or
organizational problems that you may have faced in near future. It was probably
difficult for you to resolve them at that time. But if the same problems were to recur,
surely you would have more confidence to tackle them at present than you had earlier
when they first occurred. It may even be amusing to think that such problems
bothered you then, even though they appear so simple now.

Every organization must have faced internal & external conflicts from the time of its
inception. However, organizations that resolved their earlier conflicts in positive &
constructive ways have survived, grown & prospered because they benefited from
their learning experiences. In certain instances they have also emerged as the captains
of the industry. Similarly, in organizations, when individuals find themselves in
critical situations, they often come up with workable & novel solutions because of the
stakes involved for themselves & their department.

So,THERE IS NO GOOD OR BAD CONFLICT