Conflict in the Workplace
According to Kinicki and Fugate, (2018), research has shown that about two or more hours are spent on conflict every week in the workplace. Workplace conflict exists in almost every organization and sometimes it brings about exchange of ideas and also causes individuals or groups to think creatively in a healthy way.
Some conflict can be counter-productive and cause employees to be dissatisfied, stressed, and hostile towards others and even their clients, and increase in turnover. When working at an organization that deals a lot with team's conflict can cause dysfunction among employees. From my experience leadership plays an important role in resolving conflict and ensuring that the people involved are growing from the conflict or understand it. A few years ago, I was involved in hiring a Program Support employee to help me with my workload.
As time went on, I realized that this employee would do tasks and send it directly to Senior Directors without informing me and this caused a lot of issues because most of the reports she completed and sent were filled with errors which management contacted me about and I didn't have much knowledge of what this employee has done. I spoke to this employee to try and get understanding of why I wasn't informed and they were very rude. I scheduled a meeting with this employee to ensure that something like that doesn't happen again. After the initial meeting, everything went well for about a week. There was so much going on that I couldn't get through to this employee. Leadership got involved but it didn't work out well. This caused a lot of duplication of reports, wasted time, and a hostile climate. A year later management was changed and I approached the new management with my issues. They scheduled a conflict resolution meeting with both of us with different activities.
This helped tremendously and improved work productivity and the climate at which we worked. In solving the conflict, management asked us both what the problem was, what causes the problem, what it was costing us, and how in our opinion we think this can be solved. These steps helped put things into perspective and helped process my thoughts on the issues and its impact on my work-life. Management found that, there was unclear definition of responsibility and competition among us and this was because of the fast growing program we were running. As a new employee to the organization, instead of working with me, she was trying to be very assertive and not cooperate much.
Forms of conflict
There are two forms of conflict, functional and dysfunctional conflict. Functional conflict usually focuses healthy exchanges, and it is usually constructive and there is mutual respect while dysfunctional conflict deals with conflicts that diminish the interest of an organization (Kinicki and Fugate, 2018).
In my case, I saw the conflict as a dysfunctional one because, it affected my work ability and made it difficult for me to be as productive as I would have liked to be and it also caused a lot of project duplication because there was no clear communication even when instructions were communicated through emails and each party knew exactly what was expected of them.
This occurred mostly due to unclear job boundaries which are described as intergroup competition. When there is an open way of resolving a conflict, it helps resolve any misunderstandings on might have had and refocuses on ending the conflict than offenses committed. A study conducted on the role management styles in an organization
Communication and Corporate Social Responsibility
There is a lot of importance placed on corporate social responsibility (CSR) today in the global economy. Organizations regardless of size are being held responsible for goals and values, practices, actions and its impact on the society and environment. Most organizations success is dependent on CSR and their relations to their audience. CSR is used as a communication tool for most organizations to attract their stakeholders and consumers and ensure that the right image is being portrayed at all times with a goal that the audiences will perceive an accurate view of the organization (Tata and Prasad, 2015).
Researchers examined management's perceptions on CSR communication by developing a model based on four factors: CSR image as related to organizational power, status, target audience perception on importance of CSR image, target audience CSR attractiveness, and media attention and public scrutiny. The model further identified CSR communication structure as: "Anticipatory-reactive, assertive-protective, direct-indirect, and image enhancing-image correcting" (Tata and Prasad, 2015, p. 765). Researchers have indicated that, when an audience perceptions of an organization's CSR is not accurate of the organization's identity (CSR image incongruence), it can cause some negative ramifications since success of an organization also depends on views of the audience.
Using management theory, the researchers examined audience perception on CSR communication and techniques to use in decreasing current and expected CSR images. The study concluded that success of organization's CSR communication is influenced by perceptions of target audience (Tata and Prasad, 2015). Corporate Social Responsibility communication has changed over the years to accommodate social and environmental concerns due to rising issues in communication. More organizations are becoming transparent on issues important to their audience to ensure that they get the support they need and also present a positive image.
