6 Common Causes Of Conflict And How to Avoid Them

Reframe how you think about power and see how much conflict power creates in your lives and the lives of those around you. If you take a step back and still want all the power, you want it for reasons that you can own instead of external reasons that society places on you. I am writing to you, reader, my avatar, to reframe how you think about pressure.

• Climate of distrust – Conflict creates a climate of distrust and suspicion in the organisation.
• It is referred to as when accomplishing an organizational goal, a team sums up and works together for that goal to achieve.
• Competition over scarce resources create conflicts among divisions and between divisions.
• Taking a step back and answering the underlying “power” questions will guide you on your journey to self-authorship.
• For example, in an organisation, values of management and employees can differ from each other.

Secured privacy policy facilitates to develop healthy relationship amongst members and between employees and employer. Privacy Policy helps individuals in presenting themselves to the society and make society to think and understand him in the way in which the individual wants. It will protect consumers, business people and individuals at large in the society. But the focal point is that it protects everyone from disclosing unwanted information to others and develops healthy relationship between individuals. The groups may indulge in competition which may be unhealthy or even un­fair. The groups may develop conflicts and indulge in win- lose activities.

I wonder where identity-based and cultural disputes involving gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity would fall under? These issues are in some cases more sensitive or personal than value and relationship conflicts but I could see them falling under either. Suppose you’ve felt a long-simmering tension with a colleague, whether over work assignments, personality differences, or some other issue. Before turning to a manager, you might invite the colleague out to lunch and try to get to know him or her better. Discovering things you have in common—whether a tie to the same city, children the same age, or shared concerns about problems in your organization—may help bring you together.

This causes ‘lag’ in the parts which may cause conflict between different parts of the society. Conflict of generations (parent-youth) is the result of such social changes. The interests of different people or groups occasionally clash.

Affective conflict

The conflict can also arise due to differing viewpoints about various issues. For example, two vice-presidents may differ in their viewpoints regarding which strategic plan to implement. The value based conflicts arise due to different values that may be culturally based.

Poor communication leads to suspicion, misunderstanding, and wrong or partial impression between individuals, groups or teams, and gives rise to conflict. Cognitive conflict occurs during tasks and comes from a difference in perspective and judgement. It improves decision making and allows for the freer exchange of information between group members. Cognitive conflict is seen as a positive tension that promotes good group work.

Conflict Meaning – 3 Levels: Individual Level, Group Level and Organisational Level

These conflicts can be reduced by establishing common goals. The groups can be mutually dependent through subordinate goals. These goals are significant to the group and appeal to all the parties.

In spite of fixing practicable norms or values, some individuals will be non-conformists and disturb the working of the organisation. Non-conformity to some extent is common in every organisation. There are organisations which fix higher values and norms to be followed by their employees. For example, military organisations expect a high level of conformity in the behaviour of their members.

These roles are defined through a combination of job titles, descriptions of duties. Manager-subordinate conflict arises when the role of a subordinate is not clearly defined by the manager. Political conflict arises when different political parties with their own ideologies try to achieve their interest. The main cause of this kind of conflict is power which they want to capture.

I am a very simple person who believes in the oneness of mankind. When we see our life from a broader perspective, we realize that we are on this planet for such a short time of years. There is not enough time to get to know each other and love each other, and getting in conflicts appears to me to be absolutely foolish. Having said this, I want to talk about practical things that we need to do.

In organizations, conflicts arise due to various reasons, the one reason is when employees do not get the salary they expected. Similarly, when one employee agrees with the given responsibilities and another is not. In other words, conflict refers to all kinds of opposition or antagonistic interaction between or among individuals and groups. It exists whenever one party perceives that another party has hampered or is about to hamper, the accomplishment of goals.

Identification of weaknesses – When the conflict arises, it is easy to identify the weaknesses in the organisational set-up. Management can take steps to remove these weaknesses once they are identified. Their innovative ideas, divergent opinions, demonstration of new styles and techniques will shake up the organisation and break its status quo. With this approach, individuals attempt to reduce or get rid of the conflict by denying it exists, both parties shun each other or dodge the issue of disagreement. Conflict is a one of the features of the modern complex organization, immediately the cognizance of it should be taken. Promptly these conflicts should be handled, settled and redressed.

Conflict Meaning

So, conflict is a process by which a person or assembly senses frustration in the pursuance of some plans, goals, or objectives. It is closely related to change and inter-personal dealings. The argument is that social interactions, particularly those involving conflict or competition between groups, are influenced by a person’s beliefs. In this section, we will examine several of the key roles that beliefs may play in triggering or restricting conflict between groups.

I do not want to write about reframing values because values are so personal. People hate each other, without knowing a single thing about each other, because of values. Values are one of topics where people use inductive reasoning all the time. The problem with goals is that we often do not articulate our goals out of fear. We fear that if we show our cards, we might not get what we want.

Relationship problems

To prevent conflicts from arising, communicate your expectations. It’s unfair to yell at your partner over the amount of second-shift labour you perform, for example, if you have never asked them politely to pick up their share of the chores. To improve your communication skills, ask yourself why you reach out to another. For instance, if you need to complete a challenging assignment according to precise directions, review these with all the team members involved.

Ask yourself, why am I putting all this pressure on myself to do X? Take a step back, and think about the pressures in your life. Eventually, hopefully, you can say that pressure is minimal. If you do this, you will get further than someone who does not look at the bigger “goals” picture. Even a gentle and obedient employee may disobey the superior and become hostile in his/her behaviour. The same behaviour can be noticed between co-employees or between groups during conflict.

Business Management

For example, a doctor should not reveal his patient’s disease to others. Similarly, an advocate should not reveal his client’s problems to others. A psychiatrist should causes of conflict not disclose depression or any other mental disorder of his patient to others. An employee should not reveal the management’s secret policies to outsiders.

Then there is every possibility of a group surpassing the limits prescribed, for example, a task group of quality control, interfering in the job of task group of packing and storage. Setting goal of two groups can have certain amount of influence in group relationship. Organisational management usually indicates relative performance of each group. It is but natural; the accomplishment of task assigned to groups requires inter-group coordination. Inter-group conflict – This happens, when two members of different groups are involved in a conflict. When individuals of two different groups are involved in a conflict, it is known as intergroup conflict.

Parties can feel so strongly about standing by their values that they reject trades that would satisfy other interests they might have. No one should ever have to tolerate harassment or bullying in the workplace or at home. Unfortunately, difficult economic times will sometimes lead people to accept circumstances they’d never tolerate if they had the means to leave. The most positive thing to do in chaotic situations is to remain calm.

Conflicts due to clash of interests and goals are bound to reduce efficiency of organisational goal achievement. Different types of conflict — including task conflict, relationship conflict, and value conflict—can benefit from different approaches to conflict resolution. Another great tool to deal with conflict is attending conflict resolution classes, as they are an excellent way to learn tools to deal with conflict. In these classes, you will learn the importance of understanding your conflict style and how to effectively use conflict resolution strategies in different scenarios.