LaVena Wilkin - De Gruyter Handbook of Organizational Conflict Management

When it comes to managing organizational conflicts, leaders often either try to avoid the situation or attempt to force a solution. While both avoiding and forcing may occasionally be an effective conflict management approach, when used consistently, they simply exacerbate the conflict. There is a good reason leaders use these approaches; they have not learned conflict management skills, so they adopt the approach they learned in their families of origin. This chapter offers insights into root causes of conflicts and offers practical tools to help leaders manage inevitable conflicts that arise when people work together.

Conflicts happen. Simply stated, life generates conflict situations. As individuals we have different experiences, values, beliefs, perceptions, and assumptions. In our relationships, personal and professional, we often compete for scarce resources; we have different communication styles; and we have different perceptions about life. Then, consider that we develop our conflict management styles early in life based on our families views of conflicts, and that these styles can be difficult to change, even when they are not productive. In a constantly changing world, leaders are managing diverse workforces that include more women, minorities, and ethnicities. Once taboo religious and sexual orientation conversations are now openly discussed. In some cases, people are not tolerant about differences, and they are vocal about that intolerance. All these factors contribute to a world and a workplace that is bubbling over with conflicted people and situations (Wilkin, 2020).

Conflict situations are exacerbated when leaders have not been taught how to productively manage them. Yet, teaching these skills is not part of most primary or post-secondary school curriculums. As a result, when the inevitable conflicts occur, it is easy for leaders to try to dismiss them or tell the affected employees to go work it out. The fallacy is that if the employees knew what to do, they would not seek help from their organizational leaders. Instead of avoiding or forcing a solution to conflicts, it is helpful learn and utilize skills for resolving them. The outcome can be a win/win for the organization and the employees (Wilkin, 2020).

Conflict is an inevitable part of organizational life and by its very nature, it generates change. Although the word conflict has a negative connotation, when managed productively, it is an opportunity for growth because it provides a spark that ignites creativity, innovation, and improvements in a dynamic organization. In fact, since conflict is the manifestation of discontent with an interaction, process, product, or service by either the firms employees or its customers, viewing it as a productive and ongoing process will help organizations thrive in a competitive environment. Disputes, competition, sabotage, inefficiency, low morale, and withholding information are all warning signs that conflict is about to halt or slow organizational progress (Costantino & Merchant, 1996).

While unmanaged or mismanaged conflicts increase the chances for entrenchment and resistance, a paradigm shift towards appreciating healthy, productive conflict will keep organizations on the cutting edge. On the other hand, if an organizational culture encourages an attitude of either avoidance or arrogance, the well-oiled machine becomes an empty vehicle that sputters and dies on the side of the road. The aversion to conflict and the resultant change encourages complacency. While those firms are spending time and resources in litigious warfare, they miss out on opportunities to adapt to the vibrant, ever-changing competitive environment. Meanwhile, their proactive competition is enjoying the fruitful results of its conflict management efforts, the durability of those efforts, and the impact on both internal and external relationships (Costantino & Merchant, 1996).

Although it sounds counter-intuitive, the first step in productively managing conflicts is to acknowledge that they are not always damaging. Generally speaking, conflicts are neither positive nor negative. Rather, how we manage the conflicts determines if the outcomes are productive or destructive. When productively managed, conflicts provide opportunities for us to shine our lights on the situations, develop more effective processes, and build collaborative relationships. To illuminate the conflict, we can incorporate the following concepts into our strategic conflict management practices:

• Listen to perspectives

• Invite Diverse Ideas

• Generate a psychologically safe workplace

• Hone a mindfulness consciousness

• Think about emotional reactions

When leaders LIGHT the way, they model these strategies for others. They build positive working relationships that result in improved communication, respect, productivity, collaborative problem-solving, and empathy. Employees are more motivated and productive because they can focus on the organizations vision, mission, and goals, rather than being sidetracked and consumed by the conflicts. Additionally, they are strategies everyone can use when they are faced with a conflict situation.

Communication and perceptions are underlying components of all conflict (Wilmot & Hocker, 2011), so listening to various perspectives is the basis of managing organizational conflicts. Meanings, perceptions, and responses to conflicts are created based on an individuals social realities and experiences. Often people act competitively or cooperatively depending upon the lens through which they view the communication, the perspective of the situation, and the perception of the people involved in the situation. Instead of compassionately listening to others, we tend to filter our communication through our own lens of assumptions and biases (Wilkin, 2020). It is too easy to judge others as selfish, lazy, or close-minded when we do not understand why they act or interact in certain ways, or when we have not taken the time to understand their perspectives. We may think that our viewpoint is the only correct one.

We have been taught to believe that if we see it with our own eyes, it is reality. The truth is that the lens through which we view the world can skew what we see. The following image () is a powerful depiction of why it is important to clarify the perspective of not only what we see, but also what the other person sees.

Figure 1.1: What do you see? (Mi, 2013).

No matter how they tilt their heads or how long they look at the image, some people only see the young lady, while others only see the old one. The picture, of course, contains an illusion of both. Even when the participants only see one or the other, it does not change the reality that both are there.