Evidence-based decision making
Decision making affects both personal and work life and can dictate success and failure. The concept of decision making is to identify what the solution will be for the identified problem and desired results. There are challenges faced by decision makers when using evidence to make informed judgment on quality of service or product offered in an organization.
In Tata and Prasad (2015) study of CSR communication, the researchers used evidence gathered through data collection to inform their decision and conclusions made. The study used the evidence gathered to make market decisions on what CSR communication should focus on and the image to portray. Evidence is used by leadership of organizations to make decisions, support a decision or inform decision (Kinicki and Fugate, 2018).
Workplace example
Recently, my workplace decided to conduct a series of focus groups at various senior facilities that we have partnership with to examine their views on the programs we offer them and what can be improved. Dealing with data at my organization, I was excited to capture audiences' response and analyze their views to see how best we can improve.
This was a great exercise that highlighted so many areas that we had not focused on before and also how the public views what we do. Although evidence can have some negative implication sometimes; I see it as worthy data or information that can help a product or service improve.
Biblical Worldview
As Christians living in the like of God, it is important for us to know how to manage conflict and stress in the workplace without offending others. Managing or solving conflict can be daunting sometimes especially if the other person does not want to compromise. Proverbs 15 verse 1 states that, "a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger" (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version).
God makes us understand that fighting fury with fury will not help resolve conflict but rather being polite and respectful even during a conflict can help turn things around. Communicating with people in truth and fairness will make them trust the process. God's word should always be applied in our workplace because it helps us understand and react differently in situations than when we do not rely of his word.
DB Post #2
Conflict causes many issues in the workplace. According to our textbook, employees spend "one day per month dealing with some type of conflict at work" (Kinicki & Fugate, 2018, p. 379). One day out of a month may not seem like a lot, but when you consider the amount of work that could be done in that time, you can begin to see one of the consequences of conflict. Our text also reports some of the other consequences of conflict: employees call in sick, avoid work related events, quit, are fired or their level of work drops (Kinicki, 2018). I will review and discuss two types of conflict: work-family conflict and incivility.
I can relate closely to the work-family conflicts. I am a full-time working mother and wife. I have two children, ages five and 11. My husband works, but I am the main provider for our household. I am fortunate enough to have a job located three miles from my home and less than a mile from the school my children attend.
I have worked at my job for 14 years and since having children, there have been many times that I have felt pressure to choose between work and my family. Of course, on the surface, there seems as though there is no choice and of course anyone would choose their family. However, when a person is the main provider and for their household and losing a job would be a loss in the main source of income, health insurance and retirement benefits it can turn into a stressful decision. Family friendly policies can help relieve some of the pressure caused by trying to balance these two important aspects. Employees also want bosses that support these policies.
A survey showed that employees listed bad bosses as the number one factor that creates an imbalance between work and family. Another study showed that a negative work-family balance leads to many problems for the organization (Incivility is a "form of socially harmful behavior, such as aggression, interpersonal deviance, social undermining, interactional injustice, harassment, abusive supervision, and bullying (Kinicki, 2018, p. 395). Incivility can have a tremendous cost in the workplace. Employees who deal with incivility are more likely to put less effort into the quality of their work and miss more time from work (Kinicki, 2018).
This type of behavior affects the entire One survey showed that 57% of employees believe that one type of incivility, bullying, is present in their workplace (Manners & Cates, 2016). The same study showed that 51% of employees feel as though they have been bullied in the workplace; however, only 17% of employees believe that corrective action has been taken against bullying in their workplace (Manners, 2016).
Companies should be sure to have policies in place to effectively deal with this type of behavior and let employees know that it will not be tolerated. However, the best policy is no good if employees do not feel comfortable reporting this type of behavior. If this type of behavior is reported is must be taken seriously. Policies must be enforced so that employees know that the behavior will not be tolerated. Managers need to be trained to recognize the signs of bullying and other incivility and to know how to handle complaints when they are received.
Fischer discusses the relationship between covenant and conflicts. As Christians, we should take the covenantal approach to conflict and try to preserve relationships and not destroy one another (Fischer, 2009). Proverbs 16:7 says, "When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him" (KJV). Conflicts will always arise, wecannot completely avoid them. However, if employees treat one another with respect and work through the conflict the work environment will not suffer.